BBC Director General Says Licence Fee Could Be Paid By Netflix Subs

New BBC Director General Matt Brittin has signaled his support for the license fee to expand to streaming services while acknowledging enforcement would be “difficult.”

Having the scope of the annual £180 ($240) fee widen to incorporate those watching non-live TV on the likes of Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ has emerged as one of the key ideas from the BBC’s future funding model negotiations with the government. With license fee payers plummeting by more than 500,000 last year, Brittin said today there is “logic” behind this potential expansion.

“If you go back in time you used to pay the license fee if you were watching live TV but not from the BBC,” added Brittin, who was responding to a question from Deadline at the corporation’s annual report press briefing. “So if you were only watching ITV you would still pay the license fee. So there is a logic when you think about expanding the scope to other services.”

The plan has, however, already drawn the ire of the Motion Picture Association representing U.S. streamers and studios and Brittin noted expansion would be challenging.

“The enforcement side of this is difficult and that is why the government is right to be looking at all the different ways you could be thinking about scope and collection,” he added. “We need to look at all of those things and through the summer we will be having those discussions.”

Brittin’s view puts him on the same page as UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who yesterday signaled her support for the streamer plan for the first time.

Brittin today put forward the argument that the streamers benefit hugely in the UK from groundwork laid by the BBC over the past 100 years.

“Investment by the BBC and others in the production ecosystem is one of the reasons the streamers are able to come here and make shows,” he added. “Netflix is making a big production in Cardiff and they can only do that because of years of investment from the BBC.”

In making this assertion, Brittin was leaning on the “TV tourists” argument made by Channel 4 at last year’s Edinburgh TV Festival, which accused the likes of Netflix of swooping in to the UK ecosystem and taking advantage of talent nurtured for years by the public service broadcasters.

Today’s BBC annual report showed license fee paying households slid by 539,000, which is one of the biggest drops of all time.