Defund the BBC are calling on MPs to abolish the BBC TV licence fee as campaigner Calvin Robinson said more than 110,000 Brits have signed a petition calling for the bill. Broadcaster Mike Graham has said Prime Minister Boris Johnson is likely to put pressure on the broadcaster. Speaking to Defund the BBC, Mr Graham said: “I think he’s going to put pressure on the BBC because we’ve got this new director-general Tim Davie who hasn’t proved to be quite as much of a new broom as he said he was going to be.
“He’s trying his best but as you can imagine, it must be the worst civil service department trying to get anybody to change their mind.
“They’ve got hoards of middle and upper management but I think the appoitment of Rishi Sunak’s mate who is now the chairman will shake things up quicker because I think that will be where the political pressure it brought for a restructure.
“I think like with all good changes they will have to come up with a reason to do it and a way to do it.
“You can’t just say, let’s get rid of the licence fee and see what happens.
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“You have to structure it in such a way, can you pay for parts of it and get other parts of it for free?
“I certainly think they need to break up the way that they run it because it’s not feasible anymore.”
It comes as a BBC executive has called on supporters of the TV licence to “stand up for it more strongly than ever”.
The broadcaster is poised to begin discussions with the Government about the level of the licence fee after 2022 and, with the introduction of new streaming services, its future has become a talking point.
And TV regulator Ofcom has launched a consultation on the future of public service broadcasting.
Sumner said the licence fee “makes us directly accountable to the whole country”.
She said of US streaming giants: “It’s great that there is now so much choice and quality on offer to audiences from the big global tech firms and streamers.
“But we know how strongly audiences value content made in and about the UK. They take pride in seeing their communities represented on screen.”
