The BBC is considering radical plans to start charging people to download TV and radio programmes, ranging from Today on Radio 4 to EastEnders on BBC1.

Although no decision will be made for some time, a senior BBC executive has admitted he has raised a pay-per-view option for heavy users as part of a long term bid to make BBC Online pay its way.

Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media, said the cost of putting all the BBC's TV programmes online could run to "several billion pounds".

Part of the problem is that more than half of the 10m or so visitors to BBC Online come from overseas and have not paid any form of licence fee to view the licence fee-funded content.

But now it's not just overseas visitors who could be charged to view licence fee-funded programming.

"The licence fee could give viewers a certain amount of credit to use a certain amount of content and once that credit has run out they would have to top it up," said Mr Highfield in an interview with the Financial Times.

"The increasing cost of distribution to the BBC is an issue. If all the BBC's content was streamed on the web it could cost several billions of pounds."

If approved, the controversial plan could cast severe doubt on the long-term viability of the licence fee, implying that the £2.4bn it rakes in each year is not enough to give people unlimited access to the corporation's content on TV as well as online.

The plan will inevitably incur the wrath of the internet industry, in particular the BBC's arch-rival, the British Internet Publishers' Alliance.

A Bipa spokesman said representatives from the internet industry were due to meet this morning and expected the BBC's latest proposal to be on the agenda.

BBC Online has long been the target of widespread criticism from Bipa for its increasing commercial activities, especially the plans to introduce an international news website, BBCNews.com, that is likely to be funded by advertising.

At this stage, the 'heavy user' plan isa tentative one and may not even be tabled until the next BBC charter comes up for renewal in 2006, and then not be introduced for another 10 years.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said this morning: "The idea is part of our ongoing discussions to make savings across the BBC.

"We encourage an atmosphere of voicing ideas and Ashley was just talking hypothetically bandying around this idea to make money for BBC Online."

Last year, the BBC spent £73m on digital development, of which £32m was accounted for by BBC Online.

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30.01.2001: BBC admits plans for advertising-funded website
24.01.2001: BBC website advertising plans condemned

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