Should the BBC keep the license fee?

[Dynamoo]

As for people still watching adverts. Get sky+ bt+, v+ etc record everything you want to watch, then just fastforwards at 30x speed through the ads. You'll probably watch 30 minutes less tv a night without the adverts, idents, and program trailers.

I very rarely watch live TV for this reason, but even so all the blooming programmes tend to be on at exactly the same time.. so the +1s are actually quite useful!

[aotagain]

Its odd isn't it, how just when the bankers were getting it in the neck from all directions, and questions asked about huge rewards in business even when executives make a right hash of it, there's suddenly a 'leak' about MP's expenses, followed by the scrutiny of 'public service' organisations like the BBC.

Coincidence or convenient, or just a con ?
At least we can and will scrutinise the public service area organisations and individuals.

Its just that, at the moment we seem to be scrutinising the relatively unimportant things in a holier-than-thou way, rather than really getting at the difficult issues.

Like for example the various NHS sites sold for development to PFI companies who now find themselves unable to develop because of the economy, so the units get shut down, the patients 'moved on' and the buildings sit vacant.

Like the auditors who are paid to assess schools, NHS and the rest so that everyone is happy that everything has been measured and accounted for.

Then, just occasionally someone says " oh s..t, we're measuring the wrong thing ! "

Sorry Friday rant has come early...

[ian]

Its just that, at the moment we seem to be scrutinising the relatively unimportant things in a holier-than-thou way, rather than really getting at the difficult issues.

But these 'unimportant' things are the embodiment of the waste, greed, and celebrity that has driven the country to the place it is now.

[Dazza30]

it's nice to actually watch 30 minutes or 60 minutes of something straight through instead of it start and then 4 minutes in it takes a frickin break so if I have to pay for the bbc to be able to do that then I'm happy to just for a break from the damn adverts

Ive known programmes on Sky 1 go straight to the break after the opening credits.
Do you think sky got worse when it had to find alternative revenue to replace pay per view premiership football?

[Lawcom]

I was well in to the BBC until I worked for them.. nothing wrong with the talent, but on the project I was working on they litterly blew £50 million on a site then had to close it down as it was not within their remit.. !!!!

How dumb is that ... 50,000,000 of our money swept under the carpet...

[Azam.net]

The BBC is far from perfect, but it is a darn site better than what you get on Sky. I used to conduct surveys for a television company and would be shocked at how many low income people would gleefully pay £500.00+ a year for low-grade Sky premium channels which had adverts every 10 minutes.

I am always surprised when people complain about paying 39p a day, less than a fifth of the cost of one pint of beer, for the BBC which provides about ten high-quality ad-free television channels, dozens of ad-free radio stations, the BBC iPlayer, thousands of ad-free webpages with top notch original content, an orchestra, masses of educational material, advice helplines, countless free and subsidised events, and tons more stuff.

I can't stand watching commercial TV or listening to commercial radio with adverts every 10 minutes and their obsession with throwing together cheap programmes to cater for the lowest common denominator.

[Darren M]

I hate the fact that we're paying for the BBC websites that actually compete with our own. Not just their main site, but commercial sites like LonelyPlanet.com etc. Being backed by the BBC, these commercial sites don't follow the same economic rules as other sites. Then there's the BBC World service which isn't funded by the licence fee, but we're still paying for it through our taxes and it continues to expand eg. BBC Arabic Television.

If they do get rid of the TV licence fee, the BBC would cease to exist. How would they ever generate £3bn+ in advertising revenue?

[trevHCS]

What would be fairer is if people who wanted the BBC paid for it but those who didn't weren't paying (encrypt the signal like Sky / some freeview). It's the fact that you've got to pay for it even if you own a B&W TV which is never switched on which baffles me. I'm sure they could also do a version where they had adverts freely available, and then the subscription version on Freeview / Sky or whatever. Topup-TV do it with Freeview. Or basically have "Dave" for the freebie and BBC for the non-freebie versions.

Blocking out anyone from outside the UK would be good from using the watch / listening services. In theory some is, but there's plenty on Radio 2 of people emailing from exotic parts of the world who are listening in and thus using bandwidth.

Would be interesting to know how much money they make from selling programmes abroad. Eg: PBS in the US plays a lot of BBC reruns and probably more than the BBC. Couldn't they expand that one and thus use the money from that a bit more wisely?

I'm not so worried about the monthly fee, it's the way they seem to think they've got a god-given right to it and not at all convinced they are that accountable. There's the BBC trust, but they're most likely a bunch of old Etonians just like the politicians and BBC execs.

Bring back David Attenbourgh to run it.


With regards the splitting of the fee - eak no. If they can do that then just stop charging so much. Rest of them have adverts to pay for their services which is the only reason we're paying for the BBC in the first place.

Trev