Funding – Death by a thousand cuts While many factors have upset the delicate balance of the UK’s PSB ecology, its collapsing financial base is the big­gest contributor to the erosion of UK PSM output. The BBC’s main source of its£5.9bn income(FY2024) is the TV licence fee, charged against UK households that watch any live television or use the BBC’s online service iPlayer. The licence fee is its own distinct household charge, unrelated to any other household bills or charges, and is collected by the TV Licensing Authority(which also enforces non-payment sanctions) on behalf of the BBC. The value of the licence fee is set by the UK Government and is currently rated at£180 per year. In 2024 the licence fee accounted for 65%(£3.8bn) of BBC revenues, however commercial revenues, for example from selling the IP rights to BBC content, are slowly becoming more important to its total income. Since 2010 the BBC’s public income has fallen by almost 40% in real terms, following successive government fund ­ing settlements in which the licence fee was either frozen or kept below inflation. 6 As a result the BBC has drastically reduced investment in core services such as news and local radio – which has since seen a 27% fall in its once-dedicat ­ed audience 7 – and cut an estimated 1,000 hours of pro ­gramming from TV schedules. Added to this, a small but growing portion of the UK public has stopped paying the TV licence fee, with reasons includ­ing the cost of living, opposition to the licence fee and the BBC itself, or households simply not watching live TV or using the BBC’s services. 8 The use of live TV or BBC servic­es without paying a TV licence can lead to prosecution and even – in the case of firm refusal to pay – imprisonment, though these cases are rare. The criminalisation of non-payment has nonetheless attracted significant criti­cism and opposition, not least because many of those pur­sued for non-payment are in vulnerable or difficulty cir­cumstances. 9 The UK’s commercially-funded PSBs – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 – have also faced financial challenges from the decline in spend on TV advertising. While holding broadly stable revenues, their contribution to UK PSM has slumped, leaving the BBC as the main(and in some cases, sole) provider of many core PSM genres. Between 2010 and 2023, UK PSBs’ investment in programming across educa ­tion(-68%), arts(-60%), religion& ethics(-50%) and pro ­grammes for children(-38%) has collapsed. 10 The decline in PSM output risks undermining the fundamental justifica­tion for public intervention in media markets – providing socially valuable and democratically necessary forms of media content that would not otherwise be produced by commercial operators. 6  Voice of the Listener and Viewer(2024) 38% cut in BBC Public Funding: VLV Analysis. 21 October 2024. Government funding deals in 2010 and 2015 forced the BBC to take on additional costs previously funded by the UK Government, including the BBC World Service, licence fee exemptions for over-75s, and funding for S4C. 7  House of Commons Public Accounts Committee(2024) The BBC’s implementation of Across the UK. 25 March 2024, HC 426; for audience statistics and details of the BBC’s local radio changes, see David Lloyd(2025) BBC local radio returns for another go!, 26 October 2025. Accessed 28 October 2025. 8  The Guardian,‘BBC to look at overhauling licence fee as 300,000 more households stop paying’, 15 July 2025. 9  The Guardian,‘The TV licence fee scandal: why are 1,000 people a week being casually criminalised?’, 29 February 2024. 10  Author analysis of Ofcom industry data. 4 Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.