By Tim Chester from Mashable

LONDON — The government laid out plans for a full review of the BBC Thursday, launching a Green Paper on the corporation’s future ahead of its charter renewal in 2016.

Culture secretary John Whittingdale, who was appointed to the post during David Cameron’s post election reshuffle in May, announced the review in a speech at the House of Commons.

Whittingdale said the review will address four key areas: The BBC’s mission, purpose and values, the scale and scope of the corporation, its funding, and its governance and regulation.

The paper, which has been posted online, asks if the expansion of the BBC’s services are justified in a world of increased choice for audiences. It also addresses how well the BBC’s content is serving audiences at home and abroad, and whether it’s sufficiently different from that of other broadcasters.

Alternatives to the annual licence fee, including a household levy or subscription model, will be looked at as part of the review. The subscription model might be the answer in the long term, “but cannot work in the short term because the technology is not yet in every home to control access,” Whittingdale said.

An independent report into decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee was deemed “not appropriate at this time.” The licence fee provides £3.7bn of the BBC’s £4.8bn income, according to the Guardian.

The BBC immediately responded to the Green Paper.

The BBC is a creative and economic powerhouse for Britain. The starting point for any debate should be – how can a strong BBC benefit Britain even more at home and abroad? The BBC has embraced change in the past and will continue to do so in the future, and we will set out our own proposals in September.

We believe that this Green Paper would appear to herald a much diminished, less popular, BBC. That would be bad for Britain and would not be the BBC that the public has known and loved for over 90 years.

It is important that we hear what the public want. It should be for the public to decide whether programmes like Strictly or Bake Off, or stations like Radio One or Two, should continue.

As the Director-General said on Tuesday, the BBC is not owned by its staff or by politicians, it is owned by the public. They are our shareholders. They pay the licence fee. Their voice should be heard the loudest.

The BBC recently agreed to take on the cost of providing free TV licences for anyone aged over 75. The move, which was imposed by the government with the BBC reluctantly agreeing after negotiating a few sweeteners, including a closure of the loophole allowing catch up users to avoid the fee, is thought to cost the corporation £650 million.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport are now soliciting views from the public.

On Wednesday, several celebrities, including JK Rowling, Stephen Fry, Daniel Craig and Richard Curtis signed an open letter calling for “a strong BBC at the centre of British life.”

“A diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain,” it read, continuing: “The BBC is a very precious institution. Like all organisations, it has its faults but it is overwhelmingly a creative force for good.”

“Britain’s creative economy is growing and enjoying unprecedented success. The BBC is at the heart of this as the global showcase for our creative industries. The BBC is trusted and loved at home by British audiences and is the envy of the world abroad.”

IMAGE: Culture secretary John Whittingdale launched the Green Paper on the BBC Thursday. IMAGE: DAVE THOMPSON/PA WIRE /ASSOCIATED PRESS

For more on this story go to: http://mashable.com/2015/07/16/future-of-the-bbc/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-All-Partial&utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher