The BBC should begin charging for all its online services, including BBC iPlayer and BBC News, in order to give commercial rivals a chance. That’s the verdict of Dawn Airey, Five’s top dog – read on to see what she had to say.
The BBC’s come in for a lot of attacks over recent months, thanks to its licence fee funding while advertising income plummets, with even the Government calling for BBC iPlayer charges. But now the head honcho at Five, CEO Dawn Airey, says it should charge users for all its online services.
Speaking to the Telegraph, she outlined her ideal scenario: “Perhaps the BBC should go back to having a couple of big broadcast channels, a couple of radio stations with a clearly defined remit and a reduced licence fee to support that…all the other things that it may do are still there but you have to pay for them. It allows other players to come into the market.”
The case has yet to be proven for any news site to make a success out of charging users for content, but whether the BBC’s other online features and portals would be enough to pull in the punters is unclear. Would you pay for BBC content, or is Five just bitter it has CSI:Generic US City and nothing more? Spout off in the forum!
Out TBC | £TBC | BBC and Five (Via The Telegraph)
