The UK will not be able to do away with the BBC licence fee for at least another 17 years, a group of MPs has said. The government “will be forced” to maintain the licence fee as a result of its failure to enable a viable alternative form of funding for the BBC, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee said in a report published on Thursday. “It’s clear that the BBC TV licence fee has a limited shelf life in a digital media landscape. However, the government has missed the boat to reform it,” said Julian Knight, a Conservative MP who chairs the DCMS committee. He said the government had failed to come up with a workable alternative, as it has not been able to develop a broadband infrastructure that “would allow serious consideration of other means to fund the BBC.” Residents in the UK …