BBC History HL - Mr Allsopp

What is Public Service Broadcasting?

In the United Kingdom, the term "public service broadcasting" refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests. The communications regulator Ofcom requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfil certain requirements as part of their license to broadcast. All of the BBC's television and radio stations have a public service remit, including those that broadcast digitally.

How is the BBC structured?

What is the Licence Fee, how is it collected and how is it used?

The TV licence fee is collected by the BBC and primarily used to fund the radio, television and online services of the BBC itself. Licence fee collection is the responsibility of the BBC's Finance and Business division.

Although the money is raised for its own use, the BBC does not directly use the collected fees. The money received is first paid into the government's Consolidated Fund. It is subsequently included in the 'vote' for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in that year's Appropriation Act, and passed back to the BBC for the running of the BBC's own services (free from commercial advertisements). The money also finances programming for S4C and the BBC World Service as well as to run BBC Monitoring at Caversham.

Why does this make the BBC different?

Unlike most other broadcasting stations such as Channel 4, and ITV, they don't rely on advertisements and other direct sponsorship from other companies. The BBC is advert free for this reason, due to the broadcasting costs being payed for directly from all owners of the TV license fee.