Culture secretary Nicky Morgan has said she is “open minded” about scrapping the BBC’s licence fee and turning it into a subscription service.
Speaking at a DCMS select committee meeting, Morgan was asked if she would consider scrapping the licence fee and turning the BBC in to a subscription service as a possible policy for the party’s election manifesto.
Morgan replied: “I’m open minded and I will have decisions and listen to evidence on all sides.
“What I haven’t seen is any evidence, either way, what a subscription-based system would do in terms of the revenue.
“The license fee last year raised £3.7 billion for the BBC,” continued Morgan. “They obviously have other sources of income as well. So I would need to understand what, if you were going to change, that would do to their income.”
Morgan told the committee that the UK broadcasting sector is “undoubtedly changing.”
“I think we all know from streaming services and everything else, and the way the younger generation consumes services, it is going to change.”
