Government confirms BBC licence fee exemption and UK-wide big screens for Platinum Jubilee
The government has confirmed that big screens will be set up outdoors in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff so that people can come together to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next month.
Screens broadcasting the events will be placed in The Mall in London, Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens and in Cardiff’s Bute Park.
In the capital, screens broadcasting the BBC’s live feed will be placed down The Mall and in St James’s Park for members of the public to watch the events taking place across the Bank Holiday weekend.
Events taking place in London will be broadcast on TV networks BBC, Sky and ITV. In a further move to mark the occasion, the BBC is offering local communities a special one-off TV Licence dispensation so they can screen it on a big screen they organise themselves.
The plans will allow those celebrating with events arranged in town halls, community centres and streets to show live programmes throughout the weekend without needing to purchase a licence.
The screens are being organised by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “In less than a month we will come together as a nation and Commonwealth to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s 70-year reign. No other British monarch has reached this milestone and we will celebrate it with tradition, pomp and circumstance.
“I hope that people and communities across the country will come together to pay tribute to Her Majesty – whether that be to watch on big screens or toasting Her Majesty at a Big Jubilee Lunch with their neighbours or coming together in their local village hall.”
More than 70,000 Big Jubilee Lunches are planned in the four UK nations over the weekend, with an expected ten million people set to sit down with their neighbours on Sunday 5 June, to celebrate Her Majesty’s jubilee.