Why is everyone so angry at the BBC?

[NameWithChange]

Seriously don't get it?

It was the government that said they would stop the Over 75 subsidy for BBC from 2020.

20% of their income is a pretty hefty sum of money to expect any business to suddenly come up with. Why is no one mad with the Government?

I’m sick and tired of this country paying huge sums of money to people just because they are old.

Do we? I am actually quite disgusted with the way the UK treats its elderly. I have relatives in other countries and they are treated with way more love, care and respect. Often they live with their families.

There are some wealthy pensioners in their 70's living it up on cruises and swigging Prosecco every night but many more live alone, are in poor health and have no money. Even from a cynical POV looking after the elderly is actually a good investment because it is our elderly who are contributing to the massive social care and NHS bills that we are struggling with.

My MIL is from a European med country. She gets treated very nicely by her govt. She even gets a free one week holiday paid for. Back in the UK many of our elderly fought in WW2, were on rations for 10 years afterwards, had crap manual jobs as they were not able to be upwardly social mobile, worked really hard, bought houses, paid taxes from 16 till retirement. We should be looking after them and a free TV license is nothing.

We are so disrespectful to these people. This is why I am already making plans to leave here when my DC finish Uni. Who would want to be a pensioner here. Its shit.

The bbc is so fucking wasteful with money. My ex is an actor. He had a ridiculously small part (three lines) on a small programme for which he was very generously paid for, provided with his own trailer and a taxi provided to take him to the set about 200 yards down the road.

The bbc doesn’t know the value of money at all. They’ve been so used to the legally enforced tax income and it was incredibly short sighted of them to negotiate the loss of the governments sub for the over 75s.

The bbc put themselves in this position. They deserve the criticism they are receiving

The BBC is indeed wasteful. Earlier this week, a team was sent abroad to comment on the damage that single use plastic has done to the environment. How much would that cost and surely the point can be made without such expense. Not to mention the environmental impact, which is what they were reporting on.

Of course those who can afford it should pay. My concern is that it’s the thin end of the wedge and that the next thing will be the removal of bus passes etc. I think that might have the effect of forcing people who really shouldn’t, into continuing to drive.

Oh their handwringing on the environment is hypocritical Foxy. Same as Sky though which is like it's commercial twin tbh: same stories, same viewpoint day in, day out.

Tv licence needs to be scrapped completely and it needs to be a more subscription based.
Tv has moved on and the way they charge for it should do too.

I wouldn't have agreed 5 years ago Iwant but I do now.

To be fair though the tv licence doesn't cost a lot (and we're a working class min wage family) and the pensioners that are the poorest will still get it anyway. It's a non issue!! Also don't forget a tv licence is only for the bbc channels. They will still be able to watch the millions of other channels or buy a licence.

If you watch any terrestrial TV you have to pay the license fee.

Back in the UK many of our elderly fought in WW2

If you were 18 in 1945 then you're 92, not 75. We seem to have this cultural idea that we should be extra nice (and also super patronising) to anyone over about 60 because they 'fought in the war' - I'm not sure if it's a cultural hang up or just innumeracy.

I've only seen people comment on this so called cultural idea in the negative.
Like in the New Statesman today.

It isn't the BBC that caused this 'cost' for over 75s. Why are people misunderstanding this????

Because the BBC, like all public sector organisations, will always cut services before it cuts its own bureaucracy.

The Government deliberately put the BBC in a very difficult position by dumping the cost of free TV licenses for the over 75s onto them. The compromise that they have come up with is not unreasonable, but they should have put their house in order by cutting £multi-million salaries and bureaucracy first.

Can't speak for others, but my fury (or should that be fuming ) is centred around the fact that the BBC has simply become the publicity machine for Brexit and the Tories. Brexiteers are allowed to spout all sorts of nonsense without challenge, whereas anyone who has a contrary view is ignored, or grilled to carbon.

Hardly representative of what is journalistically a 50/50 split.

The BBC used to be special, and worth saving - but not anymore.

The amount of resources it uses to big itself and it's content up is no different to any other commercial broadcaster.

So it it want to become the UK version of Fox News, let it, and let's stop paying a tax to fund it. It won't be a case of "we'll miss it when it's gone". I miss it already.

Also don't forget a tv licence is only for the bbc channels
Actually not the case. If you watch any tv channel you need a licence. Even if you only watch Channel 4, for example, you still have to pay.

Poorer pensioners can still get it. I don't get what the fuss is about.

So ..

Its news programmes do not present the unbiased facts but spew out left wing opinions

Yet also

BBC has simply become the publicity machine for Brexit and the Tories. Brexiteers are allowed to spout all sorts of nonsense without challenge

The BBC can't win. And having lived overseas in countries where there isn't a subsidised and (relatively) unbiased press, I can guarantee that whatever replaced the BBC would be far worse.

It's ridiculous that it was free in the first place for over 75s, it should be means tested across the board.

DP and I are pension age, we are fine with paying for a licence. Overall I think the BBC is fantastic. As long as we don't lose free travel, I'll be happy!

My gran gets a free TV licence and a free bus pass ... she’s also in the last twenty years been to Malta , Austria , Africa , India , round the world cruise , river Rhine , and Australia twice ... she’s not ill thankfully , she leads a very full life . Has Sky Q, iPad , posh phone , 3 bed detached with huge garden and a car ... she doesn’t pay .

Dsis on the other hand , 25 , severe disabilities , lives in rented accommodation , lives off ESA and lower rates of PIP and housing benefit . She has to pay for TV licence , her care, transport , etc etc . She has no savings , will never own a house , will likely never be employed .

As much as I love my Gran I do feel it should be means tested - across all ages .

I would like to ask who really watches the BBC everyday?

I watch their nature programs. And the odd 8 part series like Poldark, but then why can't I subscribe since I do not watch anything else?

Even my mum has given up on Eastenders. And she watched relgiously since the first episode.

I watch a lot of American dramas. At one time the BBC were unique for the quality of their production, especially their historical dramas, but things like The Crown, The Tudors, Chernobyl, Rome etc really have shown that great production is no longer solely their preserve.

Notice how the American companies are recruiting loads of British actors that were nurtured by the BBC to give their dramas that sense of authenticity.

So yeah. It's time they turned to advertising.

Here's how it goes:

Not so long ago, a cheap portable TV cost £149 and the TV licence was £49. Then, twenty years later, these figures were reversed.

At a time when pension increases were linked to prices but not wages, there were stories in the papers about elderly TV Licence 'martyrs' who said they would go to prison rather than pay.

All bad publicity for Gordon Brown who announced free licences for over 75s.

Under the Tories, the cuts agenda piled extra burdens onto the TV Licence, Channel 4 and Broadband rollout, and it was decided that the free licences would also be down to the Beeb to pick up the tab.

Beeb said it wasn't their job to do this, Treasury refused to take the bill back, much arguing in private and so we are now where we are.

And cue the press and false lying headlines about the BBC cutting the free licences, not the Govt cutting them and the BBC declining to continue with a social policy that is not their function.

There wouldn't be such disgust if presenter salaries had been cut. That is required.
The argument about talent going elsewhere is nonsense. Where are they going to go? There are few channels and few presenter roles. But copious amount of talent and younger presenters ready to come up the ranks who would be thrilled to earn £100,000 in their dream job with all the perks (paid event launches/speaker circuit/books/celebrity product endorsement).
Cut the salaries BBC. Today's pensioners have been paying a licence fee and supporting you for years.

I think they should have said that going forward nobody over 75 would get it. It's mean to take it away from current recipients, especially those over 90. But in principle I don't see why you should get it free at 75. 75 isn't that old these days. 90 is.

As for the BBC being right wing - really? I am pretty centre in my politics but I think the BBC is pretty lefty liberal in its views.

However, I do agree QT and the like has been filled with Brexiteers and Farage ad nauseum...but I wonder if they have been partly toeing the party line because they know a Tory government wants to remove the licence fee. In which case perhaps a different funding model is needed if they don't feel independent.

There aren't many men/women left who fought in WW2, don't know what all the fuss is about the poorest pensioners will still get there tv licence free,
@NasiGoreng i dont think pensioner's in this country get a very bad deal, the poorest will still get a tv licence, pensioners get free bus passes regardless of there income, cheap haircuts on certain day's regardless of there income, free dental care regardless of there income and winter fuel allowance regardless of income, i know many pensioner's who say they've never been so well off, don't know any who have had to use a foodbank, i watched a programme not so long ago about british people who retired to Spain guess what as soon as they start to have a few health problem's they come back to the UK for the free NHS, good luck where ever you choose to live.