The PM has sold out the BBC

[Burnshersmurfs]

AIBU to suspect that the agreed price of certain newspapers dropping the front page stories about partygate is the recent announcement that the licence fee for the BBC is being abolished?

We stopped paying the TV licence and were even surprised ourselves how little we missed anything we supposedly paid for, but never watched. All we really watched was the news on BBC and we can still do that and watch itvs iplayer.

@CarlatheJackal we're not saying that other countries can't produce excellent media. We see those exports. But have you actually sat down and watched 'normal' TV from other countries? It's really is dreadful a lot of the time.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

I may be alone here but I think the BBC licence fee is good value for money. Several TV channels, lots of radio channels, iplayer, Sounds, news website. I like not having advert breaks. It wouldn't break my heart if the BBC was forced to go over to the same model as ITV or Channels 4 and 5, i.e. every programme is broken up every few minutes for the same tedious adverts repeated over and over again, but it would be a change for the worse.

I do agree the BBC has not helped itself in many ways. The objectivity and rigour of its news coverage is not what it was. Nevertheless, there's a lot of good stuff on the BBC. The nature programmes are stunning. David Attenborough's new series is breathtaking.

Break your heart if the BBC started showing ads?

Good god, you want to get a life!

The BBC's days have been numbered for a long time.

@sst1234

Yes it’s a dead cat. Except the cat committed suicide when it went from being a treasured broadcaster with global soft power to a biased, self serving, left wing, woke culture warrior. The BBC out itself at the front of the queue for dead cat duties.

I agree with this. We didn’t have a licence for four years and when we got one to watch the F1 the same old shite was on the iplayer.

@Charley50

BBC doesn't report objectively on the horrendous women's rights abuses which are going on in the UK. It's played a major part in promoting transgender ideology (medication and surgery) to children. It ignores to obvious problems of males in women's sports, prisons, refuges and other women-only spaces. It's become slightly better recently (women's hour and Nolan podcast), but unless it changes it's ways, it's too biased against women right now for me to give a shit.

This. It has fundamentally changed how I see the BBC.

[quote 00100001]@CarlatheJackal we're not saying that other countries can't produce excellent media. We see those exports. But have you actually sat down and watched 'normal' TV from other countries? It's really is dreadful a lot of the time.[/quote]
Yes, I have spent most of my life living in other countries.

TV is awful in my home country because it shows British auction / antiques / home decorating / escape to the country programmes all fucking afternoon.

If the BBC is so wonderful, then people will pay a subscription. I probably would tbh, but no one should be forced to. Its hilarious, all the BBC celebs on Twitter coming out to defend it.

The dismantling of the BBC is a core Tory objective, although I expect the timing of this particular announcement is politically expedient (they are really throwing the kitchen sink at this particular crisis).

The media barons that prop up the Tories have long been complaining that the BBC has some sort of unfair advantage against them, despite it being the heyday of subscription TV. They don't want to have to compete against a state broadcaster that keeps the tolerance of longer ad breaks low, for example. Once the BBC is gone they'll be coming for the regulators.

Good, long time coming if you ask me.
To think, people have been put in prison for not wanting to pay for the BBC and their ‘unbiased’ opinions, it’s a fucking disgrace

I lost any faith in the impartiality of the BBC when it started making programmes at the 100 genders people supposedly have for school kids and promoting drag (disgusting misogynistic crap) not to mention stonewall being in charge of decisions about content and language.

You are bang on. The press don't like that they can't control the slant of the BBC on news stories. The papers have the power to change who wins an election, or how we view certain people, events and lifestyle choices. They absolutely don't want to change the status quo as currently the owners and their mates are doing very very well. The BBC are in comparison accountable to the public. Although they don't always succeed they are comparatively much more neutral than the rest of the press.

@Freysimo

If the BBC is so wonderful, then people will pay a subscription. I probably would tbh, but no one should be forced to. Its hilarious, all the BBC celebs on Twitter coming out to defend it.

"If the NHS is so wonderful, people will pay a subscription to use it."

I mean if you make the argument for one public service, surely it works for all?

@sst1234

Yes it’s a dead cat. Except the cat committed suicide when it went from being a treasured broadcaster with global soft power to a biased, self serving, left wing, woke culture warrior. The BBC out itself at the front of the queue for dead cat duties.

This, totally.

I think the more likely explanation is that, despite all the noise and fury being stirred up most people are now bored with hearing about parties at No 10 and don't bother to read past the headlines.
The online media can tell this is the case.
Less clicks mean less ad revenue.

Just think though, all that free publicity that famous left winger Farage (!) had, will be no more.

I agree that Nadine Dories will be well and truly history as a politician by then. She might go back to writing trashy novels.

*I really resent risking being forced to pay for channels I never, ever watch, or risk being imprisoned.

I don't know any other country with such a ridiculous set-up.*

Switzerland. And it costs 50% more - 335chfs (268 pounds). Only households that can demonstrate they don’t have a television, radio, smartphone or other electronic device with internet access are exempt.

Women - poor women, many young mothers who are struggling to feed their kids - make up 70% of those prosecuted and convicted for non payment of the BBC licence fee.

From the You Gov 2019 Women and the Criminal Justice System:

TV licence evasion was the most common offence for which females were convicted in 2019.

In 2019, 74% of those convicted for TV licence evasion were female. This offence accounted for 30% of all female convictions, compared to 4% of male convictions.

BBC Licence fee to be abolished in 2027 - www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4454996-BBC-Licence-fee-to-be-abolished-in-2027
Some good points on this thread.

Sorry, I think that link didn't work.
Anyway, there's another thread going with some good points on this debate.

@MsAgnesDiPesto

This can’t happen until 2027, which will be after the next election. The chances of either Boris Johnson or Nadine Dorries still being in their jobs by then is vanishingly small. So even as a staunch supporter of the BBC, I am not very worried just yet.

This has, though, done its job in moving the government’s problems off the front pages, and all of you focussing on this have been properly distracted, so you’re doing the government’s bidding beautifully.

I’m not sure that my suggestion that the abolition of the license fee is possibly another example of this govt’s corruption and the collusion of some aspects of the media would be an effective distraction from this govt’s corruption. I agree that we are unlikely to be blessed by Dorries and Johnson at the next election, but some media bosses have been trying this for years (they got a bit nobbled by the phone hacking scandal for a while). Whoever replaces the current mess at number 10 is unlikely to be less resistant to their pressures. They are already succeeding in shifting public opinion away from the BBC.

I’m not sure this strategy is going to work for him. Popularity of BBC far higher than for Boris.

BBC 63% approval rating
Boris 24% approval rating

(YouGov)

Agree with this. Both left and right consider BBC as biased. FFS Johnson and his government are slowly dismantling all that is good about this country.

Well of course they are, it's a money making opportunity isn't it? Let's see what our current Tory politicians are doing in 2027 when they are probably not around anymore shall we? I bet they have financial interests in the BBC in it's new format.

It is also a great headline as it gets the left and right battling away with each other and ignoring the shit from last week to, so even more of a win situation for them.

We should have been deciding what we want from the BBC as someone who is paying the license fee, but instead it gets decided for us and no doubt people who don't give a shit about the general public and what sort of service they will end up with will get the most out of this decision.

I think the bbc has had its day, most of the decent content is now sold on to other platforms, like Netflix or even YouTube.

Bbc news is definitely getting more tabloid like, I actually use sky news more often now, I also think the bbc largely copies skys content anyway, but changes the headlines, a story will break in the sky news app first and appear on bbc news 5 mins later. I live in the north and find the BBC very London and the south focused news wise, I see shocking things in my local news papers that never make it to the BBC, while they are running stories about cycle lanes or pigeons in London or what ever. I live in a large northern city and the local news page for my area sometimes isn’t updated for days. Unless it’s sports.

I actually think “partygate” has been over done by the bbc too, I don’t know anyone in real life who is that bothered about it all, probably because unless people where working from home, the same was happening in many workplaces just not as posh. Wine Fridays would be biscuit and beer fridays in most of my friends and families workplaces.

I’m in real life and I’m very bothered by it.