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BBC News to bear deepest cuts amid 2,000 planned job losses
(www.theguardian.com)
The BBC has had below inflation (or no) uplifts in the license fee for years which means it's been effectively cut.
If you look at wikipedia there is a nice graph of the license fee corrected for inflation, based around 2015 prices. The recent license fee in 2019 was equivalent to about £154, but it used to be worth £192. That's a 20% cut, and on top of that we've had 6 more years of below inflation rises, and of course some big spikes in inflation.
Using the Bank of England inflation calculator ; the license fee should be worth £201 now in 2026 if it'd just stayed equivalent to £154 in 2019, but the actual license fee is £180 so another 10% cut on top of the existing 20% cut from it's peak. If the license fee was still at it's peak value of equivalent to £192 in 2009 (in 2019 money), then it should be £250 now.
So long story short, the current license fee of £180 is a 28% cut in value in 17 years. No wonder the BBC is in trouble, is constantly cutting costs and shrinking. It's a managed decline by successive UK governments who won't deal with funding the BBC properly.
Personally, I'd abolish the license fee and pay for the BBC out of general taxation. I personally favour a household free-media precept, a bit like the Fire precept we get in council tax; but I get that council tax is also a mess. Regardless, every household should be paying in some way even if they "don't use the BBC", because it's about so much more than about whether someone owns and watches live TV. The BBC is one of the ways we preserve our culture and identity in the face of the massive global media and tech conglomerates like Netflix, Amazon etc. And the license fee is used to fund more than just TV (Radio, Online, local and national news services).