The BBC has set aside £50million for market research into what people watch and how to reach ‘diverse audiences’.
The cash will be used over a four-year period to track what viewers watch and ‘provide an insight from a range of demographic groups’.
A jargon-riddled notice inviting firms to take on the work says up to £42million could be spent on ‘data collection and processing and brand tracking studies’.
A further £7million could go to research sampling ‘harder-to reach, niche and diverse audiences’. The remainder will focus on children’s viewing.
The project, to run from 2023 to 2027, comes after director-general Tim Davie warned of brutal cuts to popular programmes because of the Government’s two-year licence fee freeze.
The BBC has also scrapped its free licence fee for over-75s. Some 314,465 fees could be covered by the £50million set aside for the market research.
Julian Knight, Commons digital committee chairman, told the Daily Mail: ‘It does seem to be that they’re giving almost a weapon to their opponents by spending such an enormous sum of money on finding out things which frankly they should be able to find out a lot cheaper than this.
It’s an awful lot of licence fees if you think about it. It staggers me that they’re looking at spending that sort of money at a time like this.’
Darwin Friend, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘This big BBC contract will outrage licence fee payers. In the middle of a cost of living crisis and record tax burden, the Beeb continues to pluck from taxpayers’ pockets for the privilege of owning a TV.’
The BBC was unable to say last night how market research could cost such a huge amount, but said £50million was the upper limit and it may cost less.
A BBC spokesman added: ‘Over 95 per cent of our spending goes on content and its delivery.’