To think the BBC really should be shut down?

[Loeri]

After the child abuse scandals, and now this where BBC execs have been given payments far beyond anything they were required to be given, isn't it time that the BBC was just shut down? It can't really be said that it makes the best TV in the world anymore, the best TV programmes come from the US and have done for well over a decade now. I just don't see the purpose of the BBC in 2013. It is arrogant, bloated beyond belief and seems only to exist to provide cushy jobs for the Guardian set.

[2rebecca]

Why is having both so awful? I don't understand your argument that just because other companies make some good programmes the BBC should be shut down, it's nonsenses. Are you in the pay of the Murdoch empire?

[GibberTheMonkey]

No one has mentioned Sherlock that I've seen)

[GibberTheMonkey]

Or koala has
Funny thing was I was about to mention the other three too

[reggiebean]

Ha KoalaFace! Reggaebear could be a name change if ever needed!!

Loeri Since you seem to be dead-set on discussing the merits of your favourite shows, let me spell it out for you. The BBC makes shows that people all over the world love. Just because it doesn't make all the shows in the world, it doesn't mean they're a waste of money.

Not to mention the news. If you only knew how lucky we have it here to have a people-funded news channel, rather than one owned by the government.

I'll say it again: YABVU.

[KoalaFace]

Well Monkeys and Koalas are very intelligent!

[friday16]

"the problem is that we have to stick with our "American rubbish" AND pay for the BBC"

You don't. If you restrict your viewing to DVD boxsets, Netflix and iPlayer/4OD/etc, then you don't need a TV license. You don't need a TV license for the radio (obviously). There might be a discussion to be had about receiving radio stations on a TV without having a license, if that matters to you (I have a radio radio in every room, so it doesn't).

I'm considering stopping having a license, because I so rarely watch "live" TV because iPlayer has the advantage of not containing loads of trails.

Of the live stuff, the BBC mainstream news is unwatchably trivial (mostly "there has been a global nuclear holocaust: we asked some shoppers in Peckham for their opinion") and whatever News24 is called this week is little better. Parliament is mostly available directly from parliamentTV. The only other thing we've sometimes watched live is sporting events, most of which have now gone to Sky (which we obviously don't have). I didn't drop it last year because of the Olympics, and I haven't quite got around to cancelling the DD this year. But I think the current imbroglio with their staff payoffs might be enough to tip me over. If only they could find one person to actually say "we messed up. we're sorry."

[ivykaty44]

reggie -but what are the merits? What shows do the BBC make that people all over the world love?

[LisaMed]

I mentioned Sherlock

If someone tried to force me to watch Game of Thrones I would use extreme violence to escape. I don't mind anyone else watching it.

I am not against a massive shake up and enquiry about what is going on in BBC Management. I am against the abolition of an institution that will cater for the minority interests which are not economic for commercial channels to cover. That's the point of the BBC.

[LittleBearPad]

mostly "there has been a global nuclear holocaust: we asked some shoppers in Peckham for their opinion"



But sadly often true

[LisaMed]

ivykaty44 Sherlock and Doctor Who are rated in lots of places. So is Fawlty Towers.

[friday16]

"Lucy Adams has resigned and is being required to work her notice period, so she works and gets paid."

What, roughly, is a discredited HR director who has been found to be unable to control her department's expenditure and has been heavily criticised (and, essentially, called a liar) by a parliamentary committee going to do all day? Make the coffee? Expensive coffee, at her hourly rate.

"arrative that every payoff was illegal and purely fuelled by wanting to toss licence fee money around like confetti."

So obviously, if it was agreed to be necessary for the reasons you outline, the BBC will be able to produce the people who made that decision and the minutes of the meetings at which it was agreed, yes? After all, if it was a risk-management issue, there'll have been a process for taking those decisions, and the process will have been followed? Perhaps Lucy could spend the next few months tracking those documents down that she was so unfortunately unable to produce for the select committee?

As I say, I'm looking forward to Monday. We'll see competent, efficient Lucy producing all the documents that show good governance was in place, and we'll see honest, straightforward Mark showing just how well the BBC was run while he was DG. And then they'll go off and count our their money.

[KoalaFace]

Yeah you did Lisa I noticed because everyone else was ignoring our good sense!

IvyKaty a few of us have mentioned shows like Sherlock, Luther, Dr Who and Merlin that Americans love an put on their TV channels. Social networking sites like Tumblr are teeming with American 'fandoms' who are obsessed with BBC made programmes and bemoan their own programming.

[reggiebean]

Top of the Lake
Dr. Who
Sherlock
Blackadder
Spooks
Absolutely Fabulous
Luther
Only Fools and Horses
Keeping Up Appearances
Planet Earth
Blue Planet
Louis Theroux

[Sparklymommy]

Yabvu for all the reasons others have stated. Strictly alone is worth the license fee! Sherlock is fantastic, dr who, great British bake off, these are off the top of my head stolen from previous posters.

[Loeri]

Some Americans might love the BBC but I'd like to see how keen they'd be if they were forced by threat of jail to pay a TV license fee. Just wouldn't fly over there.

[reggiebean]

I'd rather hear a shopper in Peckham's honest opinion than have government or religious propaganda shoved down my throat.

[KoalaFace]

Also programmes by people like Michael Palin and Louis Theroux as ReggaeBear ReggieBean said are BBC and loved all over.

[Loeri]

Reggiebean several of those programmes are years old. The BBC cannot keep justifying itself by referring back to programmes it made decades ago. It needs to make the best TV in the world NOW.

[ivykaty44]

you give a list of shows which countries have they been sold to?

I did mean programs from this last century, at least 5 of those you listed were not made in this century. Lets keep it up to date at least in the last 10 years

[LittleBearPad]

Blackadder
Spooks
Only Fools and Horses
Keeping Up Appearances

They aren't exactly current.

[KoalaFace]

Conveniently ignoring the current shows that I listed...

[reggiebean]

friday16 why are you okay watching the iplayer?? It's the same programming, funded by the same "corrupt" organisation... So you don't want to have to pay for the privilege of having the BBC, but you're quite happy using their services for free??

[Loeri]

Luther is hardly top drama. Comparing it to the Wire (which the star made his name in) is laughable. Why didn't the BBC make the Wire? They had Dominic West and Idris Elba.

[Loa]

I think the BBC has problems - both historical and current - and I think it quiet disturbing the number of prosecution for non payment of TV licences

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/1834706-TV-licence-offences-responsible-for-a-tenth-of-all-UK-court-cases

However Mitch Benn does sum up how I feel about it.

I've seen American news which is so poor it does not compare to BBC reporting. American TV was unbelievably full of adverts as well.

I also think these debates ignore the website and all the resources there and often the radio channels.

However the way we watch TV is changing - but then the BBC gave us the iPlayer and a very decent website - despite criticism of that from many MPs.

So while I love it and defend it ? it doesn?t mean I think it can?t be better managed or need to adapt and change and how it?s funded is worthy of debate.