Culture secretary Tessa Jowell will unveil details of its Royal Charter review in a green paper later today, which will then be debated before coming into effect in 2007.
The £2.8bn-a-year licence fee has been under debate for the last year with fears that the BBC could find itself losing some of the cash.
The green paper, which sets out the future of the BBC, was due to be published last week but was delayed after a clash between former BBC director-general Lord John Birt and Jowell.
Lord Birt, also a senior adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, believes the licence-fee money could be better spent by sharing it with ITV and Channel 4 to subsidise their public service obligations.
Jowell is understood to believe that such changes could considerably weaken the BBC and undermine public support and its independence.
However, there is still a chance Channel 4 and ITV could get some cash. To survive with increased competition from hundreds of digital channels with analogue switch-off pencilled in for 2008, commercial broadcasters may well need government backing to meet current public service obligations.
While it is unclear how far the government will go in shaking up the governors, changes are expected that could go as far as creating a separate public service broadcasting commission, which would take over the role of the governors.
Although the BBC, under chairman Michael Grade, has gone some way towards separating the governors from the BBC management, the public service broadcasting commission would be entirely independent.
The green paper will feed into the 2006 Royal Charter Review, which decides the BBC's funding for the next 10 years.
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