Should we pay BBC licence fee

[Daygloboo]

I think we should still pay ithe BBC licence fee but I see someone else has been accused of bullying ....this time on BBC breakfast..I still think it is great value for money though. They make quality programmes and are are balanced in their reporting. I think it's unfair that they get so much stick. We need a public service broadcaster..

Good luck with that😄

Thank you 😊

I'm saying it's editorially lazy for the most part.

You only have to look at some of the dirge in local newspapers (funded by the BBC's Local Democracy Reporting Service) to see the end result of that.

(Sorry, lost the quote I was replying to!)

It's funny how we had exactly the same discussion with very similar arguments in Czechia. (In the end our the parliament voted for slight increase in licence fees).

I see national public broadcaster's license fee as everyone's investition into democracy. Because democracy isn't about my personal access to information, democracy is about vaste majority having access to good information.

Public broadcaster generally operates by different rules than the commercial ones, have less click bait and misleading stuff.
Programs cover the less affluent and older population, which is generally the more vulnerable population in current information space.

By paying the license we are not paying for our fun. We are paying to have someone keeping some reporting standard, controlling the politicians for us, and making information and (some) fun available to everyone, so people don't have to pay by their souls (private data and being advertised to) to be able to be members of the society.

Yes, individual programs can be questioned, neutrality should be tested, but those are relatively small things compared to the main goal.

Thank goodness all the other big corporations in the country are squeaky clean 😂

No because I have a skill called critical thinking and am able to get my news from multiple sources to check for accuracy. I don’t need to pay the BBC £174.50 for their opinion too.

I mean I’m sure we wouldn’t need the bbc to update us on a war we would be in too much and I’m sure if we didn’t have a bbc there would be some actual government way of informing its people. Bit like the mass texts.

I become very bored with the supporters of the licence fee who try to use the argument of left wing people saying it's biased towards the right, and vice versa to dismiss people's concerns.

It's nowhere near that black and white.

And for the record I don't think it's particularly either. I think it's got a tendency to be embedded in the establishment more than anything, although not always, and that brings an element of partiality with it that isn't helpful. I'll just mention the demise of Newsnight again, and the awfulness of Question Time.

There are also a variety of issues with different aspects of BBC output. So there's news, there's journalism as a whole, which is probably what frustrates me the most.

But others have cited drama, and general output.

Where are the documentaries that used to fill BBC4 for instance?

I sometimes subscribe to History Hit for documentaries. But I'd be pretty pissed off if Dan Snow told me I HAD to in order to watch any online programmes!

They are not balanced in their reporting

BBC is a cesspit

I don't have a tv

If I did I would never ever pay a penny for them

Currently going through iPlayer and watching everything of interest to me, which is almost entirely old documentaries and a couple of very old dramas. Then I'm cancelling. Other than Lucy Worsley, I don't think I watch anything on the BBC and haven't done for many years. The quality is just terrible across the board, and I'm disgusted at the racism and political bias. Plus it costs a lot more than most streaming platforms; I'd much rather spend the money on Now TV or Netflix, and even ad-free I'd have enough left over for a coffee. Crazy.

That’s even worse.

I think if people want to watch if they should pay, if you don't fair enough. Don't watch it & not pay though.

They're probably aren't many. However, how many big corporations bombard people with threatening red letters? Or door step people trying to force their way into these people's homes trying to squeeze nearly £200 out of them through scare tactics 🤔 pretty damn underhand I'd say.

Oh how i hate the line trotted out " You probably engage with it in more ways than you think." Guess what? No we don't, not at all 🙄

Believe it or not alot of people have zero interest or interaction with the BBC at all. If people want to pay the licence and think its too cheap then by all means by extra licences or send extra cheques to the BBC directly I'm pretty sure they wont say no.

yeah but a lot of people don't actually have critical thinking skills...

Its almost exclusively far left or right wing loons who think the BBC is politically biased against their side. While there will always be the odd leaning dependent on editor etc I think on the whole it is extremely balanced.

"Rubbish drama and repeats" is another accusation. That may be true but the same people will lap up the website, local / national radio etc.

I think it's exceptional value for money and an important service. As soon as you introduce subscription and it advertising it has to play to a particular audience and loses its entire raison detre. Local radio, minority language programs would disappear.

The bbc should be a subscription service. I only have a tv licence because i watch football and cricket. I don't really watch the bbc. I hate tennis. The pundits on match of the day are awful. The dramas have gone down hill. Call the midwife should have finished years ago. I never understood what was so good about line of duty. The only thing i have liked on the bbc recently is happy valley.

I find it hard to understand how you believe they don't lie and manipulate the audience alongside the fact you think they are unbiased - if i have read you correctly.
I don't think they are good value for money , its the same old faces on inflated salaries and they certainly give me the impression that there is corruption etc behind the scenes.
After 30 years of paying i opted out ,didn't watch much anyway and am happy to avoid .
Another reason for me is their bully boy tactics towards non payers.

I think it should be a subscription service.

If it was thrn if you value it that's fine. You should feel free to pay for it.

You valuing it should not compel me to pay for it.

Its time it changed. Everything the BBC has done and has turned a blind eye to over the years? And were supposed to trust them? Respect them? Worship them? Fuck that.

I only have a tv license because I enjoy the cricket and watch some football matches. I begrudge paying it though.

Multiple manipulated, lying sourced

So you’re saying every source that isn’t the BBC is manipulated and lying? Really?

I mean the bbc have to issue plenty of their own corrections and clarifications.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedback/corrections_clarifications/

edit these are the 2025 ones so far.

No and I do not like the tone of their bully boy letters when you're inbetween homes. Wording such as "do you want a vist from us?" I will pay it to keep the tossers off my back.

Do other media even track and publish their corrections and clarifications?