This was started by John whittingdale the former culture secretary, who is rampantly anti BBC and very pro Rupert Murdoch.
He would love to dismantle the BBC.

Currently you have to pay for a TV licence, but even if you don't watch, read or listen to any BBC content you get a real benefit from the BBC being there.
For starters there is a very good return on money invested in the BBC, additionally it has a profound effect on the quality of output on other channels by simply being there producing a certain quality of output.
If it wasn't there C4 and itv would not need to spend much on programming to gain market share and we would get lots of cheap output and a hell of a lot more USA imports.
If you have spent much time watching TV in places like Australia or France then I think that's the way we would be heading.

Whittingdale thinks that without the BBC then itv would become the next HBO. I think the reality is that itv would become ITV2.