The BBC has fired off its latest salvo in its continuous campaign to justify maintaining the existing license fee by publishing the findings of a study it commissioned which show the organisation contributed £8bn to the UK last year – nearly twice the annual license fee spend.
Published in the guardian the figures show some regions fared better than others however; with London and the North West faring disproportionately well – at the expense of the rest of England.
For instance whilst investment in the north of England jumped 19.7% to £391m on the back of MediaCity the Midlands region actually saw its GVA collapse by 21.7% to £199m as resources were reallocated.
Wales also saw its GVA decline by 6.2% to £276m and the south was off by 18.8% year-on-year to £699m.
Despite a dip in spending in the south total BBC GVA in the capital still stands at £5.65bn – nearly three times the sum lavished on England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.
The BBC arrived at a figure of £8.3bn after totting up the ripple effect of their spending on suppliers further down the food chain to arrive at an inflated ‘Gross Value Added’ total.