The future of the licence fee has been one of the most prominent debates in the UK in recent years – with Chris Packham having long been an opponent of government plans to scrap it.
And in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com at the Radio Times Covers Party last week, Packham drew attention to the coverage of the Ukraine war to underline the significance of public service broadcasting.
“The licence fee is worth every single penny, and not just for programmes like Springwatch,” he said. “But for all of the real news that’s out there as well.
“I mean, frankly, where have Amazon Prime been, where have Netflix been in Ukraine covering the news there? They’ve been nowhere. And they cost a lot more than the BBC.
“So, good, top-quality public service broadcasting – that’s what we pay our licence fee for.”
The popular presenter also spoke more specifically about how nature programming might be affected if the licence fee was scrapped, claiming it would be a “tragic loss” for the BBC’s output.
“Some of our nature programmes can be really expensive to make, but they are world-leading,” he said.
“And they have been for a long time. And we’re very fortunate that we’ve assembled a team of people that make those all the way through production, all of the technicians, camera, sound, editing, and so on and so forth.
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“And that’s a unique opportunity that we have in the UK to continue to fly the flag of world-class natural history programming, and the BBC Natural History Unit and now Science as well have been at the core of that.
“If you take away that funding, you’ll take away that quality. What a tragic loss at a time when more than ever we need to communicate our passion and concern for the natural world as we’re in our climate and biodiversity crisis.”
Additional reporting by Christian Tobin.
See more photos from the Radio Times Covers Party 2022 in the new issue of Radio Times magazine, on sale Tuesday 5th April. Subscribe now to get each issue delivered to your door, and for more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the Radio Times podcast with Jane Garvey.
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