Should the BBC Licence Fee be Scrapped?

[Matt N]

Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting we get rid of the BBC altogether, just the draconian licence fee that financially props it up. I'm quite certain that, should the licence fee come to an end, many of the core services that these people rely upon would remain largely intact.
Having quickly scanned through this thread, most of the programs that have been mentioned so far that people seem to care about are produced by BBC Studios anyway - the commercial and hugely profitable arm of the BBC who, incidentally, made around £2 billion in profit last year.

Not quite sure what your point is here, Matt. On the one hand, you're happy to pen an email expressing outrage that the TV licence is no longer free for over 75's, then in the very next line you say that the licence fee should be kept for those people?
Which is it, bro?

But if the license fee was scrapped in favour of a different funding model, then it may end up jeopardising the ease of using the service or some other form of its current quality for certain groups, which could shut them out of using it.

I should clarify that I didn't actually send the email from my own email address in that scenario; I was more of a scribe, with my elderly relative telling me exactly what they wanted to write and me simply writing it for them on their computer from their email address. I'm not necessarily sure whether I actually shared their outrage about the matter, I was simply helping them learn how to use the computer and helping them to write that email to show them how to send somebody an email.

My last sentence was admittedly phrased poorly. I didn't necessarily mean "keep the license fee", I meant "keep the current funding model without moving to subscriptions or such", even if that did entail free license fees for over-75s or similar.

 

[Jared]

I’m all for anything that saves me money.

 

[Sandman]

Just as a follow-up on this thread, I've recently found the following website/app which I think is a really fantastic tool which many here may find beneficial.

https://ground.news/

Its main function is to expose the bias of most, if not all, media outlets and their output. You can find visual breakdowns of an outlets political leanings, a breakdown of the actual facts whilst exposing the language used by different outlets (and comparing them) as well as giving you crucial information i.e, who owns said media company and even which countries are covering specific stories.

You can literally go through and compare the headlines, language etc of the same story as published by different papers. More people need to get onto this, so that we understand why we may hold some of the opinions we do, based on the source of the information we receive.

They also have a blindspot page which gives a breakdown of articles that are under or over reported by sources from a specific political affiliation.

And no, I'm not on the payroll

 

[Smithy]

That's an interesting point which I hadn't considered. The only question I'd have would be: how come literally every other country in the world has a Freeview infrastructure (or similar) without the need for a compulsory licence fee?



Come on Smithy, you're having a laugh mate. While none of the media outlets in the UK are particularly great, to say that the BBC is the most trustworthy and reliable of the lot is, frankly, madness. As @Sandman says, you've only got to browse through the other sources to see a whole range of stories that the Beeb, for whatever reason, refuse to even touch upon.

Not at all - there's a reason it always comes out on top when it comes to surveys on most trusted news sources. Not just in the UK either, but around the world. It's one of our greatest sources of soft-power influence we have. Nobody is arguing the BBC is perfect but they are, quite literally, the most trusted news sources in this country.

 

[T0M]

I see no other funding model other than taxation that would see its impartiality preserved.

The left think it's right.
The right think it's left.
Conservatives think it's Labour.
Labour think it's Conservative.
Brexiteers think it's Remainer.
Remainers think it's Brexiteering.

Seems the truth hurts most people.

 

[Efan]

I think one important thing to note is that "central" news sources also tend to grab stories from either side of the political aisle to appeal to those further from the centre. The BBC, for example, ran a story titled "We're being pressured into sex by some trans women", and was very critical of the trans rights movement, which would be considered a right-wing viewpoint. At the same time, it has also been reporting heavily on climate change in recent months, which is (strangely) a mostly left-wing issue. Seeing this, both sides point towards the story on the opposite end of the spectrum as evidence that the BBC is biased.

While being very left-wing myself, I can see why people believe the BBC is biased towards both left- and right-wing ideologies.

 

[Christian]

The BBC, for example, ran a story titled "We're being pressured into sex by some trans women"

I remember being recommended that rubbish by Google. If that's the BBC's journalistic talent they should totally be defunded.

 

[Efan]

I remember being recommended that rubbish by Google. If that's the BBC's journalistic talent they should totally be defunded.

Hard agree.

 

[Dar]

I don't think the licence fee should be scrapped, solely because bickering about the licence fee is about as British as it gets and I never want that to go away!