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His comments come after the BBC published its annual report yesterday, showing one million households deserted it over the last two years. Figures reveal the corporation lost 300,000 licence fee payers in 2019 and 700,000 in 2020. BBC bosses blamed changing audience habits and restrictions on its ability to enforce payment for licences due to the pandemic for last year’s catastrophic figures.
Tory MP Julian Knight told The Times the BBC is facing an existential crisis, whose future was far from secure.
The chairman of the Commons media select committee said: “It is clear the BBC is haemorrhaging support amongst a significant proportion of the British public.
“The broadcaster — if this trend continues — could soon reach vanishing point where evasion is so widespread as to undermine faith in the TV licence system.
“This is fast becoming a crisis for the BBC.”
To compound matters, the public broadcaster is also facing a revolt from 260,000 pensioners, who have so far refused to pay the £159 fee after free licences were scrapped for over-75s last year.
The BBC has come under sustained attack from its opponents for its continuing reliance on the licence fee to fund its programmes.
In a recent tweet, former Brexit Party MEP and outspoken critic of the BBC, Rupert Lowe, renewed his calls for the licence fee to be abolished.
READ MORE: Adrian Chiles: BBC presenter pestered when he goes for a pint
“It wouldn’t last a fortnight!”
BBC chairman Richard Sharp defended his organisation, saying that “against a landscape of unprecedented market pressures, it has kept delivering world class programming across all genres”.
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