Editorial: ​Hiking BBC tax as households turn off is the wrong approach

​New figures predicting that the TV Licence Fee could soon surpass £200 per year are a reminder that this antiquated system of funding public service broadcasting needs to be reformed.

​As things stand, the government has committed to increasing the fee in line with inflation for the next year, meaning the household TV tax could rise to £185.50.

A charge over the £200 mark is a a projection based on that continuing, and dependent on factors like inflation. But it could reach that figure before the end of the decade.

In a rapidly changing media landscape, charging everyone a flat fee for watching live TV is not a sustainable approach. Despite revolutionising how we all watch TV when it created the iPlayer, the BBC has begun to lose out in a crowded marketplace.

The corporation makes a big play of huge hits like Strictly Come Dancing and the Traitors, but the scale of their success is such is that they would be a huge commercial hit. It’s hard to understand why we should pay a licence fee to fund them.

The BBC does have a unique place in national life, and provides services which would probably not be commercially viable. At times of national celebration or sorrow, it is the BBC that most of us turn to for TV coverage.

It has also had a very important role in the UK’s nations and regions, producing TV and streaming content that reflect the unique ways of life in different parts of the country.

Unfortunately, in its drive for hits nationally, some of that unique local content is being lost as more generic mass-appeal programming becomes the focus for commissioners.

The public service broadcaster is part of UK life, but it needs to change what it does and how its paid for long before households are asked to stump up £200.