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BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

theguardian.com

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

#141

Post by ur-whale »

open-source-ux wrote: post #135

'Linear TV' (broadcast TV) is dead and the BBC probably have known this for some time. The idea of a TV schedule feels antiquated today amid unprecedented on-demand content. On commercial streaming services, only prestige series (seasons) are released weekly, everything else gets a whole series released in one go. (The BBC already does this on iPlayer for some series.) It's worth remembering that the BBC is a Public…

If, as you say, they're so indispensable and useful, they should have zero worries making their money like everyone else instead of plundering the public by force, including those would don't want to consume what they produce.

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

#142

Post by youngtaff »

iso1210 wrote: post #73
mkdirp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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, b…

When papers like the Sun and Mail are the most popular in the UK I think it's hard to agree that Britain overall is left leaning

As for the BBC it's firmly establishment leaning rather than left leaning in my view, and they also carry a lot of the blame for promoting Farage's poltics e.g. more appearances on question time than anyone else

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

#143

Post by pessimizer »

mschuster91 wrote: post #89
ssddanbrown wrote: post #9

I like much of what the BBC do and produce, especially BBC news, but the licence fee has always felt like a relic from the past with a bad strategy of enforcement (With their threatening letters and misguiding terminology as to when a license is required). Their actual broadcast service is lacking in some areas too. On BBC One HD I still get a blank place-holder screen for local news, advising to switch to the non-HD…

> I hope the BBC continues to survive, just with a more modern funding approach Difficult. There are not many ways to fund a public TV/radio program, and all of the non-per-household-license free-OTA variants have issues: - anything tax-based is just asking for trouble aka a populist government extorting the public stations after critical coverage - ad-funded... well that's just ordinary private TV, with the threat h…

> - anything tax-based is just asking for trouble aka a populist government extorting the public stations after critical coverage

Why a populist government? It seems that it's consistently Tory governments that do this, or even threaten it. If Tory politicians are populist, than the word has no meaning.

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

#144

Post by tannhaeuser »

IAmEveryone wrote: post #118
tannhaeuser wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Don't know about that. Here in Germany public state broadcasters have a board elected by parties, churches, unions and other large bodies aiming, on paper, for proportional representation. The results are insufferable, mediocre palliative-care TV shows, corrup…

Their coverage is well within the range of opinion of every political party except far-right AfD. As such, it represents >90% of the voters in last year‘s election. They are not neutral when it comes to values such as democracy itself, and expecting them to be is silly.

> They are not neutral when it comes to values such as democracy itself, and expecting them to be is silly.

That's exactly the kind of Skinner box reflex conditioned by public news I was talking about.

You know, there are good reasons to defend a civil society threatened by lockdowns, unconstitutional curfews, contact bans, and restricting freedom of assembly. And to criticize our government's over-reaching, yet ineffective counter-measures such as contact tracing and plans for compulsory vaccination in the absence of any facts regarding its long-term consequences (in fact, when all that's known is that its effect lasts about 3 months).

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

#145

Post by [deleted] »

IAmEveryone wrote: post #118
tannhaeuser wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Don't know about that. Here in Germany public state broadcasters have a board elected by parties, churches, unions and other large bodies aiming, on paper, for proportional representation. The results are insufferable, mediocre palliative-care TV shows, corrup…

Their coverage is well within the range of opinion of every political party except far-right AfD. As such, it represents >90% of the voters in last year‘s election. They are not neutral when it comes to values such as democracy itself, and expecting them to be is silly.

[deleted]

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

#146

Post by pessimizer »

Freskis wrote: post #57
fiftyacorn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are pro-government, pro-union - but the point is BBC news should be non-partisan

I would say most UK people consider the BBC to be impartial and neutral, except perhaps for people with more extreme political opinions.

> except perhaps for people with more extreme political opinions.

Like the people who supported Corbyn, or Scottish independence? You're characterizing people who were a few points from winning as extremists.

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

#147

Post by retrac »

cmacleod4 wrote: post #124
Nextgrid wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is radio covered by the license? But on a technical level it should be possible with DAB which actually has some adoption in the UK unlike most other countries.

Restricting DAB reception would be pointless unless they also turned off all non-digital am/fm broadcasts, which I think is unlikely. I believe there was once a separate BBC radio license, but they gave up on that long ago. So now BBC radio is financed from the TV licence fee, but there's no requirement to have a TV licence to listen to radio.

> unless they also turned off all non-digital am/fm broadcasts, which I think is unlikely

Very unlikely at present. Tangential fun fact: the ongoing broadcast of BBC Radio 4 on longwave is (one of?) the means by which British nuclear deterrence submarines ensure Britain hasn't been destroyed.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manches...

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

#148

Post by zahllos »

makomk wrote: post #33
iso1210 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing to do with stuff like this: Michael Fabricant, the Conservative MP for Lichfield, has said that the BBC has launched a “coup attempt” against Boris Johnson after hearing a news bulletin which criticised the PM over lockdown parties held at No. 10. Speaking yesterday, Mr Fabricant said: “BBC Radio 4 Bulletin leads this morning with a manufactured story of what some MPs have said to the BBC. This is not news re…

That's obviously pissing off the government right now, but honestly it's the least of the problems with their Covid-19 news coverage. They kept on pushing both false and misleading claims about the UK doing worse at stuff than other countries, in at least one case that I know of for a month in an article linked from the BBC news front page after they became aware it was false. (The government made a big deal about re…

Agree. While I can't help but feel the timing of this announcement is deeply cynical given the appalling behaviour of number 10 staff and Boris, I also feel the BBC's editorialising has gone too far.

A good place to see this is actually on the Radio, particularly things like the Today programme and Radio 5 live. Brexit was a stark example of the same kind of coverage. Regardless of what you think of Brexit, they gave only lip service to the idea of any kind of reasoned debate (to be clear, I am not commenting either way, although I have lived in Europe for the better part of a decade and speak multiple EU languages fluently). 5 Live's 'debates' often descended into acrimony.

Boris actually banned ministers from appearing on the Today programme of the BBC at one stage, which to use a current favourite term amongst reporters is 'unprecedented'.

Don't get me wrong, the government needs to be held to account and I'm fine with the BBC roasting the government over partygate, but the BBC is a public service broadcaster that is supposed to be impartial as much as is possible. If the journalists prefer to follow an editorial line, they can move to a newspaper outlet aligning with their views. The BBC don't need to stick to the government lines either, but they should present the facts and host civil debates and BBC journalists should hold themselves to strict impartiality rules.

I think they've long annoyed conservative ministers. I'm not sure I think partygate is going too far (unlike say the relentless negativity you mention during the pandemic) but clearly Ministers have now decided to act and I can't say the BBC made a great case for themselves.

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

#149

Post by madeofpalk »

ssddanbrown wrote: post #9

I like much of what the BBC do and produce, especially BBC news, but the licence fee has always felt like a relic from the past with a bad strategy of enforcement (With their threatening letters and misguiding terminology as to when a license is required). Their actual broadcast service is lacking in some areas too. On BBC One HD I still get a blank place-holder screen for local news, advising to switch to the non-HD…

> I hope the BBC continues to survive, just with a more modern funding approach.

"The Problem" with the ABC in Australia is that it's funded by the government, so the government can cut/freeze (and raise, one could imagine!) funding.

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

#150

Post by chrisseaton »

odiroot wrote: post #110
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.

This is great journalistic integrity. I applaud them for that.

Reporting on yourself is the polar opposite of journalistic integrity.

Reporting on yourself but not even noting to the reader that you're reporting on yourself is worse yet.

Writing a named-author analysis piece about yourself, which they have here at the end of the article, is reaching insanity level.

The BBC shouldn't report on the BBC.

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