To think they should reduce the size of the BBC and cut the license fee?

[jobhunter7]

To think they should reduce the size of the BBC and cut the license fee?

Or they could shove adverts on and stop fleecing people altogether?!

I listen to R3 and 6 Music from dawn til dusk, then there’s constant CBeebies, Bitesize, Good Food recipes, podcasts and the Sounds app. Next to none of that you really need the license for, but I pay happily as they’re all worth their weight in gold. No adverts is a huge deal as well, and kids TV that isn’t a big toy add is an absolute must.

I don’t rely on its news coverage anymore and I imagine the organisation is pretty bloated in some ways, but I really do wonder about people who are so bloody smug about objecting to it. Do they really think they’re just paying for EastEnders and Laura Kuenssberg?

bluegrass you exactly encapsulate BBC arrogance and blindness. Did you even listen to BBC coverage of Brexit? Impossible. You couldn’t possibly have, re. your bizarre assertions. The “right wing” conspiracy you describe is in the realms of fantasy. But the intolerant lefty-loons are eating their own now (Suzanne Moore and those lovely folk down at the Guardian) so well done for that!

@applepineapple

Which parts of the BBC would go then?

You could save a fortune by replacing Gary Lineker with a continuity announcer.

There was a Daily Mail story the other day slagging off Nish Kumar for making a Nigel Farage joke, Maxed. At the end was another story: “Nearly half of Britons believe the BBC no longer shares their values, according to a new poll.” Nearly half of Britons voted for Brexit. As a country we’re in a bloody mess cleaved right down the middle, and nobody thinks the BBC has covered it in the way they’d like. “Lefty loons”, though? Really?

Take and leave what you want from the Beeb. There’s so much more of use than of not. Any more talk of axing Radio 3, BBC4 OR CBEEBIES FFS is madness. Other than that I’d definitely recommend Nish more on The Bugle than The Mash Report 😁

Or they could shove adverts on and stop fleecing people altogether?!

Apart from the many endless adverts for themselves, their products and their pet programmes, for paying your TV licence, party political broadcasts and all of the 'reviews' of everything under the Sun that are clearly intended to make you consider buying the item in question....

I know they don't have the Lottery programme any more, but that was effectively a 15-minute free advert for Camelot.

Great post @Wiredforsound - I've noticed that the mainstream use of 'gotten' in the UK overlaps with the period since Netflix gained mass popularity. I no longer think it's true to say there's a distinction between US and UK speakers as far as that word goes, and it's amazing to think it's happened within the space of a few years. I'm not anti-American before anyone wheels that one out. I find the idea of a global monoculture utterly dismal and dull. US cultural colonialism might not be a new concept, but streaming services are new and they are an extremely effective way of achieving it.

I do have Netflix, btw, and totally relate to Bluegrass' description of scrolling through it for ages. There is an awful lot of filler.

I support the BBC for reasons others have given. I don't like a lot of what they do, but I appreciate they're trying to cater to the whole country, and I think many programmes wouldn't be made at all or would be made differently without them.

I agree @Bluegrass. Some people just want to scrap everything until there's nothing left.

Another thumbs up for @Bluegrass

Radio4 is the soundtrack of my life, and I can't bear TV interrupted by commercials.
It's about £3 weekly - compares well to other services.

I'm not entirely in agreement with funding the world service, but I imagine it's a minute % of the total costs - they could make it more readily available in the UK though, rather than just five hours through the night when radio4 is down.

I think the licence should at worst be for watching BBC only. If I want a TV and have no plans to watch the BBC I shouldn't have to pay. They could get a lot more revenue for local radio through advertising and reduce the cost signficantly.

I don't think the BBC should be paying for sports rights ITV would do commercially. I think it should let presenters that want huge amounts go. Johnathan Ross went to ITV and sunk, Graham Norton has filled that void, I actually thought Jack Whitehall did a great job filling in, if Norton wants more cash let him go and give the job to Jack on half the cash etc.

Ideally, all broadcasters should have to spend x% on unprofitable stuff. If that didn't work the TV tax should go in a pot and they should be able to bid for funds to make a programme about great crested newts or religion etc that may interest some but isn't commercially viable.

@MaxedMinataours

bluegrass you exactly encapsulate BBC arrogance and blindness. Did you even listen to BBC coverage of Brexit? Impossible. You couldn’t possibly have, re. your bizarre assertions. The “right wing” conspiracy you describe is in the realms of fantasy. But the intolerant lefty-loons are eating their own now (Suzanne Moore and those lovely folk down at the Guardian) so well done for that!
I've gone back to re read all of bluegrass's posts and still have no idea what you're talking about.

I love BBC and watch it for the excellent drama's series, documentaries, news, films and of course, EastEnders and Holby! I rarely watch any other channel, it rarely fails me. Admittedly, all this is BBC1. The licence doesn't just cover BBC.
This is from the moneysavingexpert website
You don't need a licence as long as you are not watching live TV or using BBC iPlayer and are only watching on-demand or catch-up on other services. However, TV Licensing says its figures show fewer than 2% of people only watch catch-up TV – so don't cancel your licence unless you are sure you don't need it

@safariboot

You get a YABU because the license fee shouldn't be cut, it should be eliminated and the BBC funded from general taxation. And then we can have the conversation about what programming should and shouldn't be taxpayer funded.

But Capita have the billion pound contract to administer the fee and send all the threatening letters. I can't see the Conservatives stopping that.

Why should the BBC be added into taxes?

I don't watch live TV or BBC catch up, so don't pay the licence fee.

Tax is for essential services, not the BBC.

And no relentless adverts, which other channels charge a monthly fee for you to skip them and that's only providing you are watching on catch-up, not live, which is the case for ITV AND they get their share of the TV Licence.

Did you know the BBC pay a whole department to surf social media for bad publicity and pretend to be members of the public and counter any bad comments with praise for the organisation. Maybe that department could go!

😂🤪

They should stop being populist and just do the niche non commercial stuff.

Plus they pay far too much for presenters and thousands of middle managers on £100k+.

Sell off strictly, Eastenders, all reality tv, all films they dont produce, all mainstream sport, American buy ins etc.

And they should completely devolve NI, Wales and Scotland services.

@jobhunter7

Simple answer to your question

No

Having lived in other countries you realise how valuable the BBC is

www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-41171196

Woman wan troway poo-poo, come trap for window

Woman wey take her hand, pack her poo-poo comot di toilet of man wey she dey friend because ''e no gree flush'' enter trouble, after she go try collect di poo-poo back.

^ who would ever resent paying for an esential respected news service like this?

I don't really have an answer to this, and I think the BBC have in some ways abrogated their job, particularly where it comes to journalistic responsibility. And they produce some shite shows.

However - I would be sightly cautious about reducing funding as a response. Because part of the decline to this state comes from reduced funding.

You can get the kind of situation where the government makes the decision to squeeze a branch or department, rather than just shit them down which would be politically untenable at the time. But by slowly squeezing, they know it will eventually become a useless embarrassment and people will be glad to be rid of it.

Shut them down, rather, though I guess shit them down works too

Other than BBC Four which still seems to have some great documentaries, the rest of the BBC has gone down the plug hole. I did the survey the other day, asking if it aligned with my values, and the answer was a resounding 'no'.

It's such a shame - the BBC used to be the envy of the world. Now it's capitulated into the world of the woke. Its reporting of the Tavistock judgment contravenes guidelines as it suggests young people will kill themselves if they don't get the treatment they want, and then references a banned gender clinic 🙄. Its left-leaning bias is abundantly clear. It's no longer impartial, Woman's Hour and Desert Island Discs have gone downhill and I bitterly resent paying a licence fee to fund the crap they come out with.

I very much hope the fee is scrapped unless the BBC can have a serious overhaul.

It would be good if you could pay a basic licence fee that entitled you to the basic channels and an enhanced one of you wanted access to CBeebies, all the educational content on the website etc.

It’s not right to make everyone pay the same fee when people vary so much in how they use the service, we should only have to pay for the bits we want instead of all of us funding everything, some of which doesn’t even get broadcast in this country.

No, you can never fully appreciate the breadth of service (and it is a service) provided by the BBC.

It has to cater for all tastes and inevitably will therefore offend/upset people.

However, any reduction in size or fee would lead to its eventual disappearance in due course. And then, like getting rid of/decreasing other public institutions (such as the NHS for all its faults), you would only appreciate what would be lost once it’s gone - so be careful what you wish for. Can’t we just appreciate all that the BBC does which is good and worthwhile?

And if the BBC were to be minimised, what would negative public opinion then have to turn its beady eye on for pruning? The NHS, the armed forces, the church?

I agree, @DappledOliveGroves . The BBC used to be the first and last word, and trustworthy.

The BBC website when it began was awesome. Now it is frankly terrible. As ds observed, it’s like Ripley’s Believe it or Not, endlessly searching for freak problems. And the language... it’s so basic.

To save money I’d suggest stripping out all the “invisible” managers they have. Never mind the highly-paid stars, they have thousands of staff on very high salaries (+ associated benefits) doing unnecessary jobs.

Also their pursuit of sports which no one likes. They can’t make people like women’s go karting. Stop sending 400 staff to cover the indoor athletics in Turkmenistan.