Should the BBC be forced to scrap their license fee?

No, look at U.S. tv. The Simpsons are a rare jewel, all the more precious because of the vast wasteland of cr*p by which they are surrounded.

surely a BBC Sport digital channel is on the cards. cant believe they didnt do it already.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6273347.stm

For instance, they'd have to pay Jonathan Ross £17 million instead of £18 million per year. Heads will roll!

Tho i hate having to pay shit like eastender and the crap on radio 1 etc

I didn't realise so many other countries had them. I always thought it was a nice little British thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

wtf? do you feel like you own the police force too?

Frankly, while it annoys me no end that Ross gets his huge wad I'm happy because I use the BBC everyday, a lot. I feel that rather than Ross I'm paying for the things I like - BBC4, Radio 3, etc etc.

And (for info) the licence fee was £101 in 1999.

I don't feel the same way about, say, Tesco.

You don't even need to look abroad to see what happens when it's all about the ratings, just glance at the number 3 button on your remote. the BBC ain't perfect, but I don't want it to turn into ITV.

And I dunno about you guys, but I certainly get a tenner's worth a month out of the BBC.

We (i.e. my industry) have just started renegotiating the terms of business writers, directors, actors, technicians etc. follow with the BBC. In pretty much every area of revenue, the BBC are less able to afford to pay even currents fees, which themselves have gone down from the highs of a few years ago.

But multichannel TV and various new media have ripped apart the cosy relationships between broadcasters, producers and talent in all areas, while the BBC seems to be doing mostly good things to make sure its service isn't diluted more than it has to be. Hence the very wise and prescient concentration on internet services (which, btw, don't pay a penny to talent, the argument being that the BBC don't make any revenue out of them) and the realisation of Austin Powers' "BBC7" lyrics - channels like BBC3 and BBC4 are genuinely great sounding boards for new or niche programming and can and do act as a springboard to the terrestrial channels for the most successful of these.

From our point of view, the BBC is a vastly flawed, bureaucratic place where only the Jonathan Rosses of the world can negotiate top dollar. But without it, the TV and radio (and internet) landscape in Britain would be hugely different and almost certainly much less far-reaching and of much lower quality.

All presenters should be paid the same.

If Ross and Moyles or their agents don't like this they are free to take their "talents" elsewhere in the private sector.

Nobody is bigger, or should be, than the corporation.

L O S T?

xpost

ned, moyles brings in the punters cos the bbc built him up. he doesn't have such amazing gifts that no-one could replace him. of course he could get big money elsewhere because that's how markets work; but the beeb is in sticky territory with this. tracer hand will be along to say the bbc would be like pbs without those guys, but the old coutnerargument is, who cares if the bbc is no better than itv? i would actually pay £150 if the bbc opened its archive in some kind of view-on-demand stylee but its best days are long gone.

I don't agree that the beebs best days are long gone either - there was always a load of rubbish on it alongside top quality entertainment/education.

Not saying that's not too much just saying.

Back in the late '60s Simon Dee tried to throw himself about with regard to payment etc. and the BBC told him where to shove it. But now they seem to embrace such demands out of fear.

If the BBC were that strong, then surely their output would be good enough to attract viewers and listeners without the big name bait?

i do care, i still want things like free, GOOD football coverage and Planet Earth etc. i'm hopeful the BBC will always be able to do these tho they have lost it more with original drama and comedy programming - mainly because of American superiority in most departments it seems. Radio 1 is a mess obv. but the other stations all seem to be functioning fine. ultimately i do suspect their future does lie with their past tho, as you imply.

uh? they lost this in about 1990!

So now it's the BBC who's responsible for humanity's 10,000 years of celebrity worship??

uh, i'm talking about FA Cup, England games, major tournaments etc.

-- Euai Kapaui (tracerhan...), January 18th, 2007.

waht?

?!

the bbc is in a bind because it was once the monopoly broadcaster, and its culture and 'national' status derive from that. personally i think they'd do better keeping what was good from then and not competing with the commercial nets -- partly because they can't. most bbc stuff is utterly abject, even with the budgets. again this is because it caters to a now mythic homogenous 'national' audience with bullshit like 'doctor who'.

In our day kids used to kick a CD in the street.

The BBC is far more than an entertainment service.

whatever, still doesn't change my point.

― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Thursday, December 11, 2008 9:17 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

I thought your point was...

I don't mind paying a tax on public services, but on someones elses ENTERTAINMENT.

But please to elucidate further.

My suspicions are the BBC would change quite considerably for the worse were they to scrap the license fee. I don't quite understand why other media organisations persist in calling for it when it would spread advertising spend even more thinly in a declining market.

Because they don't think things through?

Unless the various vested interests - Sky, GCap and so forth - think that no advertiser would ever want to spend money advertising on the BBC and thus force the organisation's closure but that really is Christmas Fairyland thinking.

Still, I suppose the Sun and Mail have to have something to react against - otherwise, what would be the point of them existing?

TS - putting your ad in the middle of Doctor Who vs whatever shite is on Sky One at the same time.

Unless Sky buys Doctor Who of course...

You don't think Futurama repeats can compete?

If the BBC suddenly had to raise money from commercial breaks, ITV would be even more fucked than it is now.

Surely the time is coming when you will have advertising during programmes, a bit like a web page

I'm suprised it hasn't happened yet

already has in the US

Unless the various vested interests - Sky, GCap and so forth - think that no advertiser would ever want to spend money advertising on the BBC and thus force the organisation's closure but that really is Christmas Fairyland thinking.

cf. the massive jump in the share prices of M6 and TF1 when President Sarkozy said that he would issue a decree banning the french equivalent of the BBC, France Televisions, from advertising in prime time.

already has in the US

OK, I didn't know that, we'll get it here soon enough

http://profile.ak.facebook.com/v225/1312/19/s657376784_5148.jpg

Is this woman doing the old "half a face against a mirror" trick?

It's what made the BBC great

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/turquoisemoleeater/misc/harry_worth.jpg

cf. the massive jump in the share prices of M6 and TF1 when President Sarkozy said that he would issue a decree banning the french equivalent of the BBC, France Televisions, from advertising in prime time.

ding ding ding ding

le ding le ding le ding, you mean

dingue, man, crazy

^^^that woman.

Managed to get out of paying it for 10 years and was all set to go to court and state my case, but it doesn't work like that!

?

In our day kids used to kick a CD in the street.

In my day we used to kick students in the street.

the bbc is great. the 'but i never use it' must be the strawiest of straw men ever.

you don't like the welfare state but you like two pints of lager and a packet of crisps

i've never watched the welfare state.

that two pints fella wants shooting, though.

Everyone connected with that show wants shooting

Sky is around £480 a year. Far better value for money!

Even just buying The Sun every day is £65 a year.

No wonder Murdoch is doing so well.

how much is the licence fee? does everyone have to pay it?

I don't know, I've never paid it.

my mum pays mine too

I think it's about £120.

more like £140

Currently £139.50 per year for colour, £47 for black & white.

They still sell black and white tellies?

Yes

^^^Xmas for the kids sorted!

Any kids worth their salt nowadays wouldn't be happy unless it was a 108" LCD screen telly with built-in Youtube.

in my day we used to kick tv licence inspectors in the street.

> Surely the time is coming when you will have advertising during programmes, a bit like a web page

they already have popups on virgin one telling you what's coming next about 2 minutes from the end of the program (ie during the climax). and bbc have been doing this during the end titles for a while (spoiling the doctor who closing theme for instance). i have also seen teasers in the other corner from the channel id (another bugbear) advertising upcoming shows, logos that tend to rotate and flash, logos that are there for an entire week prior to whatever it is they are advertising.

Of course, but real advertising, for baked beans or something I meant

For financing two series of The Young Ones I agree BBC license fees ought to be gleefully paid by every breathing mammal on the planet, but in practical terms, how do these mysterious detector vans bust you if you're watching TV on a laptop?

spoiling the doctor who closing theme for instance)

murray gold beat them to this tho

The government intends to discuss whether a TV licence fee is the right way to fund the BBC as early as next year, five years before the end of its charter.

Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, told Media Guardian that the coalition is "committed to the principle that the BBC should have a ringfenced pot of money over a multi-year period" and stressed his support for the BBC and its independence.

However, he believes changing viewing habits, with an increasing number of people watching TV content online, will make the annual charge for television ownership obsolete sooner rather than later. "We also recognise, as technology changes, we may need to adapt the way it's collected. It is not going to be possible to have a tax every time anyone buys a computer."

a ringfenced pot of money

£4.50

over a multi-year period

till 2012

Pointless reorganisation if you're going to 'be given a fixed sum of money from the government to cover any initial losses', ffs:

The growing use of the internet for viewing has made licensing TV sets outdated, according to right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute.

The BBC's current TV services could still exist with more flexible methods of funding, its report adds.

The report singles out the success of Sky with its subscription model, adding that the BBC could have "the global presence of a Hollywood studio but with a wider range of output".

It recommends the BBC begins to look at how it could raise funds through subscription in 2012, and that licence fee payers be given the option to stop paying their fees two years after that.

The BBC should be given a fixed sum of money from the government to cover any initial losses, it suggests.

Another article in the Sunday Times proposing something along similar lines (he now makes programmes for C4, but was a former BBC producer, just to give this legitimacy), but on a slightly diff angle in that many were prosecuted for not being able to pay, as if he cared.

Not reorganisation, but more like another step toward privatization: chip a bit here and there etc

The Sunday Times article was by David Graham, who wrote the Adam Smith Institute report.

The other article about BBC pensions was similarly hilarious.

Would love to read that Sunday Times article but unfortunately it's hidden behind their paywall WHICH IS ALMOST AS EXPENSIVE AS THE ENTIRE BBC LICENSE FEE.

Yes but if you don't like it Matt, you can take your business elsewhere. Unlike the dirty communist BBC.

Just call me a filthy pirate.

LOL at MDC #heresoneitweetedearlier