LONDON: The BBC lost more than &pound;1.1 billion in revenues in 2024-2025 as UK citizens dodged the licence fees and fewer homes said they needed one, a parliamentary committee report said Friday, urging greater controls.&nbsp;The report comes as Britain&#39;s under-pressure public service broadcaster faces a possible hefty lawsuit, after it admitted to a misleading edit of a speech by US President Donald Trump.&nbsp;Trump has said he could claim up to $5 billion in damages for alleged defamation over the edit, which spliced together his words to give the impression that he was directly calling for &quot;violent action&quot; during the January 2021 march on the US Congress.&nbsp;A sizeable proportion of the BBC&#39;s income comes from the licence fee, which is payable by all UK households with a television, or whose occupants watch live screening online.&nbsp;&quot;Evasion rose to 12.5 percent or about 1 in 8 users of the BBC not paying to use BBC services. Combined, household declarations and evasion represent over &pound;1.1 billion in lost income,&quot; the parliamentary public accounts committee said in a report.&nbsp;Currently standing at &pound;174.50 ($228) a year, the fee is expected to rise to &pound;180 in 2026.&nbsp;Income from fees brought in &pound;3.8 billion for the corporation last year from some 23 million households.&nbsp;But 3.6 million households declared they did not need a licence, which funds the BBC&#39;s television, radio and online services.&nbsp;The report concluded that the BBC had not done enough to enforce licence fee collection and recommended it should modernise the system.&nbsp;The row over the Trump edit comes at a politically sensitive time for the BBC, which is due to renegotiate the Royal Charter that outlines the corporation&#39;s governance. Its current charter will end in 2027.&nbsp;&quot;The BBC increased visits to unlicensed households by 50 percent in 2024&ndash;25, yet this has not translated into higher licence sales or more prosecutions,&quot; the report said.&nbsp;It also found that while the BBC remained &quot;a trusted institution&quot;, it was struggling to retain its foothold in the evolving media landscape.&nbsp;&quot;Younger people use the BBC less than older audiences and perceive it as less relevant to their interests,&quot; it said.&nbsp;&quot;The BBC&#39;s ability to serve all audiences, a core part of its public mission, is under pressure,&quot; it warned.

United Kingdom

A UK parliamentary report says BBC lost over £1.1 billion in 2024–25 due to license fee evasion and households claiming exemptions. It urges stronger enforcement as the broadcaster faces a lawsuit, shifting audiences, and charter renewal pressures.

License fee dodgers cost BBC over £1bn in lost income

LONDON: Accused of being biased by some, defended as a champion of impartiality by others, the BBC is once again the subject of a thorny debate about the role of a publicly funded broadcaster in an increasingly polarized landscape.&nbsp;The BBC is regularly used as political football, with the organization facing flak for how it chooses to cover issues from climate change to Brexit.&nbsp;Now it is under greater scrutiny than ever before, following the revelation that a documentary it aired last year misleadingly edited a speech by US President Donald Trump.&nbsp;Trump has issued an unprecedented threat to sue over the documentary, which was broadcast before the US presidential ballot and examined why US voters were prepared to re-elect a convicted felon.&nbsp;In the former constituency of ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, a vocal critic of the BBC, one pensioner questioned by AFP appeared torn between her attachment to the BBC and its struggles sometimes to fulfil its public service duty when it comes to the news.&nbsp;&quot;I don&#39;t want to get rid of the BBC... but I think they have been biased on a lot of things,&quot; said Sandra Madden, a resident of Uxbridge, west London.&nbsp;The octogenarian retiree said the editing of Trump&#39;s speech -- which gave the impression he made a direct call for violence before his supporters attacked the Capitol in January 2021 -- was &quot;really the straw that broke the camel&#39;s back&quot;.&nbsp;It showed that the BBC was &quot;too left-wing&quot;, she concluded.&nbsp;The public broadcaster nevertheless remains the most popular UK news source, according to the latest figures published by media watchdog Ofcom.&nbsp;WeaponizedAround half of Britons have a positive opinion of the BBC, compared to 29 percent who hold a negative view, according to a YouGov poll published this week.&nbsp;While 31 percent said it was too left-wing, 19 percent said it was too right-wing.&nbsp;BBC chairman Samir Shah this week defended the organization&rsquo;s &quot;sacred job&quot; of upholding impartiality and the truth.&nbsp;On hot-button issues like immigration, transgender rights, Gaza or the rise of the far-right, the BBC finds itself caught in the crossfire of different ideological camps.&nbsp;The BBC &quot;has been weaponized by people who want to use it as an example (in their view) of the world going too far in one direction&quot;, said Lee Edwards, professor at the Department of Media and Communications at London School of Economics (LSE).

The BBC faces criticism and praise amid political polarization, including backlash over a misleading Trump documentary, yet remains Britain’s most popular news source, with debates over bias and impartiality ongoing.

BBC caught in crossfire of polarized political and media landscape

US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would sue the BBC for up to $5 billion after the British broadcaster apologized for a misleading edit of one of his speeches, but said it would not pay damages. &quot;We&#39;ll sue them for anywhere between a billion and five billion dollars, probably sometime next week. I think I have to do it. They&#39;ve even admitted that they cheated,&quot; Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Trump&#39;s lawyers sent the BBC a letter on Monday accusing it of defaming the president with the video of the speech before the 2021 US Capitol riot and giving it until Friday to apologize and pay compensation. &quot;The people of the UK are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows the BBC is fake news,&quot; Trump said late on Friday. He added that he planned to raise the BBC issue with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has backed the broadcaster&#39;s independence while avoiding taking sides against Trump. &quot;I&#39;m going to call him over the weekend. He actually put a call into me. He&#39;s very embarrassed,&quot; Trump said. On Monday, the BBC apologized for giving the impression in a documentary aired last year that Trump had directly urged &quot;violent action&quot; just before the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021. The firestorm over the video edit has led the BBC director-general and the organization&#39;s top news executive to resign. The BBC said on Thursday that its chairman, Samir Shah, had sent &quot;a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president&#39;s speech.&quot; However, it added: &quot;While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.&quot;

Americas

US president says people in UK are “very angry about what happened … because it shows the BBC is fake news.” 

Trump says will sue BBC for up to $5 bn over video edit

LONDON:&nbsp;The BBC said on Thursday that its chairman had sent a letter to US President Donald Trump apologising for a misleading edit of one of his speeches, but rejected that it was grounds for a defamation lawsuit. The comments came after Britain&#39;s embattled public broadcaster said earlier that it was investigating a possible second instance in which a Trump speech was edited in a misleading way. On Monday, the BBC apologized for giving the impression in a documentary aired last year that Trump had directly urged &quot;violent action&quot; just before the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters on January 6, 2021. The video edit has triggered a firestorm, leading the BBC director-general and the organisation&#39;s top news executive to resign on Sunday, and drawing a threat from Trump&#39;s lawyers to sue for $1 billion. BBC Chair Samir Shah has &quot;sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president&#39;s speech,&quot; the broadcaster said in a statement. However, it added: &quot;While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim.&quot; It said BBC lawyers had written to Trump&#39;s legal team in response. As controversy continued to swirl around the &quot;Panorama&quot; documentary on Trump, aired in October 2024, the BBC said it was now probing another edit of Trump&#39;s speech from the day of the Capitol riots. The Telegraph newspaper said the BBC also aired another report, in June 2022, on its &quot;Newsnight&quot; programme, in which phrases spoken at different points in Trump&#39;s speech were edited together to make it appear as if he were urging supporters to go to the Capitol and &quot;fight like hell.&quot; A BBC spokesperson said: &quot;This matter has been brought to our attention and we are now looking into it.&quot; The editing row comes at a politically sensitive time for the BBC, which is due to renegotiate the Royal Charter that outlines the corporation&#39;s governance. Its current charter will end in 2027. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government have been performing a tightrope act, backing the broadcaster&#39;s independence while avoiding taking sides against Trump.

Europe

The news agency has apologized for giving the impression that Trump had directly urged "violent action" just before the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters in 2021 in a documentary that aired in October last year.

BBC apologizes to Trump, but rejects defamation claim

LONDON:&nbsp;US President Donald Trump threatened the BBC with a billion-dollar lawsuit on Monday as the broadcaster apologized for editing a speech that gave the impression he urged &quot;violent action&quot; ahead of the 2021 assault on the US Capitol. In a letter seen by AFP, Trump&#39;s lawyers gave the British broadcaster until Friday to fully retract the documentary containing the edit, apologize, and &quot;appropriately compensate&quot; the president &quot;for the harm caused.&quot; If the BBC does not comply, &quot;President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights ... including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages,&quot; it said. &quot;The BBC is on notice. PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.&quot; The BBC director general and the organization&#39;s top news executive resigned on Sunday over the row, after accusations that a documentary by the Panorama program last year featured extracts from a speech by Trump that were edited in a misleading way. The BBC said that it would &quot;review&quot; the letter from Trump&#39;s legal team. It also issued a public apology for the editing. &#39;Financial and reputational harm&#39;Trump&#39;s supporters rioted at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the certification of his 2020 US presidential election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden. But the letter from Trump&#39;s legal team said the BBC edit gave a &quot;false, defamatory, malicious, disparaging, and inflammatory&quot; impression of what he said in his speech outside the White House. It appeared he had told supporters he was going to walk there with them and &quot;fight like hell&quot;. The president also told the audience in the intervening period: &quot;We&#39;re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.&quot; &quot;Due to their salacious nature, the fabricated statements that were aired by the BBC have been widely disseminated throughout various digital mediums, which have reached tens of millions of people worldwide,&quot; the letter said. &quot;Consequently, the BBC has caused President Trump to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm.&quot; A spokesperson for Trump&#39;s legal team confirmed a letter had been sent to the BBC and said: &quot;President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in lies, deception, and fake news.&quot; Trump has been accused of launching a number of previous lawsuits to stifle US media, including against broadcasters ABC and CBS, and the New York Times. The latest controversy has reignited a debate over the British broadcaster, which is cherished by many but has faced long-standing accusations of bias from both ends of the political spectrum. BBC promises oversight reform&nbsp;In a letter sent to MPs, BBC chairman Samir Shah said the broadcaster accepted that the editing of Trump&#39;s speech for the documentary &quot;did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.&quot; &quot;The BBC would like to apologize for that error of judgment,&quot; he added, vowing to reform oversight within the broadcaster. Director General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness stepped down over the escalating backlash on Sunday. Trump promptly celebrated, accusing BBC journalists of being &quot;corrupt&quot; and &quot;dishonest.&quot; His press secretary called the broadcaster &quot;100% fake news.&quot; However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s spokesperson told reporters the organization &quot;has a vital role in an age of disinformation.&quot; &quot;It&#39;s important that the BBC acts swiftly to maintain trust and correct mistakes quickly when they occur,&quot; he added. The government is preparing a review of the BBC&#39;s charter, which outlines the corporation&#39;s governance and funding. The current charter ends in 2027. The cash-strapped broadcaster, which has cut hundreds of jobs, is funded by a license fee paid by anyone who watches live TV in Britain. The BBC&#39;s latest crisis intensified after the right-wing Daily Telegraph newspaper reported last week that a former external standards adviser&#39;s warnings of serious and widespread failings of impartiality and systemic bias had been ignored. Earlier this year, the BBC apologized for &quot;serious flaws&quot; in the making of another documentary, about the Gaza war, which the UK&#39;s media watchdog deemed &quot;materially misleading.&quot; It also faced criticism for failing to pull a livestream of punk-rap duo Bob Vylan during this year&#39;s Glastonbury pop festival after its frontman made anti-Israel comments.

The BBC apologizes for editing a speech that suggested US President Donald Trump had directly instigated an attack on the US Capitol, resulting in the dramatic resignations of the broadcaster's top brass.

Trump threatens $1 billion action as BBC apologizes for edit error

Web Desk

WASHINGTON: Alphabet&#39;s Google said hackers are sending extortion emails to an unspecified number of executives, claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle business applications, Reuters reported.&nbsp;In a statement, Google said a group claiming affiliation with the ransomware gang cl0p was sending emails to &quot;executives at numerous organizations claiming to have stolen sensitive data from their Oracle E-Business Suite.&quot;&nbsp;Google cautioned that it &quot;does not currently have sufficient evidence to assess the veracity of these claims definitively.&quot;&nbsp;Messages seeking comment from cl0p and Oracle were not immediately returned. Google described the email campaign as &quot;high-volume&quot; but declined to share further details. What is cl0p? Cl0p is a&nbsp;cybercriminal group notorious for targeting major corporations using advanced malware designed to encrypt files and demand ransoms for their release or deletion. In 2023, Cl0p was implicated in a widespread cyberattack exploiting vulnerabilities in MOVEit &mdash; a file transfer software widely used by companies and institutions to handle sensitive data.&nbsp; The group claimed to have accessed data from hundreds of organizations through this exploit. Prominent victims of the attack included Shell Plc, IAG SA&rsquo;s British Airways, and the BBC. In June 2023, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a public advisory warning about Cl0p, describing it as &quot;one of the largest distributors of phishing and malspam globally.&quot; The agency estimated that the group had breached over 3,000 organizations in the United States and more than 8,000 worldwide. With input from wires.

Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024 

Gadgets

Google cautions it "does not currently have sufficient evidence to assess the veracity of these claims definitively."

Articles tagged with "BBC"

License fee dodgers cost BBC over £1bn in lost income

BBC caught in crossfire of polarized political and media landscape

Trump says will sue BBC for up to $5 bn over video edit

BBC apologizes to Trump, but rejects defamation claim

Trump threatens $1 billion action as BBC apologizes for edit error

Google says hackers are sending extortion emails to executives