The BBC should be banned from using Licence Fee money to buy US and other overseas boxsets according to ITV.
In a submission to an inquiry by Parliament’s Culture Media and Sport Committee into the future of the BBC, ITV suggests its publicly funded rival could be on course to spend as much as £1bn over the next decade buying in such content.
This is based on an assumption that spending over that period continues at the current rate of around £87m per year – a figure which is “a third more than the entire content budget for BBC Three”.
ITV adds: “We recognise that not all the content the BBC acquires is non-UK made but much of it is and the BBC’s spend is a long way from acquiring a few mainstream US movies for the family at Christmas.”
US boxsets acquired by the BBC in recent years include Love Victor, which was already available on Disney+, plus AMC’s premium series Interview with the Vampire and spin-off The Mayfair Witches, both of which are certain to have been bought by other UK platforms had the BBC not acquired them.
In its submission ITV highlights the discrepancy between the BBC’s high level of spending on overseas acquisitions and its rhetoric, regularly deployed whenever its future is under review or affordability questioned, that the Licence Fee exists to invest in UK creativity.
It states: “Even a cursory look at BBC iPlayer confirms the scale of US acquisition by the BBC for titles that would clearly have found homes on other UK streaming services, including ITVX, not least because many of them have been on such services.
“It’s clear that the BBC, supported by public funding and not required to make any return on investment, can effectively pay well over the market rate, inflating costs for its competitors across the wider market as the BBC conditions expectations.
“We have certainly found ourselves in competitive tenders for US acquisitions being very substantially outbid by the BBC spending the Licence Fee.”
ITV goes on to say: “We can see no reason for the BBC to use public funds to compete for content that would otherwise find a home on free to access commercial services.”
It is urging ministers, who are currently reviewing the BBC’s Charter, to “include a new rule in the Charter preventing the BBC from using public service broadcasting expenditure for any non-UK acquired content except where the BBC is the purchaser of last resort”.
It also calls for “the BBC to be more transparent about the titles it acquires: it should publish data on the amount its spends on acquired content for its public services overall, and for each channel and service individually” and to be “required to list all acquired titles in its Annual Plan.”