£15 rise wanted, Government not happy. It’s about time the Corporation was partly funded by advertising.
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£15 rise wanted, Government not happy. It’s about time the Corporation was partly funded by advertising.
I've always thought they should just fund it through income tax. it would at least be progressive then
Since the fee was frozen, and pensioners given an exemption, the service has had to make huge cuts due to the drop in licence revenue. Its not surprising they want a relatively big increase. Either allow it or allow them to collect advertising revenue.
I think a significant increase could well lead to a lot of people re-evaluating the value they get from "live" tv as opposed to streaming/catch-up services.
I'm happy to pay it as I think it's good value for money. Just this weekend we've watched Have I got News for you, Match of the Day (1 and 2), Planet Earth 3, Doctor Who, listened to some music on BBC Sounds and read numerous News and Sport stories on the website.
If we to rely just on Streamers we wouldn't have anywhere near as much local news and sport coverage.
People can re-evaluate all they like, but these are the facts regarding annual costs of the licence and the most popular streaming services. With all that you get from the BBC my view is it's worth every penny.
Sky (Bloody everything) £948
Sky (Basic Package) £228
Netflix £216
BBC £159 (Proposed increase to £174)
Disney £109
Apple TV £108
Prime Video £95
Paramount + £83
ITV X £60
It seems it's the right are the ones who are most against the licence as long as it gets rid of Lineker and the rest of his woke ilk. Isn't it Murdoch and his rags that seem to shout the loudest about abolishing the licence fee? Wonder why
The BBC is far from perfect
I wish it had alternatives to the current radio 5 or radio 4 24 hour radio for example
But it's advert free and if it disappears then we will be left with utter rubbish
The BBC is far from perfect
I wish it had alternatives to the current radio 5 or radio 4 24 hour radio for example
But it's advert free and if it disappears then we will be left with utter rubbish
What the BBC needs to do is pull back on the wages it pays which don't do it any favours
I quite like the bbc, no policical issue, don’t really care about that. Other than with Sky which is usually fixed contract all the rest you can opt in and out of with a click of a button. Other than my wife watching strictly we very rarely, if ever watch BBC so £174 is expensive. I simple opt in option for the bbc would solve any issues.
Funding it with advertising would mean the existing budgets of advertisers being stretched even more thinly, so less money for ITV, C4, C5, Sky etc and fewer new programmes being made.
[QUOTE=cantonboy;5472856]You have to be over75 to get it free, not just of pension age.[/
Radio 4 is worth the licence fee on its own.
It has educated me about astronomy, history, biology, philosophy, geography, language, sociology, the world at large and a lot else.
The Infinite Monkey Cage, In The Psychiatrist's Chair, In Our Time, From Our Own Correspondent, Word Of Mouth, Thinking Allowed, The Moral Maze, The Life Scientific, The Re-union, All In The Mind, File on 4, Great Lives and More or Less are just some of the excellent programmes that have helped in the field of erudition of this humble soul.
And then there's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, of course!
Easy fix:
1 - Scrap the license fee
2 - Take the money out of general taxation - last year license fee raised £3.8 billion this is 0.3% of government expenditure annually.
3 - Ring-fence this funding (e.g. 25 years) fix it to inflation, cross-partisan agreement with an independent financial regulator. Now the BBC can reap the benefits of long term certainty and budget planning, outside of party politics.
4 - BBC also benefits from saving a fair bit of its budget in enforcing, administrating and processing the license fee every year for millions of people.
5 - Continue making exceptional world class content in peace.
Its not 1923 anymore, the world has moved on, and habits are changing
Up to 10 years ago Newsnight was compulsory viewing for me, showered during the news at 10, into bed to watch Newsnight with my Ovaltine. Ever since streaming my routine has gone to pot, but so have Newsnight viewing figures.
Do the BBC have to pay top dollar for the six nations & MoTD ? Does it need four channels and a streaming platform? Should it even be in competition with commercial TV for "talent". Discover someone then if commercial TV want them, let them take them and find the next big thing.
A lot of BBC programmes make money, but the Saturday night fight with ITV needs to stop, the only winner is "the talent". We do need the BBC, but not like the last 100 years, adapt or die and IMO £2 a week is enough when you have to pay when you compare that to the other choices its great value, but thats because not everyone has to pay for Sky or streaming services.
I have always had a licence, and whilst its enforced always will have, however, I begrudge giving that organisation 1 penny, the moment the BBC becomes non essential to watch a TV, it will be ditched.