BBC “what has the BBC done for me”

[Robin60]

Am I the only one who silences the TV when the BBC starts with their advert featuring Ramesh Ranganathan? It’s the BBC advertising (but they don’t show ads or do they now) how amazing they think they are through the comedy antics (?) of RR. It just boils my 9!$$

It’s the BBC hence the repeats.

Yep

You watched the football!

Agree that it's worth it for the radio alone. They broadcast every single prom on there, and quite a few on telly. And that's just for starters. The scope and depth of the radio programming is nothing short of astonishing.

I think it's proactive, necessary and creative. There are too many people jumping on the social media 'bandwagon' asking exactly that question. When clearly, like the OP, the irony is lost on them when they're clearly consuming the BBCs outputs if they're even seeing this clip (multiple times) and would lose that wealth of provision for ever, if the BBC were to be dismantled. We never realise what we have until it's gone, it's easy to be negative and much harder to support what clearly is an invaluable service, unrivaled worldwide and which members of the public, like the OP has highlighted, take for granted.

You're not being forced to pay anything—that's simply factually incorrect. If you watch it, pay the licence, just as you would for any other service you use. If you don't watch it (which, for many people, is unlikely), then don't pay.
Just be honest with yourself. Most people use BBC services regularly and may not even realise it—football, for example.
You have agency and choice, but if you choose to use a service, it's a reasonable expectation that you pay for that service.

You're all obviously watching the BBC to see it

The World Service was historically paid for by a grant from the Foreign Office.

It was only in 2014 that Osborne forced the BBC to pick up most of the bill and only about £200m from the c. £4bn of license fee goes towards it

If the license fee was scrapped, it would go back to being completely funded by the Foreign Office.

Because reliable informative programming is not something that should just be left to market forces and everyone should have access to it free at point of use because those with the last cash are also the least likely to be able to afford a cash cost. Personally I would prefer it was funded out of general taxation, including tax rises as required, as that would be a lot less regressive in tax terms.

My preferred method of societal function is universal access to a range of services some of which we'll use and some of which we won't. E.g. education for children, adults, and to me this forms part of the ongoing commitment to education being available for all.

They do. My daughter was one and is now a radio producer. Every year there are at least 5 taken on from all backgrounds and that’s just the small area of radio that she works in. They are chosen purely on talent, the interview process is long and quite arduous but if you’ve got that spark and hunger they recognise it.

I thought the advert was cringeful- it came across as desperate and a bit bitter, like an eastenders character hollering down the street ‘worr av I done for you, eh? EH?’

I thought they picked some of the naffest content to centre as well. Where was Attenborough, quality drama and the films?

At least they stopped short of including Mrs Brown’s Boys.

The BBC is about soooo much more than Eastenders and Casualty 🙄. I watch the BBC a lot, and listen to the radio, and have never watched either of those programmes in my life!

You could have watched the World Cup final on ITV if you don't like the BBC?
And you know you should be paying for a licence watching anything live but even more so when choosing to watch BBC when there are other options.

If it was £58 in 1985, then the price has increased very slightly less than inflation between then and now.

I love the BBC. I listen to BBC radio all the time, I find their news app and weather app the best. And I love some TV. I will be forever thankful for pride and prejudice.

BUT the advert is crap. And it is full of old shows. It almost was a showcase of things they used to do but don't do well now. Nods to strictly, the tiredest of shows, EastEnders. It should be about BBC 4 content, huge documentaries, proper quality drama. The BBC offers good quality in the face of netflix docs that say the same thing for an hour with some dramatic music over the top. They missed a trick in trying to appeal to the football audience I think.

I quite liked most of it but I don’t need to see it / hear it (radio) so frequently

We still sometimes watch live tv (like 3 nights a week) plus I watch a lot of bbc iPlayer, listen to radio 2 and access the news and weather. I think it’s worth the fee. We get freeview, Disney and now (both on reduced rates) and we pay for Netflix comes to £35 in total including bbc. Which I think is reasonable.

The question 'what has the BBC ever done for me?' is a bitter question heard quite a lot now. There's a group of people who want to take everything away, bit by bit.

So pay a subscription then.

I think the Beeb gives great value for money. I’d rather pay that and have vanishingly few ads than Netflix, Prime, etc that are adding more and longer ads all the time AND expecting me to pay to watch them.

The radio is fantastic, but that makes up a fraction of the licence fee.

BBC TV is woke nonsense and not at all representative of the general population. I can't bring myself to watch anything outside of the news, sport and some factual content.

I totally agree. I would probably pay for the BBC if asked to voluntarily subscribe, but this advert seemed to be filled with stuff that's not current and is on the way out rather than showcasing innovation and new trends. The only newish thing featured was The Traitors and that already feels about 5 years old. It kind of highlighted that it has a hit every twenty years which it then flogs to death, but that's not even true. Even the use of Romesh kind of highlighted that he's on everything!

I didn’t mind it but don’t want to see it again and again and again. I generally like the BBC but don’t need this rammed down my throat

Agree, don’t watch Eastenders or strictly and quite frankly sick of them both. A lot of the BBC stuff I enjoy are their documentaries, drama and arts.

If they create brilliant content they should have no difficulty as a subscription service