Not so bold

The BBC is weeks away from publishing its third annual plan, for 2019/20. Then we'll see the continuing impact of the Corporation's aquiescence, in Charter renewal, to gradually taking over financial responsibility for free licences for the Over-75s.

In the last current financial year, the BBC had to provide £250m towards the benefit - in income terms, that was slightly defrayed by the inflation increase to the licence fee, so that, overall, licence fee takings for the year were down £200m.

When the next annual plan is published, the BBC is committed to contributing £450m towards the benefit - but the licence fee rises again, to £154.50, from April. There'll also have to be calculations about growth in households compared with the numbers abandoning the licence fee for Netflix/Amazon alone. All-in-all, I doubt that the third annual plan will be as bullish as the first two.