Jeremy Clarkson Calls for BBC to Scrap Licence Fee Amid Scandals, Proposes Super Streamer Merger
Clarkson suggested merging the Beeb with other British broadcasters
JEREMY Clarkson has suggested abolishing the licence fee amid a series of BBC scandals.
The former Top Gear presenter posed the idea as a solution to “address the future of broadcasting in the UK.”
He admitted to being “a bit smug” about the state of affairs the corporation had found itself in.
After recounting the series of scandals the BBC has been part of over the past year the former Beeb employee suggested abolishing TV schedules and the licence fee.
He then went on to slam the losses that the corporation has faced this year, reportedly in the region of £1 billion.
Writing in a column for The Times, Clarkson said: “As a result of all these mistakes and the right-on nature of the content, the BBC had its worst-ever ratings on Christmas Day and last year lost more than £1 billion in revenue as households said they no longer wished to watch it.”
The Clarkson’s Farm star would list a slew of failures at the corporation to back up his argument for abolishing the licence fee.
He slammed the BBC’s editing of Donald Trump‘s speeches, pointed to disgraced figures including Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall and Huw Edwards and took aim at Russell T Davies for “ruining” Doctor Who.
Compared to that, Clarkson claimed, during his time at the BBC he was “Nothing more than a naughty scallywag.”
He went on to suggest merging the Beeb with other British broadcasters in a bid to compete with American streaming giants.
It comes as Sky and ITV are reportedly already in talks to merge their two companies in a £1.6 billion deal.
Owned by Comcast, Sky is reportedly eyeing up a purchase of ITV’s Media & Entertainment division.
Clarkson, who formerly worked for the BBC, suggested the scandal hit broadcasting corporation could get in on the action.
His suggested merger would be aimed at creating a dominant UK broadcaster to compete with the likes of Netflix.
The new service, he said, would be paid for the same way Netflix, Apple, Disney and Amazon are paid for – with a minimal licence fee remaining to support impartial news programmes.
A key component of his new service would be the abolition of schedules.
Mr Clarkson pointed out that the need to fill a daily schedule with programmes leads to cheap productions that are rarely watched.
In his scathing review of the state of television he suggested it would be better to focus on producing high quality programmes less often.
He suggested calling his new British streaming giant “Britflix.”