Select committee makes BBC verdict

The CMSC has condemned what has been called a “hasty and secretive” license fee renewal negotiations last summer.
“Questions of the BBC’s scope, efficiency, and funding should be publicly assessed and debated, in parallel and in good time,” said the report, also saying that the corporation should have fought the government’s demand that it take on the cost of free license fees for the over 75s.

It also dismissed proposals to shorten the current charter to five years, on the grounds that it would not provide either the financial or operational stability that the broadcaster needed to be successful.

An extension of the charter was supported, however, to allow time to properly scrutinize the 190,000 responses receive by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport during its consultation into the future of the BBC.