BBC licence fee should be scrapped, says thinktank - The Guardian

StevieJ

RJP33 wrote: »

Doesn't ITV get a small % of the license fee anyway?

I'm amazed by the number of people who'd gladly scrap one of our best cultural institutions so that we can all watch more adverts on low quality programmes.

They prefer the news to be controlled by someone like Murdoch

lynzpower

If the BBC was scrapped, what future for the likes of the Today programme or Newsnight? Is there any hard hitting political investigation on the commercial channels?

StevieJ

lynzpower wrote: »

If the BBC was scrapped, what future for the likes of the Today programme or Newsnight? Is there any hard hitting political investigation on the commercial channels?

The Commercial channels news output would probably shift more to the right with no competition from the real news at the BBC :eek: Would suit the ConDems though, oh but according to Dan it is a State mouthpiece anyway.

Dan:_4

lynzpower wrote: »

If the BBC was scrapped, what future for the likes of the Today programme or Newsnight? Is there any hard hitting political investigation on the commercial channels?

The BBC will not be scrapped, the programmes will remain but you will have a choice if you want to subscribe to the services.

StevieJ

Dan: wrote: »

The BBC will not be scrapped, the programmes will remain but you will have a choice if you want to subscribe to the services.

Subscription = less viewers = lower quality = even less subcribers = dumbing down of service to attract more = even less subscribers = Down the plughole. Unfortunately Sky have already cornered the market in crap TV.

Dan:_4

StevieJ wrote: »

Subscription = less viewers = lower quality = even less subcribers = dumbing down of service to attract more = even less subscribers = Down the plughole. Unfortunately Sky have already cornered the market in crap TV.

If everyone loves the BBC so much they will have no problem in subscribers. The BBC has some of the most successful programs in the world, the worldwide sales of BBC programs could easily fund the BBC without a TV licence tax.

chucky

tincans wrote: »

It's that heady mix of looney libertarians and Daily Mail readers who think the BBC is full of liberals, leftists, feminists and immigrants.

the paranoid [STRIKE]A.Beaver[/STRIKE] A.Badger is checking right now for the reds under the bed... :eek:

Generali

The BBC certainly promotes a soft-left political view. That's not necessarily a bad thing as it chimes with the majority political view in the UK. Most people in the UK seem to want a welfare state of some sort, state provision of health and education for all that want it, state support for the arts and sport, state intervention in markets to resolve things other than market failure and tons of other things.

Those aren't my political views at all, far from it in fact, but it seems reasonable to me that a national broadcaster reflects the views of the nation or nations to which it broadcasts.

StevieJ

Ah I understand Badger now, I didn't realise that supporting the NHS, for example, was tantamount to Loony,Lefty thinking, apologies Badger

FTBFun

Generali wrote: »

The BBC certainly promotes a soft-left political view. That's not necessarily a bad thing as it chimes with the majority political view in the UK. Most people in the UK seem to want a welfare state of some sort, state provision of health and education for all that want it, state support for the arts and sport, state intervention in markets to resolve things other than market failure and tons of other things.

Those aren't my political views at all, far from it in fact, but it seems reasonable to me that a national broadcaster reflects the views of the nation or nations to which it broadcasts.

Good post.

BTW You're in Australia aren't you? From what I remember from my time there a few years ago there is no real state broadcaster to speak of (except a small one that shows really niche shows plus some football) plus a ton of commercial shows that mainly show reality TV programmes or US imports that are so bad even Channel Five wouldn't show them in their graveyard shift.

I'd be worried that UK television would go more down that route were the licence fee to be scrapped.