I would class the BBC as being conservative with a small c in terms of values, but left of centre politically. If the BBC is liberal why can't you buy Dennis Potter's Blackeyes on DVD? I don't think showing say a Muslim comedy season makes you any more liberal than say channel 4 that had a pot season as it is about intent. The BBC were criticised for being "too white" and we get crap programming nobody wants to watch. Scrapping the license would fix it.
Channel 4 is now constant gardening, baking and cooking shows might as well be BBC 2.
I would disagree with the 'conservative' thing. I think taking an 'average' of the UK population as a whole, the BBC makes and presents stuff which challenges that 'average' view, in other words it challenges the social status quo. This is infact what pisses off so many people (including me quite often, and 'the usual suspects' on here, very often), it preaches to viewers on how we should all be completely non-racist, completely non-sexist, completely liberal in every way, and how we are all lacking in some way in that regard. We must be ashamed of many aspects of our history, we should be ashamed of women not being represented the full 50% in every job or position of importance, and we should be happy to have it rammed down our throats with every Drama, Feature and Documentary they make.
While the sentiments they're making are in the main laudable, for the vast majority of people they're preaching to the converted (and therefore just pissing them off by making them feel inadequate/guilty) and probably missing their intended targets because they're either not watching in the first place, or if they are it just goes right over their thick heads.
I can vaguely remember Black Eyes and I do remember the social comment it made at the time. I do also remember it being quite controversial, but it was
'OK because it's Dennis Potter'. I have no idea whether the lack of a currently available DVD is because of that, or simply that it was never particularly popular at the time and in any case it was a long time ago, so why
would it be available? Or perhaps it wouldn't be available now because it would be politically sensitive to do so?
Comparing the BBC directly with Channel 4 is never particularly valid, because although C4 is publicly-owned (which no-one ever seems to realise) you don't pay a licence fee to fund it. The BBC comes under far more scrutiny than any other channel, gets kicked around like a political football far more than any other channel, purely for the fact that everyone has an opinion about it because they have to pay for it,
directly and in a directly-quantifiable way (£154 pa). That's normal, and I would say justified too, and for that reason the BBC spends far more time justifying what it does than any other broadcasting organisation. Of course we all pay for C4 and indeed every other commercial channel, every time we go shopping. But we pay for it 'invisibly' and in an unquantifiable way, so far fewer people have strong opinions on its output, because they can simply 'turn over and watch something else'.
Everyone who pays their licence fee wants to see stuff
they want to see, and many are resentful that stuff gets shown which they disagree with. The more British society changes, and the more there are other channels to choose from, the more difficult it gets for the BBC to justify its privileged position. In a very diverse society, it gets harder and harder to please all the people for enough of the time.
I would argue that makes it ever more important, not less. And so long as it can to a large extent show its political impartiality (by comparison with other UK broadcasters),
reflect society without the perception that its preaching to us, do that in a demonstrably and comparably thrifty way, and retain enough of those very diverse viewers to demonstrate value for money, then it has a chance of on-going survival.
That survival also depends of course, on the govt of the day (and govts of the day always dislike or are suspicious of the BBC) holding proper public consulttion before making radical changes to it.
