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Originally Posted by Legendkiller2k
With more and more people allegedly cancelling their tv licence i think a time will come where BBC will go comercial, not sure about subscription though, maybe bbc1 and 2, news will be comercial with bbc 3,4, cbbc and cbeebies going subscription?
Thatr's only guesswork though.
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Accepting for the sake of argument that the BBC’s Royal Charter is not renewed in 2032, the organisation becomes a commercial broadcaster, free to choose how it raises revenue, and its public service obligation is reduced but not entirely withdrawn, then they could pursue the strategy you’ve outlined. I’d have thought it very unlikely that the public service obligation would be withdrawn from BBC1 and 2. That being the case they would still not be able to put these behind a paywall.
If you look at ITV as the BBC’s nearest analogy on terrestrial TV, only the main channel in epg position 3 is a public service channel that must be free to air. Yet ITV 2, 3 and 4, which are not public service channels, are also FTA. Their HD variants are behind Sky’s paywall on satellite but this has more to do with Sky’s willingness to pay broadcasters to keep HD channels off Freesat than any deliberate strategy to ‘sell’ their channels (Film 4 is paywalled on Sky for the same reason).
So while you could see a scenario where the BBC’s more niche stuff could be paywalled (and the public service obligation on those channels were withdrawn then they would be free to do that), the example of ITV suggests they wouldn’t. Also consider that all of the BBC’s output is geared towards mass audiences. Even the niche stuff on BBC4 is intended for that entire market segment, and not just those within that segment that are prepared to take out a subscription to Sky or VM. At least a third of the potential audience for BBC4 live in homes that don’t already have a pay tv service is significant. If they don’t have Sky already, are they likely to go and get it for BBC4? I’d say it’s unlikely.
Furthermore, at present every one of the BBC’s channels is designed around a public service requirement, and not a commercial one. So despite all of the above, it is unlikely that any of the BBC’s channels would continue in precisely the same form, in a commercial environment and without the public service obligation.
---------- Post added at 08:41 ---------- Previous post was at 08:07 ----------
These posts were split out of the Netflix/streaming services thread. Please continue discussion about the TV licence and the BBC Royal Charter renewal process here.