Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris Quinney told GB News that the BBC’s licence fee model is “over”.

“The only fair model is for people who like the BBC to pay for it and the people that don’t to not have to,” Mr Harris-Quinney said.

Continuing that the power over the BBC should be returned to the public that pays for it, the Bow Group chairman said: “I certainly don’t think you can have a situation where the BBC switches to a subscription model and it is just gifted to whoever happens to be in charge at the BBC at the time.

“There needs to be a recognition that the BBC is owned by the public and so when it switches to that subscription model, that public owner still has to be a major factor.”

Adding: “Whatever model you go for, the model that cannot be sustained is the idea that you have to have a licence to own a television set in the United Kingdom and everyone has got to pay to watch the BBC even if they never want to watch BBC content. That’s not only fundamentally unfair, it’s not in the line with the way particularly young people are consuming media.”

“The licence fee model is gone,” said Harris-Quinney.

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