Jeremy Paxman: BBC licence fee can’t last

Although Jeremy Paxman spent several decades working for the BBC, the presenter took an opportunity at a Royal Television Society talk today to cast doubt over its future.

With the BBC’s charter renewal looming, the former Newsnight presenter said that the TV licence ‘can’t last’:

‘As platforms become interchangeable, as computers and televisions become indistinguishable, a tax on the ownership of a particular piece of technology becomes very, very hard to justify, I would say almost impossible.’

Paxman even went so far as to suggest that the new culture secretary – and BBC enemy number one – John Whittingdale could be ‘terribly good’ for the Beeb. Given that Whittingdale previously described the licence fee as ‘worse than a poll tax’, Mr S doubts Paxman’s former colleagues will share the same sentiment.