The government is finally set to review the BBC’s outdated licence fee funding model. According to The Times, ministers will launch the review in Autumn and will consider alternatives including subscription, a broadband levy and advertising. The move comes after the BBC’s annual reports showed the number of people paying the licence fee fell by 500,000 – with revenue also falling. Who can blame them, when overpaid stars continue to use their platforms for political preaching…

A government source said the latest figures showed “a growing unwillingness” to pay the licence fee. They added “The licence fee model is becoming unsustainable.”

Unsurprisingly, the Taxpayers’ Alliance welcomed the review, with chief executive, John O’Connell, saying:

“The TV tax is long past its use by date… Retaining the licence fee would force unwilling and uninterested taxpayers to cough up for a service they may not want, while holding the BBC back from modernisation. Serious work now needs to begin to examine alternative funding models”.

Bring it on.

In news that will surprise absolutely nobody, the BBC is promoting fashionable left-wing causes on social media, spending licence fee payers’ money on “promoted” articles covering the topics of the Don’t Pay campaign and “How to dress more sustainably“. The Don’t Pay campaign is backed by two other media organisations: the Morning Star and Novara Media. Ethical fashion is something that occupies the fashion pages of the Guardian – anxious luvvies in W1A are no doubt worrying about where their next organic cashmere cardigan will be sourced. The corporation is spending money to promote these issues into mainstream users’ feeds with articles highlighting the campaigns to stop paying energy bills and the movement for “ethical fashion”. While the chosen campaigns might be mainstream at the BBC, they seem a bit left-field to the rest of us…

Could the choice of topics covered signal an underlying editorial bias? Why, for example, isn’t the BBC promoting The Telegraph’s campaign fronted by Chris Hope to finance a new Royal Yacht? Or The Sun’s campaign to hold down diesel duties for white van man? Guido can only guess why…

The BBC yesterday published its annual statement on the TV licence fee. Amongst the key takeaways was the increase in domestic customers who stated they no longer needed a licence. The figure rose by 270,000 from last year, reaching 1,960,000. That’s over 5,000 people a week…

The report then estimates “a fall of one percentage point in the number of people requiring a TV licence would result in a loss of income of approximately £36 million”. The corporation clearly needs to try and reconnect with the public to avoid even greater budgetary black holes. With the salaries of their highest paid stars also being revealed yesterday, one cost-saving solution is obvious to Guido…

Nadine argues it will help with the cost of living squeeze. Guido suspects many Tory MPs will have other motives…