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Originally Posted by Damien
The BBC isn't going to go subscription, and I don't think it will have adverts. It's too important a national institution for it to go away and leave us only with American venture capitalists controlling our news, radio and being responsible for discovering and promoting British artists.
We might have to look at a tax on the streamers. The BBC has helped them when it comes to production in this country. One of the reasons so much stuff is filmed in Britain, along with tax breaks, is that generations of on-screen and off-screen talent have been brought up via the BBC and Channel 4. Black Mirror is a big hit for Netflix but it was C4 who took the risk on it and the BBC that gave Charlie Brooker his break into television. Lots of British writers, directors and performers in Hollywood were helped to get where they are via theatre and our television, which we've helped pay for.
We need to protect our national interest here. We cannot keep giving it up so American Silicon Valley investors can make more and more money from us only to avoid paying us any taxes anyway. The BBC has to remain British, publically owned and do it's job promoting British arts.
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That’s just your view. A growing number of people are ditching the TV licence because they are objecting to paying for a service they don’t use.
There are those who are starry eyed about the Beeb, simply because it's been there since TV in this country started. The reason you don’t want to see payments by voluntary subscription is that you know very well that many would choose not to pay it.
The point you raise about private ownership is easily negated by keeping the BBC as a public body, but ensuring that it operates within the money it earns from subscriptions and from making its programmes available to other providers after one year or two of broadcast. That way it will keep to the standards set by the government because it is not a private company.
Itis inherently unfair to expect people to pay compulsorily for an entertainment and news service they don’t want.
Their public service remit could be preserved by government funding for programmes they want broadcast which otherwise would not be commercially viable. That could be available also to the other ‘designated public service’ broadcasters and funded by taxation - a more sensible use of public money.