To think they should scrap TV licence and advertise?

[pinkunicornsparkles]

I wouldn't care if there were adverts on the BBC. I would prefer it actually, so that I wouldn't have to fork out for a TV licence every year.

Thought this years ago. Defs not about being unbiased they covered for Savile for years and not to mention their clearly one side brexit approach.

YANBU

The benefit of the beeb to the government is that they will do propaganda of one sort or another when needed.

The benefits to the public are supposed to centre around a more general ethos of impartiality (once the requirements of the state are fulfilled obvs).

Anybody but a fool can see the BBC is compromised in terms of bias, it is still there to do jobs for the authorities as well, though, which would be why it remains.

It'd be great if the BBC had to pay for itself. Certainly the 1950s are over and we live in an age of information, so even if we wanted an arm of the state there to keep the lower orders in the dark and feed them the desired input once in a while, it would not work.

I'd be happy if no TV channels ever again used advertising for their money's. Rampant consumerism has to stop

I watch the BBC and alao liate ro BBC radio channels a lot. I am happy to pay for it

I would like a reform of the BBC, more accountability, especially with salaries and costs. I am absolutely resentful of the massive salaries given to the likes of Vanessa Feltz , Steve Wright, Gary Lineker et al, it's an obnoxious amount of money.

The ridiculous amount of money spent on football, how many people did they send to the last World Cup, it's a huge jolly, with not enough value for money. sport on the BBC is hugely biased to football at the expense of many other sports, Rugby, F1, cricket, athletics......

Saying it's unbiased is laughable, you only had to listen to the interview with Jo Swinson, leader of Lib Dem's this morning, when asked if she would support brexit of a new referendum supported it, she said she wouldn't, they didn't call her out on it at all.

So often these days they provide an outlet for views with no counter, if they are truly worthy of the licence fee there would be less simplistic debates on the important issues. As an example is anyone in any doubt where the BBC stand on Brexit, on BoJo as PM.

Even their complaints system is not independent, OFCOM is a quango of ex BBC employees. How many serious complaints about the BBC are ever upheld.

Horne & Corden! OP, are you in some sort of time machine? Horne & Corden was 10years ago! BBC3 isnt even a television channel anymore.

YABVU.

So I started this thread thinking we should scrap the licence but I'm so torn now. I defiantly don't want the BBC to end. I love the journalism and the good/amazing shows they have or had. But there's some utter dross on the BBC. Seriously, Eastenders is just utter drivel. Though I guess that's my personal opinion, there must be others who think otherwise.

I just wouldn't protest to a few adverts to bring the cost down a bit. If that could be achieved without affecting the integrity of the BBC.... sounds like I am being rather naive with this notion though....

@DioneTheDiabolist it was so awful I don't think I'll ever forgive that one

Lots of people here saying "I never watch the BBC" but I just looked up the stats from TV Licensing and 92% of adults in the UK do consume BBC output every week.

A subscription model would mean that the BBC planned its output to best suit subscribers, and it would take away the incentive to try to serve the whole population, so quality would probably be worse and certainly skewed. All radio stations would have to be taken off-air so you could only access them online. And because fewer people, inevitably, would pay for BBC content, it would have to be more expensive to sustain the same level of quality as it has now, so it would seem to be worse value for money.

I wouldn't be surprised if the BBC becomes a subscription model eventually but we will have lost a national resource if that happens.

Ew no thanks.

YABU IMO but it's interesting to see how polarised the argument is. I can't imagine getting by with Netflicks, YouTube. Where do the 'never use BBC' people get their news and current affairs discussion from?

Where do the 'never use BBC' people get their news and current affairs discussion from?

Twitter mainly. Some Sky News. The odd newspaper. The only time I purposely watch BBC News is when I'm on holiday as it's often the only English speaking channel!

As others have observed, the BBC is a gravy train for rich men -
This tool got a million quid payoff, then did a tour of the BBC plugging his new book -
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24818636

As for the BBC being free of adverts - I listen to BBC Radio (and would gladly pay a subscription for that) but it is interrupted incessantly by adverts for other programmes especially shit like Eastenders which has weeks of faux dramatic adverts in the run up to some shit storyline. The BBC also treats shite like Strictly as news when it isn't.

I think Beldon is right, it keeps the other channels "honest". If ITV and C4 started putting in ad breaks with the frequency that American TV does...

This is tosh. Ofcom regulates the length and frequency of TV ad breaks. Nothing to do with the BBC "keeping them honest"

That aside don't scrap the licence fee. It is amazing value for what we get. To get rid of it would be to impoverish our national culture and heritage.

(Ever wonder why the Tories are so keen on defunding and privatising the BBC...?)

A subscription model would be fairer for all (and you can get Attenborough on 4 or 5 other subscription and FreeView channels...)

....but none of the Attenborough programmes (and I'm talking over decades now, not just the last 4 or 5 years) would ever have been made without the BBC. Subscription channels can't buy in what isn't there.

...... BBC isn't just BBCs 1 and 2. Didn't your dc watch CeeBeeBies ? Then CBBC ? As teens didn't they use BBC Bitesize to help with their school work ?

....... I have teens / young adults and I agree, we don't all sit round watching TV together in the living room - everything they watch is via their lap tops or even phones, but they still access BBC made programmes.

.... when you have comparisons with ITV - say World Cup (football / rugby / athletics) or the Olympic Games - the BBC coverage is just streets ahead.

Same with other things that ought to compare - I like the programmes like 'Ambulance' or the ones that follow the Air Ambulance crews. Watching a programme like that from Channel 5 is awful - all high drama and sounding like a caricature of itself, not a patch on 'Ambulance' which has been superb.

The license fee also pays for BBC radio . For me, Radio 4 alone is worth the money.
As for ITV - I don't think I have watched anything on there for years. (Since Downton Abbey finished)

My viewing choice is almost always BBC 4, 2 and 1 . I'm not a fan of infantile quiz /game shows , reality TV or 'Kidnapped child/murder melodrama. - which seems to be the ITV output.
I like documentaries, arts /science programs , travel programs (not based around 'celebrities' but the actual place being visited. ) and history/good historical drama.

In the other hand I am perhaps the victim of childhood conditioning . Where I lived as a child the aerial could only pick up BBC pointed one way and ITV if you climbed on the roof and pointed it the other - so my mother declared this unnecessary as 'ITV is common ' !

YANBU, the beeb has had its day.

Hmmm another thing I love about the BBC is the CBeebies emphasis on catering for children with SN. I'd happily pay my subscription for that alone and selfishly appreciate that the cost is spread amongst all for this.

I think I was BU.

Lots of people here saying "I never watch the BBC" but I just looked up the stats from TV Licensing and 92% of adults in the UK do consume BBC output every week.
So BBC licensing did this research? Hardly an unbiased source. Also, did that include website, streaming, podcasts etc etc?

No way. I'm happy to pay the license fee. I don't want adverts in the programmes or the news. I don't want unbiased news reporting and I love the BBC website for news and their bitesize stuff. Local radio is fab too.

Nope not into adverts and the BBC. Not at all.

@familycourtq

No, that stat is from an independent report by Ipsos Mori. It's just mentioned on the TV Licensing website. Seems to include TV, radio and online.

I would happily pay my license fee for R4 on its own, but even i can see that making non-payment a criminal offence is disproportionate, indefensible and unsustainable.

The BBC should move to a subscription model, this would keep the benefits of its independence from both the government and commercial interests while removing the resentment of people who are currently forced to pay for something they don’t want.

The 92% figure sounds plausible when you think how much the BBC produces. Any consumption would cover everyone who used one of the recipes, clicked on a story someone shared on fb or chose to watch the news channel for 10 minutes while they waited at the dentist instead of playing on their phone.

What I would think is more common is people who do consume some BBC output but feel like they don't really get their moneys worth.

BBC isn't just BBCs 1 and 2. Didn't your dc watch CeeBeeBies ? Then CBBC ? As teens didn't they use BBC Bitesize to help with their school work

No. As a small child she watched Milkshake or Nick Jr. As she got older it was Nickelodeon. She did go through a phase of loving Tracy Beaker and The Dumping Ground but tbh I was glad when that finished! (Not saying the US crap she watched was any better, but weirdly it was generally more 'wholesome' IYSWIM)

Didn't use BiteSize in Primary and her High School doesn't recommend it now (they point towards independent websites and tell the kids to steer clear of Bitesize).

I'm sure it is excellent for people that use it and I can see why people want to keep the BBC, that's why I think it should be subscription rather than advert funded.

For the price and the variety of programming it does bring I have to say that I don’t mind TV license - but there was a time I couldn’t afford it. I had a TV and second hand games console attached (a very nice hand me down from my brother) and used that to mainly watch DVD’s that I had collected when I didn’t have financial difficulties and was hounded for my TV license fee. I called and explained my situation - no TV shows watched - live or otherwise, no internet because I was too brassic to afford it and they still refused to stop. They couldn’t come and lock my property out (however that works...) because it was a large block of flats! Ended up paying it just to get them off my back as I was already struggling with MH and their harassment was making me spiral further D:

So I don’t mind paying it now I am a little better off and my DC love Hey Duggee so it’s worth it to get some washing up done in peace 😂 but their approach when a person isn’t utilising their service is utterly vile.