Like rats desperately clambering to safety from a sinking ship, BBC bosses are trying their utmost to protect the guaranteed income afforded by the TV licence fee.
Earlier today it was the BBC Director General, Tony Hall, using the nepotistic hospitality of the Andrew Marr show to recite horror stories about how ordinary members of the public would end up paying more if the £145.50 annual telly tax was abolished.
Speaking on the show, Lord Hall said: "Our audiences, when you ask them, actually think that the case for the licence fee as a method of funding the BBC has gone up and has not gone down. That's really important.
"And they believe in a high quality BBC that's producing excellent programmes right across a broad range of genres."
Lord Hall dismissed the suggestion that the TV licence fee was anachronistic, saying that even Culture Secretary John Whittingdale - who has previously described the fee as "worse than the poll tax" - acknowledged it had ten years of life left in it.
Referring to the Culture Select Committee's recent report on the Future of the BBC, he continued: "Beyond that Andrew, you and I sitting here 10 years ago had no idea what an iPad was, had no idea about Netflix, had no idea about Spotify - I'll go along with the argument that's it got 10 years life in it.
"And then it (the report) went on to say what the licence fee has got to do is what the licence fee has continually done since it was first invented, which is to adapt to modernise, to change because - and this is the principle - by everybody paying something we all get great services for a lot less than if you went down a subscription model or some other route."
The BBC's Royal Charter expires on 31st December 2016 and the topic of funding will feature prominently during the process of Charter renewal.