BBC exploring alternative funding options for future: 'It will need reform'

Davie said that these missions came from a need to "transform ourselves again to increase relevance in a time of limitless choice and interactivity", although he was quick to praise the broadcaster's achievements of late.

These included references to shows such as Happy Valley, Blue Lights, Planet Earth III and The Traitors, as well as noting record profits for BBC Studios and the growth of iPlayer and BBC Sounds.

However, towards the end of the speech he went on to address "the obvious elephant in the room – which is the money", calling the government's decision to "strip money from the BBC during this period", as part of a "30 per cent cut in real terms between 2010 and 2020", "short-sighted".

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After noting the need to utilise commercial partners "much more actively", such as with the recent Doctor Who deal with Disney, Davie addressed the future of the licence fee directly.

He said: "There is no doubt that the market has changed hugely since the licence fee was introduced. And I think it is right to ask fundamental questions about its longevity in a world that is now full of choice.

"But we should be appropriately cautious about unpicking a multi-genre BBC that leads the market rather than is simply about market failure."

Davie added: "We are not defensive about the future. We will need reform. With that in mind, we will proactively research how to reform the licence fee post-2028 – looking at its scope, how it could be more progressive, and making sure its enforcement is fair and proportionate.

"Of course, as part of this, we will engage with the work being done by the government to review BBC funding. But, as ever, our most important relationship is with our owners, the UK public.

"So, starting next year, and well ahead of the new Charter, we will open up our biggest-ever consultation process so that the public can inform and drive the debate on the future BBC.

"Our aim is to make contact and get feedback from hundreds of thousands of people, and we do so with an open mind."

In December, culture secretary Lucy Frazer announced that the licence fee will increase by £10.50 per year from April, having been frozen for two years. This means the fee will increase by 6.7 per cent, from £159 to £169.50.

At the time, Frazer said: "This is a fair deal that provides value for money for the licence fee payer while also ensuring that the BBC can continue to produce world leading content."

As part of his speech, Davie also touched on the hot topic of AI, claiming that the corporation would deploy its usage conscientiously.

He said: "We will proactively deploy AI on our terms, always holding on to our published principles. Never compromising human creative control, supporting rights holders and sustaining our editorial standards, but proactively launching tools that help us build relevance.

"We are now working with a number of major tech companies on BBC-specific pilots, [of] which we will be deploying the most promising ones in coming months."

This announcement comes just days after the broadcaster said it had "no plans" to use AI again to promote Doctor Who, having previously revealed intentions to do so.

Originally, David Housden, head of media inventory at the BBC, said: "Experimentation is at the heart of how we approach marketing at the BBC. Testing and learning on how we let audiences know what BBC content is most relevant to them and we know they might love underpins our digital marketing strategy.

"However, experimentation in marketing typically requires more time spent on the creative work to make extra assets. Generative AI offers a great opportunity to speed up making the extra assets to get more experiments live for more content that we are trying to promote.

"We’re going to take it one step a time, starting simple and learning as we go. We have chosen to start with Doctor Who, as it is a joint content priority for both BBC Public Service UK and BBC Studios marketing teams.

"There’s a rich variety of content in the Whoniverse collection on iPlayer to test and learn with, and Doctor Who thematically lends itself to AI, which is a bonus."

The broadcaster subsequently revealed that marketing teams had used AI "as part of a small trial" to help draft text for two promotional emails and mobile notifications which highlighted Doctor Who programming on the BBC.

Following complaints from viewers, the corporation said in response: "We followed all BBC editorial compliance processes and the final text was verified and signed-off by a member of the marketing team before it was sent. We have no plans to do this again to promote Doctor Who."

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