BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen • Hacker News Board

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#71

Post by pydry » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

bambataa wrote: post #61

chrisseaton wrote: post #20

The BBC's version of the article at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60014514 . > The BBC has declined to comment. Nothing more BBC than the BBC writing an article about the BBC saying that the BBC haven't commented.

Peak BBC is making a story about the BBC headline news on the BBC news website. As if anyone else cared when they opened their new offices. I’ve never really understood the rage the licence fee provokes in a certain type of voter and I have little faith that any replacement proposed by this government will be an improvement.

The "rage" was largely amplified by the Murdoch press who have been irked at having competition for decades.

A large contingent of the UK population can be reliably provoked into outrage when the necessity arises. This is largrly how unchecked power is wielded in British politics. Splitting the country down the middle in a fit of fury over Brexit and then sewing it back up was similarly provoked.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#72

Post by iso1210 » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

thinkingemote wrote: post #65

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #35

I’m not sure how much cut through this has had outside of the UK, but the government are currently in serious trouble because of constant leaks about parties in Number 10 Downing Street during the pandemic - including a particularly poorly timed one the day before the Queen was photographed at her husband’s funeral alone. The leaks are ongoing, so we know that this particular plan is part of “Operation Red Meat”, whi…

originally from the Sunday Times, pasted here because paywall https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/s54g7c/boris_jo... The other changes are: •Announce a No 10 workplace “booze ban” in an effort to end the drinking culture in “Club Downing Street”. •Freeze the BBC licence fee for two years to help the cost of living. •Hand to the military control of the battle to stop illegal immigrants in the Channel. •Unveil…

> •Freeze the BBC licence fee for two years to help the cost of living.

Hilarious. Even a 10% License Fee increase would cost about £8 per adult per year

Meanwhile the tax rise they're implementing next month will cost an average £300 per adult per year, and increase costs on employers by the same amount.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#73

Post by iso1210 » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:09 PM UTC

mkdirp wrote: post #63

fiftyacorn wrote: post #26

I have issues with the BBC - especially its partisan news reporting on the current government and its performance during the Scottish independence referendum, but would still like it to exist I find BBC drama is consistently of a high quality - and unlike the paid services i can watch 6 episodes and its pretty much ended. Everything on netflix/prime is like 10 seasons of 20 episodes Sad times - but im sure Rupert Mur…

> especially its partisan news reporting on the current government I just want to say that the BBC has had partisan claims by people from all the aisles. The BBC tends to be more left leaning and progressive with a lot of its coverage, I'm assuming that's mostly because journalists tend to be, however there have been certain "coincidences" when it comes to Conservative coverage. I don't know whether or not they're pa…

Most journalists have degrees and are aged between 20 and 50. That demographic is certainly "left leaning". The tory base is

* Old people who don't work

* People with little education, who aren't skilled enough to work as a journalist

https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/12/how-britain-voted-and-...

You (or whoever is downvoting) might not like that, but the fact is that in the UK context the country is left leaning, but elects the tories because of the split in the left

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#74

Post by 1cvmask » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:13 PM UTC

cracrecry wrote: post #28

One of the great things of the Licence fee was that the Government does not get to control the national TV like it does when the one who pays is it directly. In places like Spain the national TV(and regional TV too) becomes a propaganda machine for the exclusive service of the Government(s, national and regional). It is awful to have your taxes redirected for the private interest of the Party in charge. In fact with…

The BBC is a propaganda mouthpiece of the state just like everywhere else. Even private media outfits in the UK are mouthpieces of the state like Reuters and Bellingcat.

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-of...

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-02-25/Reuters-BBC-participat...

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#75

Post by nerdawson » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:13 PM UTC

dazc wrote: post #42

fiftyacorn wrote: post #26

I have issues with the BBC - especially its partisan news reporting on the current government and its performance during the Scottish independence referendum, but would still like it to exist I find BBC drama is consistently of a high quality - and unlike the paid services i can watch 6 episodes and its pretty much ended. Everything on netflix/prime is like 10 seasons of 20 episodes Sad times - but im sure Rupert Mur…

ITV also make short drama series which are often better, in my opinion, and manage to do this without threatening to send people to jail for not contributing financially. You can subscribe for £3.99 to have an almost ad-free experience too. I doubt the BBC could compete at this level as a subscription only service in its current state though? Worth noting also, the prevelance of BBC ads for its own content which have…

BBC and ITV shared coverage of the Euros last year and their streaming offerings couldn’t have been more different.

The BBC were airing matches in 4K HDR and their service ran without a hitch.

ITV, on the other hand, a private company, had a site which crumbled under load. When it did eventually work, it was so poor as to be laughable. It probably wouldn’t even be considered HD and the frame rate couldn’t keep up.

It became a running joke on social media.

As much as I dislike the license fee, I do appreciate the services and content it funds. Non-partisan, non-commercial news is particularly valuable. I’m glad our TV news hasn’t descended into US style garbage yet.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#76

Post by dijit » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:13 PM UTC

What is interesting is that the BBC have been reporting recently on the sitting government's complete disregard for their own rules w.r.t lockdowns.

It began with Matt Hancock breaking COVID distancing rules and cheating on his wife with his aide.

Now it's a slow burn leak of more and more damning evidence that they've held parties- while the police force have openly stated that they "do not prosecute crimes retroactively".

All in all it's a bit of a shit-show and I'm not convinced that this isn't a form of retribution, especially since yesterday a tory backbencher accused the BBC of trying to incite a coup against the conservative government: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/michael-fabri...

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#77

Post by afandian » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:15 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #43

cracrecry wrote: post #28

One of the great things of the Licence fee was that the Government does not get to control the national TV like it does when the one who pays is it directly. In places like Spain the national TV(and regional TV too) becomes a propaganda machine for the exclusive service of the Government(s, national and regional). It is awful to have your taxes redirected for the private interest of the Party in charge. In fact with…

The BBC is welcome to encrypt their broadcasts and sell subscriptions directly.

How does this work with radio?

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#78

Post by tyingq » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:16 PM UTC

cromka wrote: post #31

cracrecry wrote: post #28

One of the great things of the Licence fee was that the Government does not get to control the national TV like it does when the one who pays is it directly. In places like Spain the national TV(and regional TV too) becomes a propaganda machine for the exclusive service of the Government(s, national and regional). It is awful to have your taxes redirected for the private interest of the Party in charge. In fact with…

> In places like Spain Spain? Spain pales in comparison with Poland. Where they collect the license fee, too.

Depends on what you compare. State control of television given things like the Catalonian crisis probably swing the bar.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#79

Post by Nextgrid » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

verytrivial wrote: post #21

bennysomething wrote: post #7

Good. Currently I'm forced to pay for content I dont consume.

Mate, you're going to spit blood when you hear about all the roads, hospitals and armed forces you're paying for but not directly using.

Roads can't easily bill for usage and a vast majority of people relies on them, thus the easiest & most efficient way is to make everyone pay for them through taxes, though you do pay more if you own a car via extra taxes on car registrations & fuel.

Hospitals can technically be billed per-use but the US is a real life example of why the system doesn't work in practice. You could also argue it's a necessity for life and everyone should have the right to medical treatment.

Armed forces? We're gonna disagree big time on that one but that would be off-topic.

But the BBC? It's something that's not necessary to life, affordable and trivial technical solutions exist to make it paid per-use (pay TV existed for decades and streaming platforms have solved the "online paid subscription TV" problem) instead of threatening people into paying and producing a significant amount of paper waste as a side-effect.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#80

Post by tristanperry » Sun, Jan 16, 2022, 1:17 PM UTC

Freskis wrote: post #40

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #35

I’m not sure how much cut through this has had outside of the UK, but the government are currently in serious trouble because of constant leaks about parties in Number 10 Downing Street during the pandemic - including a particularly poorly timed one the day before the Queen was photographed at her husband’s funeral alone. The leaks are ongoing, so we know that this particular plan is part of “Operation Red Meat”, whi…

Your comment does't make any sense. You are saying that the Conservative party are making this huge change to distract from their current problems. Are you saying they created the entire plan in a few weeks? Do you have any evidence for your extraordinary claims?

That's what multiple newspapers including The Times are reporting, yes.

Since Boris' job is on the line, he's apparently panicking and due to roll out a series of popularist policies next week.