Scrap TV license fees?

[downquark1]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...io/3515131.stm

MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS

• Abolishing the board of governors

• Splitting the BBC into separate units

• Starting subscription charging for BBC television services

• Abolishing the television licence fee

• Creating new public broadcasting authority to share out funds to public service broadcasters

It said the BBC should be run like Channel 4 and start subscriptions for some digital television channels.

Oh no

id sooner pay subscription for BBC. Then i can ditch the rubbish i dont watch

[Stuart]

It's interesting that they say the BBC should be run like Channel 4, and that the licence fee should be scrapped. AFAIK, Channel 4 is partially financed by the Licence fee.

[Dave Stones]

get rid of the lience fee. £120 for channels i never watch, i cant justify that

There isn't another broadcaster in the UK - arguably the world - that produces drama of the quality of the BBC. Anyone see The Deputy last night? Jonathan Creek on Saturday? Just two examples of what the Beeb happens to be putting out at the moment and which I happen to think are really quite good. I could also mention any number of 'classic' serials produced over the last half-century. It is also a massive news organisation that I still have a great deal of trust in, despite the Hutton report - it would be stupid to tar the entire operation on the basis of a single, high-profile cock-up.

Subscription charges would kill the BBC as we know it. You pay a subscription to see Sky One and they still have to run almost 15 minutes of adverts per hour to bring in enough money. How high would the subscription have to be in order to keep commercials off our screens and pay for the high-quality original programming we're used to? For me, the lack of adverts is one of the biggest attractions. You sit down to watch 60 minutes of TV and you get 60 minutes of TV.

A few noted BBC haters (like the MP Gerald Kauffman, whisper, whisper) are using low ratings for channels like BBC3 as their latest platform for demanding change, conveniently forgetting that when the BBC launched its TV service, most of the UK couldn't see it. BBC2 had a similarly limited reach in its early years. No-one would argue against the success of those channels now, especially as their output over the last 20 years is now the mainstay of the ever-popular UKTV (incidentally, part-owned by the BBC and generating revenue that supplements the licence fee).

The BBC's ongoing role as a public service broadcaster is to identify the needs and demands of the broadcast-consuming public and ensure there are no service gaps left unfilled by the various commercial operations. To my mind there is a yawning quality gap that ably justifies the BBC's existence all by itself; of all the alternatives Channel 4 probably comes closest to matching the BBC for the standard of its output, but 4 isn't a commercial answer to the BBC because its remit is not to be mainstream.

Originally Posted by gary_580

id sooner pay subscription for BBC. Then i can ditch the rubbish i dont watch

Paying for a whole pack of TV channels, most of which you don't watch, is not something you just do the BBC. How many of the subscription channels you get via NTL/Sky do you actually watch?

Originally Posted by towny

Paying for a whole pack of TV channels, most of which you don't watch, is not something you just do the BBC. How many of the subscription channels you get via NTL/Sky do you actually watch?

i totally agree and have complained here before. It should be simple for NTL to implement a menu approach to channels where you could pay for what you actually watch rather than the dross they force on you because its in a package where theres a channel u actually watch. I know it would cost more to run and it would cost the punter more for the same level of service, but lets face it most people wouldnt bother with half the channels they have the option to watch.

Its a tough balance between flexibility in having every channel NTL decides to transmit and paying for what you actually want.

Originally Posted by gary_580

id sooner pay subscription for BBC. Then i can ditch the rubbish i dont watch

Hmm...

I pay NTL £28 a month for the "Family pack" to ensure that I get the channels I *do* want to watch.

I also, therefore, have to pay for a whole swathe of other channels which I get but *don't* want, but that are still receiving revenue from my subscription.

I would *love* to be able to get a discount because "I don't watch channels X, Y and Z" but that option isn't available.

Also all of those channels are stuffed full of adverts and sponsorships to cover their costs because they're not getting enough revenue, so if the BBC was turned into a subscription service they'd also have to either go for advertising themselves (which the other channels would *not* want since the advertising market is hard enough pressed as it is) or seriously cut down on their work as a public service broadcaster.

Frankly this just sounds like a "let's jump on the anti-BBC bandwagon" because they have, in their time, pi$$ed off governments of every hue and now, at last, they have the chance to get their revenge.

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by downquark1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...io/3515131.stm

Oh no

A quote from the article:

The report is being officially handed to the Conservatives on Tuesday. The party said it is not bound by its findings.

Which would seem to fit in with an article in today's Guardian which claims that the Tories have decided that quietly ditching the report would be a good thing as there's more political mileage in defending the BBC against attacks by Labour. Ah, the cynicism of politicians!

[carlingman]

Originally Posted by towny

snip There isn't another broadcaster in the UK - arguably the world - that produces drama of the quality of the BBC. Anyone see The Deputy last night? Jonathan Creek on Saturday? Just two examples of what the Beeb happens to be putting out at the moment and which I happen to think are really quite good. I could also mention any number of 'classic' serials produced over the last half-century. It is also a massive news organisation that I still have a great deal of trust in, despite the Hutton report - it would be stupid to tar the entire operation on the basis of a single, high-profile cock-up.

Last Monday in fact parked my butt on the chair enjoyed a terrific new series The Deputy on the Beeb. Woo hoo about time to a TV drama to enjoy.

What a gem this new series was to be.

How wrong could I be as it was not a new series but a one off because thos arses at the Beeb have no doubt wasted the budget on Eastenders.

No way was it screened as a one off or at least it never seemed that way to myself and it seemed to lead nicely into the next episode.

Jack Dee even starred with a nice personal/career vendetta developing with Warren Clarke the 'deputy'.

Grrr good ole Beeb drop us a taster of what could have been a good series and blow the budget elsewhere.

[Pierre]

Scrap TV license fees?

Sorry, but it really winds me up when I see the american butchering of our language used over here. I blame microsoft for the increasing rise in violations. Please everyone when you use a spell checker etc, please ensure the dictionary is set for English UK.

[ian@huth]

A point that shouldn't be forgot is that many of the channels that you may not want to watch on cable and Sky (shopping channels, etc) do not receive any of the subscription charges but pay to be on those platforms. Remove them from the package and it would probably put up the package charge and put many people out of work. You are not being forced to watch them but they are there if you do want.

My view is that they should abolish the TV licence fee and give the BBC the same revenue from direct taxation. Most households these days have TV so the cost of doing this would be spread across the entire population with people not earning enough to pay tax are not spending a higher proportion of their income on what most people consider an essential these days. Adopting this method of funding the BBC would result in huge savings as there would be no administration costs and no licence dodgers. How much of the licence fee goes to running the system?

[ntluser]

The scrapping of the licence fee reminds me of the time when general rates on houses were scrapped. The rates were subdivided so that elements included within the rates were separated out and ratepayers ending up paying more for exactly the same services.

Personally,I'd prefer to keep the licence fee as despite its faults it probably is the cheapest option.If the BBC chooses to split itself up you can bet that the money you pay will be higher.

Though people speak of choice, even NTL or Sky do not give you exactly the channels you want.Instead they craftily include popular channels with non-popular channels so that you have to buy all the packs to get all the channels worth watching or listening to.

You'll never get a situation where you will pay exactly for what you want because people would opt not to have for example,the shopping channels, but funds from those channels allow NTL and Sky to bring you the channels you do want.

I think the BBC would commercially package their channels in such a way that you would still end up getting all the channels but at a cost greater than the licence fee.

The best option in my opinion is to pay the licence fee and watch the best parts of what the BBC offers, because that can be excellent and offer real quality. No channel is perfect but by picking the best from all of them you can have,with the aid of a video recorder (or recorders!!), the best of all worlds and a great night's TV every night into the bargain.

[aliferste]

Originally Posted by towny

Anyone see The Deputy last night? Jonathan Creek on Saturday? Just two examples of what the Beeb happens to be putting out at the moment and which I happen to think are really quite good.

No and no.....do i get my money back?

[paulyoung666]

if the licence fee is scrapped i wonder how much some other form of tax would go up ?????????????? , would it really hurt to fund itself through advertising ?????????? , would it make any difference if a couple of more channels had advertising on them ??????????? , tbh i dont watch bbc that much