Jowell: BBC will keep licence fee

The TV licence fee is to stay for at least 15 years, the Government signalled today.

The £109 annual fee, which provides the bulk of BBC funding, is due for review in two years time. But today Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said that any change to the system was "somewhere between the improbable and the impossible".

Her comments brought anger from the Tories, who said they made a mockery of the official review of the BBC's future in 2004, two years before the Corporation's Royal Charter expires. The Government officially is committed to looking at other forms of financing, ranging from charging subscriptions to outright privatisation.

The licence fee at present raises £2.3 billion a year. Shadow Culture Secretary Tim Yeo denounced Ms Jowell's refusal to consider any radical alternative as "absolutely astonishing". He went on: "In the 10 years since the last charter renewal, the whole television and broadcasting sector has changed radically. To simply dismiss the alternative possibilities not only shows a closed mind but may also work against the interests of viewers and broadcasters."

Ms Jowell, in an interview with the Financial Times, also signalled that the Government would use taxpayers' money "at some point" for a big advertising campaign to push digital television. But she stressed that the "bulk of the money" must come from the industry.

Ms Jowell also suggested a radical change to the royal succession, saying that female members of the royal family should have equal rights to inherit the throne. Amending the 1701 Act of Settlement would propel the Princess Royal up the line of succession.

The Government announced that it approved in principle an end to male primogeniture four years ago, when Lord Archer, the disgraced former Tory deputy chairman, brought in a backbench bill to change the law. However, there had been no ministerial moves since then and Ms Jowell stressed that reform was "a matter for the royal family".