Radiocentre welcomes BBC Chair rejection of advertising or subscriptions for future funding

Radiocentre CEO Matt Payton has welcomed comments from BBC Chair Samir Shah, at a House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee hearing (10^th September), that subscriptions or advertising are incompatible with the BBC’s remit as a public service.

Samir Shah’s comments were featured in an article in the Financial Times. Earlier this year a media coalition, co-ordinated by Radiocentre, wrote to Labour to warn that UK creative economy would be damaged if BBC introduces advertising, following proposals to introduce advertising on its podcasts on third-party platforms in the UK for the first time.

Radiocentre CEO Matt Payton said:

The BBC Chair is right to reject advertising as a future funding model for the BBC. Introducing advertising as an alternative to the licence fee would be disastrous for the UK radio sector, including the BBC’s own services. We look forward to engaging with the government in due course on the BBC funding model review, but in the meantime the current proposal to begin advertising on BBC podcasts should be dropped.