The head of Britain’s media regulator and a former chair of the BBC, Michael Grade, has described the broadcaster’s licence fee a “regressive tax” that needs to be re-examined by the government.
Pointing out that both he, a well-paid executive, and a single mother living on a low income, pay the same £159 licence fee, the former ITV and Channel 4 boss said one of the big questions for the next BBC charter review was whether the broadcaster should be allowed to compete for advertising revenue against commercial stations.
In an interview with Financial Times, Grade said he believed that the BBC needed to be more “independent and transparent” in its approach to how complaints are handled, something he said Ofcom has “pushed quite hard” for.
The government is interviewing a shortlist of about 10 candidates to replace Grade, who was picked as chair of Ofcom after Boris Johnson’s attempt to appoint the former editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, was overruled.
Ofcom has employed an additional 350 people to handle the extra workload from the recently passed Online Safety Act, which imposes rules for tech groups on harmful and illegal content.
Ofcom will have powers to require tech groups to use “accredited technology” to search encrypted services for illegal content, which has raised objections from the industry.
The original article contains 446 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 51%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The head of Britain’s media regulator and a former chair of the BBC, Michael Grade, has described the broadcaster’s licence fee a “regressive tax” that needs to be re-examined by the government.
Pointing out that both he, a well-paid executive, and a single mother living on a low income, pay the same £159 licence fee, the former ITV and Channel 4 boss said one of the big questions for the next BBC charter review was whether the broadcaster should be allowed to compete for advertising revenue against commercial stations.
In an interview with Financial Times, Grade said he believed that the BBC needed to be more “independent and transparent” in its approach to how complaints are handled, something he said Ofcom has “pushed quite hard” for.
The government is interviewing a shortlist of about 10 candidates to replace Grade, who was picked as chair of Ofcom after Boris Johnson’s attempt to appoint the former editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, was overruled.
Ofcom has employed an additional 350 people to handle the extra workload from the recently passed Online Safety Act, which imposes rules for tech groups on harmful and illegal content.
Ofcom will have powers to require tech groups to use “accredited technology” to search encrypted services for illegal content, which has raised objections from the industry.
The original article contains 446 words, the summary contains 219 words. Saved 51%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!