BBC MAY FREEZE ITS LICENSE FEE

Citing “the exceptional pressures that the current economic climate is placing on license-fee payers,” the BBC Trust, which oversees the broadcaster’s budget, has proposed that the fee be frozen for the next two years. The fee, which is levied on all owners of television sets in Britain and underwrites commercial-free programming on the BBC, currently stands at £145.50 ($227.36) and brings in £3.5 billion ($5.47 billion) annually. Freezing the license fee at that level could result in a deficit of £144 million ($225 million), but the Trust asked BBC executives to analyze their budgets to find ways of eliminating the shortfall. Doing so, BBC Trust Chairman Michael Lyons, acknowledged, would “not be pain-free.”