The BBC licence fee should become a voluntary charge, the Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker says, in comments that are likely to cause dismay at the national broadcaster as it faces a battle with the government over its future. Lineker, the highest-paid BBC star with earnings from the corporation of £1.75m in 2018-19, told the Guardian the licence fee was the broadcaster’s “fundamental problem” and in need of reform. “The public pay our salaries, so everyone is a target.”Gary Lineker: ‘Put my 1990 team against a modern team and we’d get murdered’ Read moreLineker suggested the fee – which is currently enforced through the criminal courts - should become voluntary and be charged at higher rate to subsidise elderly and poorer viewers: “I would make the licence fee voluntary. If you put it up you could help older people, or those that can’t afford it.”Downing Street is already looking at decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee – a decision that could cost the broadcaster hundreds of millions of pounds in funding. The current licence fee system is guaranteed to exist for the next seven years, although last week BBC director general Tony Hall announced he would quit to allow his successor to negotiate the amount it can charge viewers from 2022 onwards.

Source: The Guardian January 27, 2020 16:30 UTC