THE BBC has been blasted for broadcasting a “condescending” advert during the World Cup final that experts have said was “strategically inept” and fails to address the corporation's “deeper problems”.
After a half-time show during the final between Spain and Argentina, a four-minute advert was played featuring comedian Romesh Ranganathan repeatedly asking audiences an apparently rhetorical question “what has the BBC ever done for me?” as he walked through clips of various shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, Eastenders and Doctor Who.
It harked back to a 1985 advert with John Cleese in which the Fawlty Towers actor asked a pub full of stars “what has the BBC ever done for us?” when the corporation made the case to the public about the value of the licence fee.
It comes after figures last week showed the number of people paying the licence fee has fallen by half a million in the last year, with income plummeting by more than £1 billion in real terms over the past decade.
But media experts and campaigners have criticised the advert, with Dr Tom Chivers – policy co-ordinator for the Media Reform Coalition – saying it made the BBC’s relationship with viewers “seem like a transaction”.
“I thought it was really condescending and quite jarring,” Chivers told The National.
“I think viewers know what they like and dislike about the BBC and they won't have appreciated being lectured in that tone and style.
"Given where the BBC stands with Charter Review, with the licence fee, with the latest figures that another 500,000 households have stopped paying the licence fee in the last year, I think the advert itself was strategically and tactically inept.
"The BBC should be on the attack about it's important, but what that advert did was make it seem like a transaction – you pay your licence fee, and you get this stuff in return. That's not the core purpose of the BBC to just be a transaction between licence fee payers and the services they get.
BBC has released a new campaign 'What has the BBC ever done for me?' It will air during tonight's World Cup final coverage. pic.twitter.com/EYBMhMQlvJ
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) July 19, 2026
“That advert was no different to if Sky or Netflix were doing an advert about their services. I think it was inept at this serious moment of tension and political challenge about its [the BBC's] future and the future of the licence fee."
The advert has received criticism on social media, with people in Instagram comments on it calling the BBC “shockingly biased” and branding the advert “propaganda”.
During every match the BBC broadcast at the World Cup, viewers were given reminders they needed a TV licence to watch the coverage, with a QR code appearing in the corner of the screen to allow people to do this.
But the fee is a major source of contention. Last week the BBC’s new director-general Matt Brittin suggested it should be scrapped and could be replaced with a compulsory levy on people’s energy bills.
The standard TV licence costs £180 per year and is legally required to watch or record television on any channel or service, watch live on streaming services or to use BBC iPlayer.
Brittin said the BBC is “locked into yesterday’s model of consumption” and called the licence fee mechanism a “straitjacket”.
He said the number of people not paying the licence fee has left the BBC facing a “moment of real jeopardy” and the advert appears to be one way in which the corporation has attempted to turn the trend around.
But Professor Des Freedman, a media expert at Goldsmiths University of London, said the advert “isn’t going to save” the BBC.
He criticised a segment in particular which sees Ranganathan say “so what if it verifies news thoroughly?” while sat next to newsreader Clive Myrie.
“The ad makes a basic error – people have stopped paying the licence fee not because they don’t think they have to but because they don’t want to,” he said.
“Both long-standing BBC critics on the right who think the corporation is riddled with woke liberals and those on the left who are infuriated by its awful coverage of Israel and Gaza aren’t suddenly going to set up a direct debit because they’ve seen Romesh Ranganathan dance through some stage sets.
“The BBC has deeper problems that can’t be addressed by an ad campaign – especially one where Romesh glibly says that ‘so what if they verify news thoroughly?’ when the BBC has cut back on its Verify service and lost the trust of millions because it sounds like the establishment it says it’s independent of.
“If the BBC wants us to pay for a public service, make it a genuinely public service. Don’t have a board where government makes direct appointments and don’t have a funding system where the rich pay the same as the poor. Don’t cut out the public it’s supposed to be accountable to.”
A BBC spokesperson: “For more than 100 years the BBC has helped shaped who we are as a country and how the world sees us. It is a priceless asset for the UK which has never been more needed and this film showcases the breadth of programmes, services and value the BBC delivers, helping audiences across the UK understand its role and impact as we make the case for its future.”
