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The BBC is proposing levying a tax on anything that can receive video - from PCs to mobile phones.According to a government green paper delivered this week, the UK government plans to retain the BBC’s licence fee for at least the next ten years but are looking ahead to a time when high speed broadband connections deliver television content to homes.

In a statement to parliament, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said that,

Like its predecessors, this review [of the BBC licence fee] has examined the Corporation’s scale and scope, its funding and governance. But this one has been unique. In the level of public consultation, and in tackling perhaps the greatest challenge the BBC has ever faced -– the changes in TV technology that will soon result in a wholly digital Britain.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s green paper on the BBC’s long term future proposed an end of the traditional licence fee and “either a compulsory levy on all households or even on ownership of PCs as well as TVs.”

They need to move fast: press coverage this week shows that the BBC is already concerned that people watching TV over their mobile phones may be avoiding the licence fee.

Story via The Register.