Last but not least: Senior citizens to help BBC out of budget hole
The BBC is facing a budget shortfall of around 725 million pounds due to the exemption from the license fee for over-75s. The senior citizens are now supposed to cushion this.
Senior citizens could cushion the budget gap with voluntary fee payments. This was reported by The Guardian according to Pressetext.com. The BBC's head of strategy, James Heath, is reported to have said: "We will offer eligible households the opportunity to voluntarily pay TV license fees to contribute to the cost of BBC services".
So, let's start again: senior citizens have been exempt from fees since 2001. Now the BBC wants to ask them to make voluntary contributions. However, the budget shortfall of around 725 million pounds resulting from the fee exemption would not be covered even by senior citizens who are happy to donate. According to Heath, in the next charter period from 2017, "further tough decisions will have to be made and the BBC will have to be simplified". This means that upstream services could fall victim to the cost-cutting pen - a very good prerequisite for relying on donating senior citizens. (uma)
