How the BBC can survive the end of the TV licence

The TV licence that funds the BBC is looking way past its sell-by date, says Matthew Lynn. Here's how it could survive without it

The BBC needs to exploit its big draws

Almost a century after the BBC licence fee was first introduced in the 1920s, it is looking way past its sell-by date. The end seems nigh. But that needn’t be a disaster for the BBC. If its leadership were really bold, it would give up its fight to defend the status quo and come up with a five-year plan for switching to a subscription model instead. If Disney-Plus can get to 29 million subscribers in the US in just a few weeks, and Netflix can attract 9.5 million in the UK alone, so could the BBC. Here are five steps it should take to start with.

1. Drop the news

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.