the BBC isn't it time we just got shot of it?

[southeastastra]

it's very middle class blue peter biased in my view

not to mention the cover ups of late

i know that the majority wouldn't agree but a subscription service for radio 4 etc would ensure that's continuity

[EauRouge]

I don't get a lot of time to watch TV but when I do it's almost exclusively BBC channels. Only Connect, HIGNFY, Pointless, QT, documentaries and yes, Top Gear and the F1 coverage. Not to mention Cbeebies, which DD1 loves.

I would probably stop watching TV altogether without the beeb or just stick to DVDs because adverts are migraine-inducing, all those flashing images and shouting (I know I sound like my dad, but he is right ). There's some good stuff on channel 4 sometimes but ITV is just utter crap. Is channel 5 still going?

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

Volley, it doesn't really work like that.

Kudos the production company makes Spooks. Before they make it, they might take the concept round to several broadcasters, DVD publishers etc. They will sell various rights in advance to cover the production costs, often to more than one company to spread the costs. So the BBC may not get much or any of the profits from, say, DVD sales of Spooks as they need to be split between the rights holder and the production company

[GalaxyDefender]

YABU.
People are letting themselves get whipped up into hysteria over the JS thing. Yes, what he did was terrible. But to advocate getting rid of a good service (and it IS a good service, even if you personally don't like it) because of something that happened decades ago and is extremely unlikely to happen again is madness.

[marshmallowpies]

TheDoctrine yes good point about DVD rights - I don't think the BBC even got the rights to repeat Spooks, and whilst I don't want box sets gathering dust in my house I'd love to watch the early series again. Maybe they'll be on Netflix someday. It always annoys me in particular when a DVD is out before the series has ended!

merrymouse also has a good point - realistically, the way we watch TV is changing and in 15 or 20 years time I doubt the BBC will exist in the way it does now (but then neither will Sky, or broadsheet newspapers). I just hope some ad-free TV and radio will still be available somehow...

[EasyFromNowOn]

And, Volley for DVD sales where the rights are owned by the BBC, the sales are via BBC WorldWide, and the profits go back into the BBC to fund further programming. If the BBC did not get funding from Worldwide as well, the licence fee would need to be higher than it is for the same level of programming, or the BBC would need to do less.

[ShipwreckedAndComatose]

I am happy to pay the licence fee...there are so many decent quality programmes made that we would lose if tv went totally commercial.

It's one of the things about GB that I am most proud of.

[AuntieMaggie]

They do fantastic dramas such as Hunted which are better than a lot of films imo.

To add to those already mentioned:
Dr who
torchwood
casualty
silent witness
apprentice
watchdog
have i got news for you
graham norton
live at the apollo

to name a few...

[Wilding]

Another one here who'd happily pay the licence fee just for Radio 4

I hardly ever watch TV but when I do it's always the BBC. Of course there are some programmes that are utter shite but compared to the sort of dross that's on ITV the BBC is amazing. And their flagship programmes - the big dramas, the documentaries - are always fantastic.

[ShipwreckedAndComatose]

Am I the only one to see the irony of a previous poster complaining about the quality of Eastenders by describing it as 'Jeremy Kyle like'.?

[LtEveDallas]

The programmes I am watching at the moment (not on BBC) are:

Australian Masterchef on Watch
The Walking Dead on FX
The Mentalist on 5
Jungle Gold on Discovery
QI on Dave
The Simpsons on 4 and Sky 1
The Middle on Sky 1

Currently on Season Break, but watched otherwise:

NCIS on FX
NCIS LA on Sky 1
Hawaii 5-O on Sky 1
Bones on Sky 1
Rizzoli & Isles on Alibi
Castle on Alibi or 5
CSIs (LV and NY) 5 or Fiver
Criminal Minds on Sky 1

DD watches The Middle, The Simpsons, Cartoonito and Boomerang (and whatever channel she can get re-runs of Mr Bean!). DH watches what I watch but also Sports on a weekend and weird Discovery stuff during the day.

Nothing I'm watching should mean that I pay the Licence Fee. Some people prefer their children to watch CBeebies/CBBC to cut out the adverts and that I understand, but those people should pay for the priviledge (and do). I don't see why those of us that don't care should pay?

When we lived overseas we paid for sat/cable of whatever country it was. MyVision from Cytanet in Cyprus was excellent - and a darn sight better than BFBS which was bloody wall to wall soaps. In Germany and Norway it was easy to get Sky.

I must admit I don't like the snobbery that is shown when people say they don't watch BBC. All TV is dross, we only watch it because it is there - BBC or Commercial. If we didn't have TV we'd find something else to do.

[ConferencePear]

Abolish the BBC ? I think anyone who suggests this has never experienced TV in other countries. Would they really prefer TV as in the USA where they can't really report the news impartially because of the sponsors, or is largely state-controlled as in France, or Berlusconi controlled in Italy ?
The BBC may need reform, but abolition ?
They can't be serious.

[MissWooWoo]

I'm with Conference

BBC 4 is worth the licence fee alone.

[JugglingWithPossibilities]

I love the BBC !
CBBC and CBeebies alone have been life savers and are fab
I love my telly and so much of what I watch is on the Beeb - Michael Palin, and a good costume drama, interesting documentaries, Strictly Come Dancing, Radio 4.
You must be crazy (YABU) to think of getting rid of the whole BBC because of the horrible crimes of Jimmy Saville and mistakes made following this.
Putting things right and making sure it can't happen again (as far as possible) is surely a better way forward.

[Flatbread]

I have lived in many countries and find nothing special about BBC anymore. The golden days are over. The quality of news is terrible, other sources are far superior with better coverage.

In the US, I loved NPR, Jon Steward, Bill Maher et. al. None of these were funded by a tax-payer license.

The problem with BBC is that it is bloated with too many people lining their pockets. Why are we paying almost half a million to Ex DG who resigned and is not contractually due this? It shows the culture, money is no object when it cones to paying management. Yet they have been cutting budgets for documentaries. No wonder BBC has such average to poor quality programmes.

Kevin MacDonald, director of The Last King of Scotland said in an interview "Documentary making has become harder than ever. When I started doing documentaries in the early Nineties the budget for a Channel 4 documentary was £120,000 on average. These days if you had £120,000 for a documentary you would say that's unbelievable. Today, 18 years later, you are expected to make something for BBC4 on the same subject for £40,000, which is the equivalent of £20,000 back then."

Where is our license fee going? How can they pay £450k to a guy who resigned, and yet plead poverty in making programmes? They can, because they get £4 BILLION from us irrespective of the mediocre crap they churn out.

[JeffTheGodOfBiscuits]

Go live abroad, watch their incredibly awful TV then reconsider whether you think the BBC is quality broadcasting.

You'll find it is bloody amazing compared. In fact, just compare it to ITV.

[UrbanSpaceManBaby]

YABU

Ask your self why commercial organistions are so keen to see the back of the BBC, you may not directly watch their programmes but it's existence acts as a brake upon the comeercial world. Without the BBC you would probably see:

More adverts, The US has them before/after the credits, ten minutes in, then another set...
Sky subscriptions would dramatically increase.
Little new childrens programming, so heavily merchandising, limited brands.
Less UK tv, more stuff created for a 'global' audience, this without doubt would be inoffensive and bland.

[LtEveDallas]

Go live abroad, watch their incredibly awful TV then reconsider whether you think the BBC is quality broadcasting

I have, I did, and I don't think the BBC is quality broadcasting. Not any more.

[Flatbread]

BBC hardly spends money on quality programming. The big bucks go on dubious celebrities.

From a Guardian report:
The report shows that total BBC turnover topped £5bn for the first time last year, with revenues reaching £5.09bn in the year to 31 March 2012, up from £4.99bn. Of this £3.6bn came from the licence fee, with 25.7m households due to pay the £145.50 compulsory annual levy.

The media focus is on Jeremy Clarkson's pay as top BBC star, and that data is in the report too:
? Alan Hansen and Chris Evans are also likely to be on the top earning list, after the BBC confirmed that the combined pay of its stars earning £1m-plus a year fell to £9.7m from £14.7m a year ago
? One person ? speculatively identified as Jeremy Paxman ? earned between £500,000 and £750,000, taking home £823,000 in a bracket whose members last year shared £3.3m
? Between nine and 12 were paid between £500,000 and £750,000 with the total amounting to £6.01m, a group likely to include the outgoing Radio 1 breakfast presenter Chris Moyles

This group's combined pay is up from £4.08m last year, although that reflects BBC efforts to trim the amount it pays its best-known names by about 20% when deals come up as it contends with a flat licence fee.

Yet it has cut down budgets for BBC news and Radio4 and documentaries. Why on earth are the taxpayers paying millions to entertainers?

[Iggly]

YABU

I do not want a service like Sky thank you very much. You pay a fortune yet still have to put up with adverts left right and centre and the quality of programming is, to be blunt, shit.

I'm sure the argument for entertainers is that these are market rates etc etc.

flatbread, what do you propose?

[LtEveDallas]

Morning Flatbread - looks like we finally found a subject we agree on

I think people that want the BBC should pay for it on subscription.

I think the people that don't want the BBC should only be allowed to watch commercial TV.

How easy was that?

[forgetmenots]

Yabu. Don't want news to be bought by the highest bidder like in America. The papers have gone that way. If we lose the BBC then all the other broadcasters will be under far more financial pressure to bow to advertisers and companies. No thanks. and I love Sherlock

[MoreBeta]

Cut it back to BBC 1 and BBC 2 with Radio 1, 2, 3, 4. Make it just taxpayer funded with no licence fee and a strict public service and education role.

It has become a huge organisation that is far too diverse to manage effectively and needs a staff and revenue cut of at least 50%.

[ppeatfruit]

YABU BUT you have a point;IMO The beeb should change its whole management ethos; it does need a shake up in the RIGHT way though (far too many important programming content decisions are left to very young and inexperienced producers) .

There is too much running after the yoof listeners and viewers . When people grow up they want something intelligent to watch not just the dross that Sky et al give out. (though also Downton Abbey actually gave BBC a kick in the head) because Paradise is not quite in that league.

[BarbecuedBillygoats]

Spooks is on Netflix btw
All of it