Defund the BBC?

[Notch7]

I wondered what people think of this

Its a government narrative put out by the Cummings strategy: "control the media"
the narrative is repeated by brexiteers mostly who actively want to be told lies and spin.

the debate whether the license fee is relevant these days is a different discussion and shouldnt be conflated with this government wanting to avoid any scrutiny

 

[securespark]

As you can with income tax by not working.

You still pay tax on pensions and on some benefits.

 

[motorbiking]

I don't see this as any kind of government plot. To me, times have changed and the BBC funding model needs to reflect that many, many people with a TV simply no longer consume BBC content. It therefore isn't right that the BBC should be able to compete with the private sector while benefiting from state sponsorship.

The basic TV license should be substantially reduced to cover the TV and Radio broadcast infrastructure and all content should be subscription based or pay as you go. I hardly consume any BBC content. If it was an amazon or netflicks subscription, I would have terminated it aged ago.

If you want it - fund it.
If you don't you should be able to consume non-BBC content without having to fund.

 

[Notch7]

I don't see this as any kind of government plot. To me, times have changed and the BBC funding model needs to reflect that many, many people with a TV simply no longer consume BBC content

It's the govts narrative: " the BBC is biased against us". This government want to control the media, they want it all to be like the Telegraph: Johnsons personal propaganda rag.

Pro Tory Brexiteers are the ones screaming about the BBC and bias. The OP is a brexiteer.

I agree the BBC is an antiquated model that perhaps has no relevance these days, but that isn't the primary motivation to get rid of it.

 

[Ihavenojob]

You still pay tax on pensions and on some benefits.

Indeed, but unlike the TV tax, the less you earn, the less you pay.

 

[ajohn]

Getting completely shut of the TV license is without replacing it somehow is IMHO a bad idea. It and C4 which is also a state channel and both are still the most reliable source of news for one and many people are pretty addicted to certain program material they offer. To my mind BBC offers better general content than C4 down to the way they are funded.

SKY's model of pay and get adds hisses me off to be honest. It in real terms is TV globalisation and I don't fancy being flooded with typical USA TV. Speaking more or less the same language has caused us a number of problems over many years.

An interesting statistic on UK TV from when video recorders were widely used. Take up in the UK was very close to 1 per household, way higher than any where else as there was content worth recording.