A key finding of the research, Measuring the Value of the BBC, published this morning found that four out of five, or 81%, of the UK population agree that the BBC is worth £121 a year and more than half value the BBC at twice the current licence fee.
When asked to put a value on the corporation, licence payers said they valued the BBC at between £18 and £24 a month.
However, if the BBC was to charge a £13 fee a month, only 14.8m households would subscribe, leaving 9.7m without access to the BBC and its services.
The BBC says this would not only result in the BBC losing over £500m in revenue with the resultant loss in the quality of the services it provides, but the BBC would not be able to fulfil its core roles of supporting democracy, education, culture and social cohesion.
Elsewhere in the survey, viewers showed their appreciation of BBC output. While the BBC might have taken a beating on some programme fronts, with 'EastEnders' pulling in disappointing audiences, the survey showed that BBC news, soaps and home-grown comedy and drama are considered the most important genres by viewers.
Despite flak that no one is watching some of its digital channels, notably youth entertainment channel BBC Three, the BBC's digital channels were positively received by the survey and in particular CBBC, Cbeebies and BBC Three, which will come as some comfort for the corporation.
The BBC said that the high value placed on the BBC's digital services was linked to trust and quality, even for those who did not have direct access to the channels.
In non-digital homes, those surveyed placed particular importance on the BBC's 24-hour news operation, News 24.
Commissioned from Human Capital and GfK Martin Hamblin, a nationally representative panel of 2,257 people were questioned in May 2004.
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