BBC spends £2.5m to recruit PR agencies to promote licence fee
The BBC issued contracts worth £2.5m to recruit six PR agencies to promote the benefits of paying a monthly TV licence fee and detail the consequences of not paying over a three to five-year period.
From April 2019, the agencies chosen will be the "face of TV licensing in their geographical area", The Times reported. They will have to deliver a "strategic programme of TV licensing communications across the UK."
The work will be split across six regions: London and the South East, Midlands and East Anglia, Northern England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The agencies will answer enquiries from journalists and place stories in local papers to promote the purchase of a £150.50 colour licence by law or face a £1,000 penalty.
A TV licensing spokesman commented: "The work of the agencies and the BBC’s TV Licensing communications team has been proven to bring in more money from TV licence sales than it costs.
"Those working on TV Licensing communications perform a completely different job to the BBC press office, including spending half their time on working with stakeholders such as money advice organisations to help people pay their licence.
"We will, as always, be looking for the best value for money in the procurement and we have kept the cost of these contracts down at the same level for the last decade," he concluded.
The Times reported that the costly investment was equivalent to 16,000 TV licences and didn’t include the broadcaster’s current in-house enforcement team and press office. The BBC defended the move and said it would generate more revenues than costs.
The move comes a month after BBC director-general Lord Hall of Birkenhead warned the corporation faced "tough choices", with funding for UK services down 20% in real terms since 2010.
In April, the cost colour television licence was increased by £3.50 to £150.50, in the second rise in two years, following a freeze since 2010. Over £3.8m in revenue was raised this way in the year 2016/17.