'Do you believe in the BBC licence fee?' poll discussion

rapido

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its_me_again

The BBC should be funded by other means and not through the licence fee, this is an outdated way of allowing themselves to grab huge salaries at our expence.
The rest of the world can watch it free!!!, so why just tax the British public?:mad:

cndawes

anyone who's saying they don't like the licence fee needs to go to America and try to watch TV ... that's what we'll end up getting ...

programme starts - you see title
cut to ads
back to programme to see names of stars
cut to ads
back to programme for a few mins
cut to ads
etc etc
until just before credits
cut to ads
show credits
cut to ads

i'd hate TV to be like that ...

AgarM

The BBC in the UK is part of BBC worldwide and UKTV, this company owns 9 channels on the SKY/Cable networks which all show old BBC programmes and all advertise which makes the BBC alot of money.

BBC UK also obtian money from sales of programmes to other countries and sales of merchandise. The licence fee is a dated tax which was brought in to fund the BBC when it was only the BBC on air.

With the wide variety of choice in medium we have which we pay for additionally the BBC should move with the times, try product placement which they already do but dont charge for, as on top gear where there was ahuge shot of Costa Coffee, Jaffa Cakes, Quavers, amongst others.

Why have a licence to watch TV, you need a licence to drive, operated heavy machinery, own a gun all valid licences but not to watch tv.

cndawes

its_me_again wrote: »

The BBC should be funded by other means and not through the licence fee, this is an outdated way of allowing themselves to grab huge salaries at our expence.
The rest of the world can watch it free!!!, so why just tax the British public?:mad:

A lot of the rest of the world do pay for their TV ... it's not just the British and if you look at the BBC site (bbc website address / aboutthebbc / licencefee / (sorry for no link - seems to be a forum rule for newbies!) you'll see a graph showing that we are by no means the most expensive ...

Paul_Herring

AgarM wrote: »

The BBC in the UK is part of BBC worldwide

You have that the wrong way round:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Worldwide

BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995.

payitforwardeddie_2

lewist wrote: »

I'm happy to pay the licence fee to be free of ads. They destroy programmes on other channels. Not everything on the BBC is to my taste, and some of it is awful, but the documentaries on BBC 2 & 4 are well worth paying for. The website is also outstanding. Leave it alone!

I agree. All the commercial TV channels have lined up their advertising breaks with little regard to the programme content.
We now have 20 minutes of Ads in every hour and, with Sky, we have to pay a subscription too, which is much higher than the licence fee. I hate adverts.

arefem

The reason ITV et al are having trouble with advertising revenue is the proliferation of terrestrial and satellite channels which have spread advertising budgets too thin. Regardless of what you think about the Beeb's output, forcing them to be funded by advertising would have a negative effect on their quality of programming and relative independence, and spread that budget even thinner. For instance, if a consumer program like Watchdog were to carry a negative article about a major advertiser, the advertiser may well decide to place their advertising elsewhere. Perhaps an alternative would be to place a levy on the advertising revenue received by the commercial channels, in place of the licence fee. That way the more successful a channel becomes, the more the BBC would get, thereby maintaining their independence.

johnsteatham

i believe that the licence fee should be cut by the 25% the government say should be found for savings. If we pay less, then the BBC will have to make the savings!

kcm_2

cndawes wrote: »

anyone who's saying they don't like the licence fee needs to go to America and try to watch TV ... that's what we'll end up getting ...

programme starts - you see title
cut to ads
back to programme to see names of stars
cut to ads
back to programme for a few mins
cut to ads
etc etc
until just before credits
cut to ads
show credits
cut to ads

i'd hate TV to be like that ...

I applaud you my friend! I don't think some people realise how things could be without the good old bbc - love or hate it.

Becareful what you guys wish for.

And no - Paul_Herring please seriously is there an argument here that commercial advertising is the same as letting us know what other programmes are on later that day on the bbc???? You're arguing alone there, it's too daft an argument to bother replying to! No disrespect but the two are worlds apart!!

I'd rather pay more to not have my young children advertised at constantly. Cbeebies and CBBC are legends in my eyes for not having ads getting into my kids heads and fill them with how they 'should' be to ensure advertisers get rich at the expense of them.