Report: BBC Contributed $13 Billion to U.K. Economy

LONDON: The BBC has released a new report that outlines its economic value, with figures that say it spent a total of £4.3 billion ($6.9 billion) in 2011 and 2012, which generated £8.3 billion ($13.3 billion) for the U.K. economy.

This marked an increase of 4 percent from the 2009-10 period. The figure means that the BBC gave back nearly twice the amount it gets from an annual license fee from U.K. tax payers.

The report looks at the additional economic activity created in national and regional economies by the BBC operation, also known as Gross Value Added (GVA). The BBC GVA for TV for the period was £4.5 billion, similar to that of the ’09-10 figures.

Overall, £6.9 billion of the economic gains came from the BBC’s spending on TV, radio services and online. A further £1.4 billion was attributed to the commercial subsidiaries, including BBC Worldwide.