[davej]

Population is obviously a factor because the cost of producing/broadcasting television content is not proportional to population. £145 * 60 million people is a lot more money than £265 * 5 million.

The BBC also makes a lot of money selling it's programming around the world, presumably most Danish TV is in the Danish language so it would be difficult to sell on.

Having said all of this, I'm in Ireland not in Britain. :-) Our TV licence is €160/annum but out national broadcaster airs commercial ads (unlike the BBC).