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.

Nah, I just don't believe that all your 15 Facebook chums were being completely honest when they claimed to never watch the BBC.

Wow, how condescending. Firstly, these are my friends I know in real life. We are often too busy to meet up. So not 'Facebook chums'.

And yes me and my 'chums' must be lying because we don't watch what we consider to be crap

Just because you kiss it's arse doesn't mean the rest of us do.

In fact, I'll just add, lots of us do not have the ability to watch the BBC.

I literally cannot get the BBC on my TV. I don't know if I need an arial or something. I don't have a TV package. No Virgin, sky, whatever.

I have an Apple TV. I stream things from my macbook to my TV. This includes Netflix.

That's all I need and more and more people are doing this.

Pray tell whose arse am I'm kissing? I'm all ears!

I presume you think you're socking it to the man?

Oh Apple TV and Netflix, not socking it to the man in that case. Apologies.

You've self professed to LOVE the BBC and are willing to call people liars because you just can't comprehend people not watching your beloved BBC.

This is a little old but sums it up for me really:
^And the real problem they are storing up for the future is that the people they have to worry about most - the young people of today, who should be the licence fee payers of the future - use them less and less. Radio listening among young people is declining (so there ought to be less need to pay Radio One presenters so much money that they need to lose some of it in the motor trade) and their TV habits are completely different from yours or mine. The BBC's not a good thing because it provides lots of things you like. It's a good thing because it also provides lots of things that you don't like - one of those things may be BBC Three.

I don't buy the idea the BBC is at death's door. They're the only media organisation on earth that has a clue what its revenue is going to be next year and the year after that. I often feel that the people who are in the greatest hurry to "defend" the organisation put forward the least rational arguments for it. The real crisis for the BBC will be in ten years time when the generation who've grown up with You Tube have the licence fee explained to them. That's going to be a tough sell. Without BBC Three it may be just that bit tougher.^

You've self professed to LOVE the BBC and are willing to call people liars because you just can't comprehend people not watching your beloved BBC.

Fair enough. I do indeed think some of your 15 pals are fibbing.

Nationally, young people watching live TV at all is dropping. Only 50% of viewing is traditional media. No stats to how much of that is BBC time. So I don't think it's that hard to believe.

www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/02/young-people-live-tv-bbc-iplayer-youtube-netflix

YANBU

Once the BBC is destroyed by its competitors, they will increase their prices.

sooperdooper Just continually reiterating something is not the same as explaining, not does it make it true. I understand the point you are making, I disagree.

The BBC could stop me watching iPlayer catchup today if it wanted, just as it chose to make severance payments of nearly £3 million* above what people were contractually entitled to.

*Source National Audit Office

DadfromUncle, I think you might have me mixed up with another poster as I, like yourself do not pay the TV Licence. What illegal activity have I mentioned?

The million pound payoffs have been capped - under the current DG, no more than £150k. That's been in place for some time now.

The licence definitely needs to be extended to cover the iplayer/catch up - the amount of time the Beeb had to face up to this and not deal with it was just not good enough. To go to all the trouble of creating iplayer which is so much better than the itv/c4 equivalents (which crash all the time, I find), and not include it in the licence is so short sighted. This should have been dealt with years ago (would they listen to me? Would they heck!)

The one thing I agree with that should be cut back is the website - BBC News site is so full of gossipy lifestyle stuff now, I can see why magazine publishers are annoyed. They were made to cut back on a lot of their web content and now it's crept back in under the guise of news.

Apart from that, I'm BBC all the way, especially radio. For some reason radio commercials are my particular bugbear - I suppose because they interrupt the flow of the music - and are always so banal. 6 Music all the way for me!

Even beeb know many households don't watch their channels.
If they were certain that enough households watched they would happily scramble channels and iplayer.
Instead they come up with ridiculous ideas about why they cannot and in doing so insult the intelligence of people.
We all know if they wanted to they can scramble tv.
We all know that if they wanted to they could scramble iplayer.
They won't because they know from ratings, they aren't as popular.
If they want to save the beeb, then they have to come with something new. Otherwise in 20 years it will be a memory because people are getting wise and going with nowtv, Netflix, Amazon TV, Apple TV etc. these are becoming more
Popular because you have the great showings but without a ridiculous forced fee.

I don't get how "I don't watch it therefore I shouldn't pay for it" is an argument to get rid of the license fee.

There's this thing, the BBC. Some people use it, some people don't. Some people like it, some people don't. I don't like it or use it, so I shouldn't have to pay for it.

There's this thing, called public education. Some people use it, some people don't. Some people like it, some people don't. I don't like it or use it, so I shouldn't have to pay for it.

What's the difference?

You're comparing the BBC to education? Bit of a stretch, isn't it?

For what it's worth, the only live TV we watch is cbeebies. No, I don't think we're getting value for money. And I don't agree the BBC raises the bar on quality programming. Of all the excellent dramas we've watched lately (through Netflix, now TV etc) not one was made by the BBC. Although I agree the other live channels are total bilge.

I think households like ours are becoming increasingly common. We don't watch live TV, and we pretty much never watch adverts.

I love BBC programmes except for the news, which is incredibly partial. Only yesterday there was a current affairs programme where all the participants painted the most contender for the leadership of the Labour Party as an idiot and a mistake, without any dissenting voice and as for the Palestine-Israeli conflict... ggggrr. So I think the BBC should make its saving by cutting its news service.

Personally I don't care what they do as long as I can wake up to the Today programme, preferably with John Humphries. When he retires I'm going to sulk massively.

Never felt the need to own a telly ....

Comparing education to media is frankly ridiculous.

Grays: that's your opinion, but what's your reasoning?

I've worked at the BBC for 13 years, generally staff pay is significantly lower than equivalent roles elsewhere in the sector. I would earn about 40% more if I fucked off to Sky. I haven't had a pay rise above 1% (mostly it's been less than that) since before my eldest was born - he's about to start Yr3. But I don't mind that because I passionately believe in the need for a public broadcaster, publicly owned, answerable to the British licence fee payer and no one else. I've had lots of these types of conversations on FB recently. Lots of people seem to think they shouldn't have to pay for the BBC because they don't use it. I've been called crass for using this comparison, but I haven't seen a GP in 4 years but I still pay in to the system. I haven't used a public library for years but I still pay for them and gladly.

The BBC isn't about me, it's about we. I don't watch a vast amount of BBC output, but that's not the point. It's there, it's rightly recognised as one of the most creative, brilliant and innovative broadcasters, and I believe passionately it should stay. But.... it needs a serious haircut to it's management which is vastly bloated, pointless and ineffective. However, they will never cut the branch they are sitting on, and in the meantime they are providing all the ammunition this government needs to destroy the BBC.

Someone posted this on my Facebook timeline today...

www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rosenblum/save-the-bbc_b_7809520.html

I'm actually a bit speechless here.

You want me to tell you why funding education is important but why funding the BBC isn't?

Well. I realise it's Friday but c'mon.

For one, our society needs education. Our future depends on it.

Can you say that for the BBC? Do people need to watch Eastenders? Is it imperative to our survival that we can listen to The Archers?

As the stats are showing (link I posted above), the BBC's hold on viewers is decreasing. If this continues, it will become obsolete.

Is that where people think the BBC is now, up there with education and healthcare?

x posts with HeadFairy

Evidently people do think the BBC is up there with education and healthcare...

I do, but it's only part of the argument. For many isolated and vulnerable people the BBC is a lifeline.

Independent journalism on a broad scale, with the resources to go around the world (and not just report on a website from someone's back room) to report that news is hugely important.

Arts are massively out of reach to many people without huge incomes.

All of these things might seem insignificant alongside healthcare and education, but surely we are not at the point at which we can only afford to bring the absolute basics to people at an affordable price.

Yes, of course you could have Netflix, yes you could have Amazon Prime, yes you could watch telly on You Tube if you have a decent enough broadband connection and are prepared to pay for that, yes you could pay for HBO, and Sky, and Virgin etc etc) but there are lots of people who couldn't afford those services, so if you lose the funding for the BBC and therefore the BBC itself, quality television programming, educational content (yes, there's a heck of a lot of educational programming on the BBC, not to mention the BBC website) arts and entertainment would only be available to the wealthier. Surely we're not there yet?

Don't kid yourself this argument is about anything more than the fact that politicians don't like the fact they can't control something that might dare to criticise them.

I'm intrigued that people find enough quality viewing on Netflix to make live television entirely superfluous. We watched most of the decent stuff on netflix when it was aired first time round and the rest just seems to be a lot of second rate drama and films. If it wasn't that the kids liked it Wed ditch it tomorrow. And don't you ever watch the news?

There's loads of BBC output that we don't watch but there's also loads we do.i think it represents great value for money and most other countries would bite your hand off to have a quality public broadcaster for less than £150 a year.