to not want cuts to the BBC?

[Mintyy]

Can anyone explain to me how cutting the BBC massively will actually improve my life?

I hardly watch tv. I do listen to a lot of radio. But I fervently hope the BBC isn't going to change too much.

It is something that the rest of the world envies us for and I fear it may be one of those things we don't miss until it has gone.

So when the licence fee is abolished and everything is subscription based, which service will offer a £12 per month service? None of them, they'll all be higher. That won't help the hard up families will it? I still maintain the BBC is the best value nightly entertainment anyone is likely to get in this lifetime.

freeview is free and Netflix half the price of the licence fee. Scramble my BBC channels, let me not pay the fee and I'd be better off, happy watching decent entertainment and we'd be paying for what we use.

BBC puts £233/yr into Freeview. That's £9/household. So if you use Freeview, you are using the BBC.

£233 million

Freeview is free.
Netflix a few of my dd's friends share the sub. They pay £2 a month. Net £10 and that's it.
For their £12 a month they get greater choice and access to YouTube, podcasts, and of course the net in general where you have far superior exposure to educational material than a couple of channels that airs the occasional educational program.

I don't even agree with it getting funded from taxes. How would that work? An increase would be needed. Scramble and subscription is the most fairest option. It's publicly funded and this is what the public want. A poll was carried out and roughly 70% of the public want the license stopped. There are
Countless petitions asking for it to stop. There's at least one Twitter campaign. Some mp's want an end to it.
The Magistrates association wants an end to it because it disproportionatly criminalizes the poor.
In 2012 alone, 3000 people a week appeared in court. 50 of those ended up in prison. How the hell is that right? There are criminals, real criminals who beat people up who don't end up in court.. Then the cost and the time wasted in court.

Decriminalize and scramble.

The BBC spends £233 million a year on ensuring ITS services are available freely through the set-top boxes and digital platforms,

They spend the money each year to fund their services as said in the link you provided. I don't watch/use BBC services. so no I'm not using the BBC by having freeview.

Does anyone besides BBC fund Freeview (I can't find an answer).

If you use Freeview you are using the BBC. Even if you don't watch BBC channels there (or ever look at the BBC website or listen to the radio,etc), you are benefiting from the license fee.

The government wishes to reduce the BBC's influence because it does not dance to their tune or at least not criticise them. Almost all of the print media and other tv stations are pro-Tory or at least neutral.

Oh, found it, ITV, Ch4, Sky & a few other partners are in there as Freeview partners. Bet Beeb pays lion's share, though.

Nope I'm using itv, ch 4 etc who pay in vast amounts of money. I use their services not the BBC. I'd happily pay towards the channels I use, that I enjoy etc. I find the BBC outdated, the programmes are dull and not to my taste at all, so no I don't wish to pay. My dm watches BBC lots anc listens to the radio, but even she finds the programmes lacking and "a little bit dated".

I watch BBC4 late on a Friday night for the excellent music documentaries. NI could probably find them on YouTube I suppose.There is no other live tv I watch regularly, and I never watch other BBC channels. The DCs like Sky, but they pay for it. So I won't miss the BBC but I don't think it'll be as easy as "yay no licence fee", we'll pay for the demise in some way or other

Beeb pay 20% to air their channels for all freeview platforms such as youview which is now a subscription and freesat. They will reduce their funding to youview to co fund the new freeview plus/extra of whatever it is called.

It os quite possible to have freeview and still not watch the beeb channels. There are still parts of the country that still cannot get beeb channels on the boxes. But still have to pay for the license. Shocking.

Regardless of the platform, all networks make a contribution.

So the license stays. Nothing changes until 2017 when the freeze ends and the cost shoots up. More and more people move over to on demand services like Netflix etc and ditch the TV. Even sky are seeing this in the horizon and offer nowtv. Now none of this is live TV. None of these services require a license. Beeb looses revenue... This is why they have to look at their own funding and the supporters have to acknowledge that to save this great institution that offers award winning programming. And a wealth of educational programs. And the excellent range of sports. The current funding has to change like it or not.

I just filled that form in saying I don't use their services.

Still get letters claiming they're going to send someone round.

They can have a look from the doorstep then sod off.

Greys you can go one further and take away their knocking by writing another letter revoking access. Google for the template. And again you don't have to provide your name in the letter.

So Ms Grinch you would pay towards the channels you enjoy (which you currently don't have to) but you don't want to pay the licence fee which currently does provide you with the channels you enjoy. I can sort of see the logic but it seems quite a bloody minded attitude to me.

I have option but to pay for the BBC that's my point. There should be a choice for people to pay for what they want/use. Some (the majority of my friends) would prefer just to stream online and use Netflix etc so pay for that (yet still have to pay for the BBC). I like channel 4 and itvbe etc and would pay for them if they choose that because I use that. It's about giving people the choice rather than threatening to fine or imprison them because they dot want to pay for eastenders etc.

Some (the majority of my friends) would prefer just to stream online and use Netflix etc so pay for that (yet still have to pay for the BBC).

The thing is, without a TV you don't have to pay, and it seems a bit far fetched to start prosecuting people who stream anything on-line on any device. The current licence fees arrangement can't sustainably support the BBC.

In discussions about funding public service broadcasting (for that is what it is) it always seems to be implicit that the UK is unusual in having a licence fee or something like it. It's not at all unusual in Europe - for example, in Germany, each household is charged €17.50 a month which at current exchange rates is £145 a year, believe it or not!

According to www.rundfunkbeitrag.de/informationen/buergerinnen_und_buerger/index_ger.html this funds two national TV stations (ARD and ZDF) and radio. All carry advertising. Although this stops at 8pm on the state-funded TV stations (which just means there is a solid 15 minutes of advertising from 7.45pm). I make this point simply to note that we're not unusually hard done by in the UK.

Nevertheless, people who don't use BBC services are subsidising those who do. Logically a subscription-based approach seems reasonable but I would worry about the following:

1. The cost will go up. Partly because the number of subscribers will go down, but also because as far as I can tell (the numbers aren't easy to get) Sky charges more per hour of original / commissioned content so this must be the true commercial rate and the one that will be passed on to subscribers.

1. Advertising will go up. Th government won't be able to dictate the service that is provided once they've withdrawn their funding, so they will advertise to make ends meet.

1. Diversity will go down. You'll only grow the subscriber base by focusing on the mainstream, so programmes and stations that cater to niche interests (so pretty much everything on BBC4, Radio 3, Radio 6, a fair chunk of BBC2, Gaelic language services etc) will fade away. The whole point of public service broadcasting is to provide what commercial broadcasters can't or won't. (And 6 Music is a very good example of something that is popular with its listeners and has no commercial value).

So I'm not averse to changing the funding model but I'd fear we'd lose the baby with the bath water, and there'd be no going back.

Only bbc chanel i like is bbc3 and that is going. I certainly wouldn't pay just for eastenders.
I don't watch tv on the internet.

I can't stand advertising - and we're heading towards all TV and radio being crammed with advertising. Being reminded every few minutes that our lives are only about other people getting money out of us. Advertisers want large audiences, so we will lose highbrow and niche interest programmes. Many many people will suffer real, lifetime reduction in quality of life if the government wrecks the BBC. And it's not about caring about the cost of the licence fee - this is not a government that cares about the wealth of the masses.
IT AIN'T BROKE SO DON'T PRETEND YOU'RE TRYING TO FIX IT

But it is "broke" - I notice not one of the BBC apologists has said why it was OK to give 900K + redundancy and a £3million pension to Mark Byford. Just in case anyone thinks big payoffs have ceased, they (BBC) have graciously agreed to limit them to £150K Just have a think about that - £150K.

We had an interesting contribution from a poster who said they're a 13 year veteran of the BBC who said that the bloated overpaid management remains.

the bloated overpaid management remains.

that clearly needs to change but that doesn't mean getting rid of the licence fee AND WHAT HAPPENS TO RADIO IF THAT HAPPENS.

I really don't know why the Tories are so scared of Murdoch, just tell him to do one and get on with running the country. The BBC is such a non-issue. Like trying to relegalise fox-hunting. Really? With all the other pressures we face?

OK. Well when I see anything to convince me that they have changed significantly, I might consider buying a licence.

Tories aren't scared of Murdoch, they love him. If they could, they would sell the BBC to him tomorrow. That doesn't mean the BBC doesn't have to do better and modernise.

BBC FOUR is very good ~ generally speaking, and the only one I watch. The other BBC channels have dumbed down considerably. I find their news reporting has a very pro Gov' bias .

DadfromUncle it was not right that Byford got that payoff, but you seem to have missed my post where I said that Tony Hall has capped payments so no one now gets a payoff of more than £150k. That's a pretty clear act of reform, I'd say.