It has been reported that the BBC is looking at potentially closing off its on demand service, BBC iPlayer, so that only British viewers who pay the licence fee can watch it.
Deadline has reported that, in an all-staff call, the BBC’s chief customer officer Kerris Bright said locking down iPlayer could be an “opportunity” for the corporation.
Bright said that the BBC would not be making the move now, because it could cause unwelcome friction for viewers who do pay the licence fee, but that it would be keeping the idea under review.
Bright said: “iPlayer is the only service really that’s licensable where you could actually decide to put a gate in front of it, but the data today says that actually [there’s] not really the return on investment for doing that.
“The vast majority of evasion is not on iPlayer. The vast majority of people that are watching iPlayer are people that are paying their TV licence, and so to put a gate in front of iPlayer, the data today says that you actually would make it a very difficult experience for people that are paying for the licence.”
Currently, iPlayer asks users if they have a licence fee but does not verify the information.
Bright continued: “The data says today [that] absolutely [it] is not the silver bullet to generating more revenue. There’s probably more cost in it than revenue, but it is something we should absolutely keep looking at because it might be something that you actually would want to do in the future.”
The BBC is currently in talks with the Government about renewing its charter, which is likely to come with an updated funding model. Deadline has reported that 94% of the UK population use the BBC every month, but fewer than 80% currently pay the annual licence fee.
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Earlier this month, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy floated the idea of expanding the BBC licence fee to include subscribers to streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, with the suggestion that there could be different pricing tiers depending on the services used.
Meanwhile, the BBC recently launched an advertising campaign asking, “What has the BBC ever done for me?”, which divided opinion among Radio Times readers.
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
