[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by towny

It doesn't. A subsidiary runs UK TV as a joint venture with one of the former ITV franchises ... Thames, I think. BBC Worldwide sells the merchandise and the profits are skimmed off to augment the TV licence fee and help pay for 8 TV channels, 8 (?) national radio channels and a dozen or more local radio stations. There are no commercial breaks on any of these channels. If the BBC went to a subscription model, the inevitable result would be ads as well as a subscription, as there would be bound to be people who would opt out.

Some things, everyone should help to pay for whether they use them or not because they are part of the infrastructure of this country ... roads, railways, the BBC. We all rely on the BBC at one time or another and deep down we all know they are damn good at what they do. Every single event that's televised live on both BBC1 and ITV1 will be watched on the BBC by at least twice as many people as watch it on ITV.


And besides, without the BBC and its prolific output of original programming, where would all the satellite stations get their programming from? Sky creams the best of the American stuff, but even they scrape the barrel from time to time (anyone ever see any of Dead Like Me?)

And anyway, I disagree with the notion that the digital channels are a waste of money. I have enjoyed good, original material on both BBC3 and 4, and we watch 3 in our house almost as much as Sky One. As for the kids' channels ... well, Cbeebies is the only free-to-air tots channel and is the only one with almost entirely British-made programming, so it supports our son in learning, for example, British English rather than American (anyone else remember being confused by Sesame Street's insistence on saying 'zee' instead of 'zed'?) BBC digital would be worth it for Cbeebies if nothing else ... and so says our 14-month-old!

Cbeebies! Gets our seal of approval!