BBC to invest in tech start-ups to counter licence fee threat

The BBC is poised to become a tech investor by taking bets on risky start-ups as part of a wider push to wean itself off licence fee funding. 

The corporation has started hiring for a new subdivision that will pinpoint fledgling businesses with new and emerging technologies, and back them financially. 

This new operation, called BBC Venture, will sit under the corporation’s research and development arm, but will explore working with its commercial unit to help secure new income streams.

The plans were revealed in a job advert for a “venture associate”. The BBC said that it is “exploring how working more closely with the entrepreneurial and venture communities, in areas of strategic importance, can bring new value and income to the BBC.”

Whoever is successful will be responsible for “evaluating start-ups and making investment cases, as well as defining a model for a BBC Venture operation”.

Under director general Tim Davie, Auntie has been trying to embolden its commercial ambitions to plug the gap left by falling income from the £159.50 annual licence fee.  

That includes plans to increase the returns of BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s commercial arm, by nearly a third to £1.5bn over the next five years.

Insiders said BBC Venture could also work in conjunction with the BBC’s commercial businesses, but this is at an “exploratory stage” and no decisions have been made. 

The need to bolster the BBC’s income has become more pressing since Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, said that the licence fee would be frozen for two years – a move that raises the prospect of even deeper cuts by creating a £1.5bn budget gap.

Ms Dorries had also warned that the fee could be abolished from 2028 onwards, before softening her stance during a commons speech in January.

The licence fee threat comes as the BBC confronts a 10pc jump in the cost of making high-end dramas sparked by huge spending on original shows by the American streamers.

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, is attempting to help the BBC cope with the Netflix threat by handing it a £400m borrowing boost in October’s Budget.

Mr Sunak more than doubled the debt limit on BBC Studios from £350m to £750m after the broadcaster requested a bigger pot to help drive growth. 

The BBC leaned on the facility in 2019 when it struck a £180m deal to buy the majority of UKTV, the commercial broadcaster behind channels such as Dave, Gold and Yesterday.