The BBC should be privatised and made to earn its keep, just like all the other broadcasters. There is no longer any reason why it should be entitled to levy a tax on the mere possession of a TV set, regardless of what it is used for, for that is what the TV Licence is in reality.
It is a public scandal that O.A.P.s should be forced to pay almost £200 a year just to OWN a TV, and it is a simple enough matter for the BBC (as with all the other paysites) to restrict viewing to its contributors.
The problem is that we have a bloated giant of a monopoly which can waste enormous sums of money paying ridiculous salaries to employees and contractors who might otherwise have to work for a living, and all without having to account responsibly for the expenditure.
There is, for instance, no justification whatever in forcing an elderly person (or anyone else for that matter) who has absolutely no interest in football to contribute to the ridiculous sum of £2,000,000 a year paid to a retired footballer for merely introducing a 90 minute programme once a week, or, for that matter, the £500,000 to someone who reads the news once a day or who "presents" a half hour weekly `phone in programme.
Remove BBC`s monopoly and we should very quickly find out just what the public thinks it`s worth.
Depends whether you think it ought to be 'just like other broadcasters'.
If that happened, the BBC would undoubtedly survive, and survive well, but it wouldn't be 'the BBC'. Other broadcasters would take a big hit from their advertising revenue because advertisers would want to put their ads on the BBC.
I guess the basic thing about the BBC is that it's a bit like the NHS in that everyone pays a little bit, and there's a lot of stuff on there, whenever you want it. Things become tricky when not enough people use it enough, and start questioning its existence, at least in its current form.
The other thing to consider is that a lot of people don't like the fact that their own personal politics aren't 'agreed with', and if you're paying to hear what you don't agree with then you don't like it.
Another thing to consider is that no telly is 'free', you pay for the 'free' independent channels every time you go shopping, whether you like it or not.
The OAP thing...that is indeed a scandal, at a late stage in the last licence fee negotiations with the then govt, they suddenly decided to put this on the table as a condition of the new settlement, and IMO the BBC should have fought it. It was basically a demographic stitch-up which was always going to kick them in the balls. It's a bit like saying that your energy provider should pay your winter fuel allowance. Clearly, any such allowance should come from the govt, and if they want to curtail the BBC's funding then do it through the front door, where the public can see what's going on, and not the back door. It was worded something like 'at the end of a certain period the BBC will become responsible for what to do with the over-75 free licence deal.' But basically, the govt had the BBC over a barrel.
I think the licence fee model will gradually disappear, it just depends whether the govt will allow it enough time to transition gradually as the TV market evolves.
Regarding BBC 'salaries to the stars', they generally won't be any more than ITV but of course the BBC's funding model means it's under great scrutiny. AFAIK, as contracts come up for renewal, they are generally renegotiated for less, but a lot of people are still complaining about Jonathan Ross and Gary Lineker, and they were years ago. Jonathan Ross buggered off to ITV (partly because of the Andrew Sachs fiasco) and you'll now see Lineker on other channels as well as the BBC, because his pay got cut and he needs to work around now. A bit rich in his case, that now he chooses to kick the BBC in the balls by questioning the licence fee which kept him in clover for so long.
There
does need to be an open and public debate about the future and future funding of the BBC, but the public owns the BBC so it should have a good say in it. But a govt which doesn't particularly care for the BBC shouldn't be allowed to cut it to bits simply off its own bat.
