The Student Room Group

BBC and licence fee should be dramaically reduced in size

Why on earth do we need so many radio stations and television channels? BBC Online is also a massive pile to tripe that we can all live without.

The BBC should be reduced to being a public service broadcaster that focuses on local news, the rest can be placated by private companies such as sky. Channel 4 can take up a lot of the PSB too.

The licence fee should be scrapped and the new BBC should be funded from tax or donations. The BBC should be nothing more than an impartial news and politics organisation.

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Reply 1
Nah.
Original post by muthalganesan18
Why on earth do we need so many radio stations and television channels? BBC Online is also a massive pile to tripe that we can all live without.

The BBC should be reduced to being a public service broadcaster that focuses on local news, the rest can be placated by private companies such as sky. Channel 4 can take up a lot of the PSB too.

The licence fee should be scrapped and the new BBC should be funded from tax or donations. The BBC should be nothing more than an impartial news and politics organisation.

If you don't like it then you don't need to pay for it. That's why the license currently exists. If it was a mandatory tax there would be tonnes of uproar.
Original post by blootle456
If you don't like it then you don't need to pay for it. That's why the license currently exists. If it was a mandatory tax there would be tonnes of uproar.


That's kind of the problem behind it, you're supposed to have a license for watching any channel or streaming TV over the internet, for any channel not just the BBC.

The rules need changing completely, they're about 50 years out of date.
Reply 4
It's £145 odd per household and you can pay monthly and split it between flatmates. The moaning and complaining about it is ridiculous. It provides a very good service and produces some cracking TV which brings in huge sums of money.
Original post by DSilva
It's £145 odd per household and you can pay monthly and split it between flatmates. The moaning and complaining about it is ridiculous. It provides a very good service and produces some cracking TV which brings in huge sums of money.


It brings in money because people are threatened with prison for not paying it, nothing to do with the stuff they produce. Of course if the BBC did move to a subscription model very few people would pay, for good reason too.
The BBC needs to be defunded or heavily cut down, nonsense like Pidgin English language is a total money sink.
If we scrapped the fee, the BBC would probably start introducing ad breaks (something it prides itself on not doing).
Although I imagine advertisers would pay a fortune for a 30 second slot in the middle of strictly come dancing or Wimbledon
Original post by Andrew97
Although I imagine advertisers would pay a fortune for a 30 second slot in the middle of strictly come dancing or Wimbledon

Haha. 😅
Reply 9
Original post by jameswhughes
It brings in money because people are threatened with prison for not paying it, nothing to do with the stuff they produce. Of course if the BBC did move to a subscription model very few people would pay, for good reason too.

Not true. It sells its shows to other countries and brings in a fortune. Like Dr Who for example. Any evidence that 'very few people would pay for it'? No, I thought not. Over 85% of people use some form of BBC service on a weekly basis.

It produces cracking TV, comedies, documentaries etc. How many people were obsessed with Bodyguard for example? Or how many people love Strictly Come Dancing? Or Gavin and Stacey? Or the Office? Or David Attenborough's documentaries? People by a large margin prefer BBC coverage of sporting events such as the World Cup. In 2016, 9 of the 10 most watched episodes on TV were episodes of the Bake Off. It's a very popular station.

It's a great service and rather cheap too. £145 per year which can be split between flatmates and paid in instalments.
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 10
Original post by Andrew97
If we scrapped the fee, the BBC would probably start introducing ad breaks (something it prides itself on not doing).
Although I imagine advertisers would pay a fortune for a 30 second slot in the middle of strictly come dancing or Wimbledon

The no adverts is the best thing about it. It's great being able to watch an hour long episode/ documentary without a 4 minute break every 15 minutes.
Bodyguard is blooming amazing.
Original post by DSilva
The no adverts is the best thing about it. It's great being able to watch an hour long episode/ documentary without a 4 minute break every 15 minutes.

Yep, that’s the BBCs main selling point in my view.
They couldn’t realistically continue with the no ads model without the licence fee. It’s nice that you can watch docs and episodes without an ad break.
Original post by muthalganesan18
Why on earth do we need so many radio stations and television channels? BBC Online is also a massive pile to tripe that we can all live without.


Have you ever watched TV in the US? It is horrendous. Everything that is good in this country stems from the BBC. The BBC feeds the independent channels that only play repeats of BBC classics of old. I will happily pay my £140 a year to not have ad breaks every 10 minutes.
Reply 14
Original post by Obolinda
Haha. 😅


It's a valuable audience - and advertisers would certainly pay £££ to reach them.

30 secs in the X Factor final used to cost about £200k, although that's probably dropped now with falling audiences. And Strictly has a bigger audience.
I think I must be the only one who wouldn't mind the ads. Gives a break to go make a cuppa tea, go loo, get a snack, take a call etc etc.
Reply 16
i agree it's tooo high
Pause the telly?
Original post by Obolinda
Pause the telly?

Don't have one.
Oh right, ok.

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