What does the BBC do for you? – podcast

On Sunday night, the BBC rebooted an advert based on one it first aired 40 years ago. In the new version the presenter Romesh Ranganathan pretends he is a disgruntled licence fee payer, asking the question: “What has the BBC ever done for me?” Some of the national broadcaster’s biggest stars then make the case for its existence and ask for the public to keep funding it.The ad has aired not long after the BBC’s new director general, Matt Brittin, said the organisation was in “real jeopardy” due to a faster-than-predicted decline in licence fee payments. But what is the alternative to the old model?Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian writer and broadcaster Mark Lawson about how the BBC got to this point, and what options it has to keep going in an increasingly competitive market. Photograph: BBC/PA