Funding public broadcasting

 France has scrapped her TV licence fee. As Screen Daily reports: 

The licence fee removal was a campaign promise from re-elected candidate Emmanuel Macron. The government instead plans to fund public broadcasting by allocating “a fraction” of VAT revenues, worth approximately €3.7bn.

Probably the main objection to a fixed licence fee is that it is regressive. It bears more heavily on those with lower incomes as it is a larger proportion of these than on those more well-off. Taking broadcast funding from VAT revenues is progressive to the extent that those who spend more on VAT-able goods contribute more. But "the French Senate adopted an amendment saying that this could only be a temporary measure lasting until December 31, 2024". This throws the structure of funding - possibly even the future - of French national broadcasting into doubt again.

Neither the licence fee nor the new French system put pressure on the national broadcaster to operate efficiently. There is over-staffing at the BBC and in my view too many resources devoted to the games politicians play.  Surely there must be a mechanism for funding the corporation fairly while eliminating needless job creation, without micro-management from outside which most agree would be dangerous.