LONDON — It had all the components for a juicy skirmish in Britain’s simmering tradition struggle, so when the BBC introduced final week that it could strip the lyrics from two well-liked patriotic songs in its telecast of a beloved annual live performance, Conservative leaders predictably lined as much as specific their outrage.

“It’s time we stopped our cringing embarrassment about our historical past, about our traditions, and about our tradition, and we stopped this common bout of self-recrimination and wetness,” mentioned Prime Minister Boris Johnson to reporters, including with an indignant flourish, “I wished to get that off my chest.”

On Wednesday, the BBC reversed itself, asserting it had determined to have a small choir sing the phrases to “Rule, Britannia!” and “Land of Hope and Glory” in spite of everything. Critics say the lyrics evoke a British colonial, imperialist previous that’s at odds with the values of the Black Lives Matter motion that has unfold throughout the Atlantic.

The BBC insisted its unique determination had been pushed much less by politics than by its incapacity, due to the coronavirus pandemic, to collect an viewers to sing alongside. However after a backlash fueled by the authorities and pro-government newspapers, it mentioned in a contrite assertion, “We hope everybody will welcome this resolution.”

Rating one other level for the authorities in its feud with Britain’s revered, however embattled public broadcaster. And although the BBC’s viewer numbers have been as sturdy as ever, the determination was solely the most seen setback for the broadcaster, which faces business in addition to cultural headwinds.

In Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson hinted that the authorities would quickly roll out a plan to overtake the BBC that might address the compulsory license fee that finances much of its operations. Critics would like to see the fee abolished, which would throw the BBC’s future into question.

Meanwhile, two billionaire media moguls are hatching plans for 24-hour news channels that would be politically opinionated, bringing the model of Fox News to a market dominated by the BBC’s studied impartiality.

“The BBC is uniquely vulnerable at this moment,” said Alan Rusbridger, a former editor in chief of the Guardian newspaper. “There is a convergence of interests between the government and media owners in damaging the BBC. For them, this story is almost too good to be true.”

The Proms, as the series of BBC-sponsored classical music concerts is known, ends on Sept. 12 with an evening that has become famous for its rousing rendition of “Land of Hope and Glory,” sung as part of a performance of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance March,” as well as the anthem “Rule, Britannia!”

Thousands of spectators in Royal Albert Hall, as well as in Hyde Park outside, wave Union Jacks as they belt the chorus, “Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves! Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.”

Such jingoistic appeals give some people pause at a time when crowds have marched in Britain’s streets to protest the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis. Demonstrators in Bristol tore down the statue of a 17th-century slave trader, Edward Colston; others vandalized a memorial to Winston Churchill. The British Museum moved a bust of one of its founders, Hans Sloane, from a plinth in a main gallery to a display case because he was a slave trader.

Mr. Johnson and other critics have struck back at those who defaced Churchill and banished Sloane, saying they are erasing British history and surrendering to the pressure of a “woke” mob. The BBC is high on the list of those they accuse of political correctness — or, in British parlance, of being “wet.”

In such a febrile atmosphere, analysts said the BBC should have anticipated how its decision would reverberate. “Was it naïve not to think it wouldn’t play out as part of the culture wars?” said Meera Selva, director of the Reuters Journalism Fellowship Program at Oxford University.

But Ms. Selva said the real threat to the BBC would come if the government follows through on a proposal to stop prosecuting people for failing to pay the license fee. Officials argue that nonpayment of other such fees is handled in civil, not criminal, proceedings. They say the fee, which is currently £157.50 ($209) a year, falls disproportionately on older people, who can least afford to pay it.

Despite its hostility toward the BBC, the Johnson government has yet to move on this proposal — a delay that may reflect its preoccupation with dealing with the coronavirus rather than any softening of its views. Some analysts said the government’s botched handling of the pandemic had weakened its ability to go after an institution that, for all its detractors, remains enduringly popular.

“It’s a must to have a lot of vim for this,” mentioned Claire Enders, a London-based media analyst. “The federal government is on its again foot. Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings have been sustaining a lot of this, however they’ve misplaced a lot of steam,” she added, referring to Mr. Johnson’s highly effective chief adviser.

The pandemic additionally served to remind Britons of the worth of a credible public broadcaster. Viewership of BBC’s information packages spiked at the peak of the outbreak in March, although its rankings have returned to extra regular ranges since. The BBC stays much more trusted than the remainder of the British media, drawing excessive marks throughout the political spectrum and with viewers of all ages and revenue ranges.

That ubiquity and credibility makes it a daunting goal for rivals. Rupert Murdoch, who began Sky Information in 1989 to compete with the BBC, is backing one such 24-hour channel, whereas the different, GB Information, is backed by executives with ties to the American cable tv tycoon, John C. Malone. It has recruited Robbie Gibb, a BBC alumnus who was head of communications for Prime Minister Theresa Might.

Mr. Gibb, writing lately in the Telegraph, mentioned the BBC had been “culturally captured by the woke-dominated group consider a few of its personal workers.”

Displacing it, nevertheless, is one other matter. Ms. Enders pointed to a panorama plagued by well-funded interlopers like Al Jazeera, and mentioned it was unlikely that both channel, no matter their politics, would draw greater than a fraction of the BBC’s viewers. To some extent, speak of Fox-like opponents is simply one other method to torment the service affectionately identified to many Britons by the nickname “Auntie.”

The BBC lately modified its management, elevating a advertising government, Tim Davie, to be its director common. Mr. Davie, who was energetic in Conservative Social gathering politics in the 1990s, has advised colleagues he needs to overtake the BBC’s lineup of comedy packages to proper what he views as a bias in opposition to Brexit and the authorities. By making beauty modifications in programming, some analysts mentioned, Mr. Davie may truly defend the BBC from extra harmful assaults on its financing.

Nonetheless, as the reflexive outrage over “Rule, Britannia!” and the Proms exhibits, choosing a combat with the BBC will at all times be tempting to the Johnson authorities. And in the finish, it’s an unfair battle.

“The BBC can’t actually combat again due to its dedication to impartiality,” mentioned Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Examine of Journalism at Oxford. “That makes it fairly a helpful punching bag for previous, primarily white, males who need to make a level by punching it.”