The BBC licence fee should be scrapped in order to modernise the UK's current broadcasting model, according to one thinktank.
A report from the right-wing Adam Smith Institute has claimed that "universal broadband and the internet" has made a licence to broadcast "obsolete".
Instead it has proposed that the licence fee is replaced with a voluntary subscription set at the same rate.
The authors of the study wrote: "The BBC is, in reality, a subsidised entertainment firm with some non-commercial obligations.
"The BBC should no longer be allowed to exploit the exclusive benefits of public subsidy.
"Continued commitment to subsidy via the licence fee will mean contraction and decline."
It also claimed that the licence fee criminalises poor people who are unable to pay it.
The report added that the BBC has too much responsibility for defining the meaning of core public service content, which should "be free to all citizens".
Find the latest media agency jobs from pfj
