BBC Hands Over GBP300m to Help Rollout UK Superfast Broadband

As widely expected the BBC has officially confirmed that it will take an additional £300m from its TV Licence Fee (formerly the 3.5% Digital Switchover Budget) to help the UK government roll-out superfast broadband (25Mbps+) ISP services around the country.

The extra funding, which has always been a part of the Broadband Deliver UK (BDUK) plan and will increase the offices total budget from £530m today to £830m, is designed for use in the post-2015 period (i.e. 2015 to 2017/20). It will be taken away from the BBC over a two year period starting in April 2015 (£12.5m a month for two years).

At present the coalition government wants 90% of people in the UK to be within reach of a superfast broadband service by 2015 but the post-2015 plan has yet to be established. As a result the BBC Trust will now be entitled to a seat on the Broadband Portfolio Board with the government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

However the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) remains firmly opposed to the re-allocation of BBC funds and calls for “‘the additional funding responsibilities placed on the BBC by the settlement in 2010” to be reversed. Instead it wants to see the money used to “offset some of the worst excesses of the [BBC] cuts“.