The over-75s could be asked to make a voluntary contribution towards their TV licence under a BBC initiative potentially fronted by stars of pensionable age.
The corporation is due to assume the £700 million-a-year cost of handing out free licences to the elderly from 2020 after reaching a funding deal with the Government.
It was reported that a number of so-called “silver celebrities” including Dame Helen Mirren, Lord (Melvyn) Bragg, Sir Terry Wogan and Sir Michael Parkinson could be lined up to appear in a campaign driven by director-general Lord Hall.
But it is understood such a campaign will just be one of a number of options considered.
A BBC source told the Press Association: “The BBC has asked independent experts to advise on how to go about attracting voluntary contributions from over-75s when the Government reduces its support.”
The work will be carried out by Frontier Economics, led by their non-executive chairman, Lord O’Donnell. The report is not expected back until mid to late 2016.
Asked if there had been discussions about involving the celebrities reported in connection with the campaign, the source said it was “too early to say”.
Other proposals under review are said to include paying for the popular iPlayer service and an increase in the licence fee in line with inflation.
Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), has responded to the latest development, and said a celebrity-fronted campaign could result in older people being “taken in by this when they should be protected”.
Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary, said that around two-fifths of older people (3.9 million) say the television is their main source of company.
She said: “What’s worrying is if the BBC starts to use famous and wealthy older celebrities from licence fee-payers’ money to try and persuade ordinary pensioners to give up their TV licence.
“Many older, vulnerable people might be taken in by this when they should be protected. The Government needs to take back responsibility for the free TV licence or we’re going to see it cut by stealth and then eventually removed altogether.”
The BBC source added that there is no proposal to make people pay for iPlayer on top of the licence fee.
At the moment, if people only watch catch-up TV – including iPlayer – and do not watch any live TV, they do not need a licence.
But the Government has agreed that the licence fee should be modernised so that viewers would need to pay for watching iPlayer as well.
The Government has already agreed that the licence fee should rise in line with inflation, subject to the outcome of Charter Review, as part of the agreement for the BBC to take on the costs of over-75s.
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