It was a fee that paid for the various bbc channels. At least that was their explanation.
Yeah, I get it. Know about it as I’ve spent some time in the UK. Was shocked to learn (at that time) you had to pay a fee to own a TV. Even if the justification was rationalized by the electorate (and I know they absolutely hated the TV tax) there were much better ways to fund it. And now, assuming they still have the tax, with 5000 channels to choose from on cable/satellite and stream - they should just tax the broadcaster for a slice of the advertising revenues. From the Monty Python sketches I watched this weekend it seemed they did do some advertising and promotional marketing on the BBC shows even in 1970’s because they parodied them. Not sure if they showed commercials like our local affiliates did in the US but still, much more efficient to go to the source broadcaster than try to rope in the 60 odd million people watching it.