Where's the outrage from the BBC consumer champion programmes?

The BBC has a long history of consumer champion programmes from That's Life to whatever Anne Robinson vehicle is currently running. Will they be looking into the absolute scandal that The Telegraph has discovered:

'The BBC is over-charging millions of people for their licence fees by selling "annual" permits that only last 11 months, it can be disclosed.

The corporation has been making up to £25m a year through the little-known loophole, which has been condemned as "unfair" and a "rip off".

Any viewer buying a TV licence for the first time is charged £145.50 for a year-long permit.

But under current arrangements, the new licence expires 12 months from the first day of the month in which it is purchased. This means that an ‘annual’ licence bought on April 30 2012 will actually run out at midnight on March 31 2013.

Licence fee payers have complained that the payment quirk means they are getting as little as 11 months’ worth of licence when they have paid for a full year.

...

The £145.50 cost of an annual licence breaks down at £12 a month. Around 2.1 million people bought a new licence last year, a BBC spokesman said. This means that the BBC could have profited by up to £25 million last year due to the curtailed length of the ‘annual’ permits it sold.

It is understood that the loophole has been in place since 1991 when the BBC took over the administration of TV licences from the Licensing Authority, but it has only just come to light after a complaint to the BBC Trust.

John Whittingdale, MP for Maldon and chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said: “I entirely understand why people think it is unfair. They are having an average of 15 and anything up to 30 days of TV watching - which they think they have paid for - taken away from them.”

“I quite understand why people feel they’re being ripped off.”

The news comes as the BBC is trying to save £670 million a year by 2017 as part of a cost-cutting drive.

The monthly renewal issue affects all people who buy a licence for the first time, either online or through the post. Once they already have one, it is updated annually on the same date.'

The BBC's mealy-mouthed, pathetic excuse:

'A spokesman for the BBC’s TV Licensing division denied that the corporation is short-changing consumers.

The spokesman said that it would cost “hundreds of thousands of pounds” to change the monthly renewal system.

“Setting monthly renewal dates minimises collection costs and means more money is invested in the BBC’s programmes and services. This issue affects a small proportion of payers and only affects them the first time they buy a licence.

“To give each a daily renewal date would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds which is not good value for the majority of licence payers,” the spokesman said. '

Would Esther or Ann or one of their team allow a giant corporation to get away with deploying that feeble excuse for ripping off customers? why should the BBC get away with it now?