Culture Secretary ‘looking closely’ at BBC funding model

Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has said she is examining a "variety" of alternative sources for the funding of the BBC amid a review into the corporation’s funding arrangements.

Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, she said that the licence fee "isn’t the only way” to fund the BBC.

“We are reviewing the licence fee. I’ve started that review,” she said. “We will be looking very closely at its funding arrangement. I do think it might need to look at a variety of sources for its funding.”

Under former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, the licence fee was frozen at £159 until April 2024. Dorries said she wanted to find a new funding model before 2027, when the current deal expires, calling the existing model “completely outdated”.  

Speaking separately on Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Frazer also dismissed calls to remove political interference from the appointment of a new BBC Chair.

She said that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will appoint the “best candidate”, regardless of any political ties, to replace Richard Sharp.

Sharp recently resigned as Chair after failing to disclose that he had helped to secure former Prime Minister Boris Johnson an £800,000 loan.

Frazer spoke after opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer said that Labour would replace the government’s power to appoint the chair with an independent process.

“We will be looking for the best candidate,” Frazer said. “I strongly believe that we should not disqualify people from public office who put themselves forward, who are capable of doing the job, because they happen to have in the past supported a political party.”