BBC license fee ‘to be abolished in 2027’. What will that mean?

[JimW]

None of them provide any content I want to see.

Huw Edwards has a lovely speaking voice, well worth it

 

[redsquirrel]

None of them provide any content I want to see.

I've got a bit of a soft spot for Laverne - but clearly she should not be paid anything like that.

 

[bimble]

Did they announce it now because they think it’ll be popular or just because they know people will happily argue about it for a while instead of focussing on the ridiculous mess that’s going on in government. Maybe they weren’t actually hoping for it to be popular just knew it’d be distracting.

 

[Serge Forward]

BBC news is mostly establishment shite, while it's general programming is hit and miss, and can go from the sublime to the ridiculous. The lack of adverts is always a positive and makes it the best of a bad bunch.

Though the beeb has spent years puckering up to the Tories' wheeto, it'll still get a kicking, because the government is doing this as part of it's anti woke culture war bullshit, and also because it's a nice populist distraction from its current woes.

What will remain of the BBC is likely to be the most mainstream and inane crap side of things. Good quality documentaries will change towards more of the fly on the wall type bollocks, BBC4 will go, as will the different languages channels, radio will be decimated and the news will continue to be shite.

 

[JimW]

The current model is commissioning from independents largely anyway, isn't it? I suppose you still need a big institution to do the longer term stuff like Planet Earth but they're not actually making much in house anyway.

 

[Plumdaff]

The whole budget of S4C and Radio Cymru would cost every person in Wales about £2 a month. I'd happily pay that, although I'd like to think about how we could make it more genuinely diverse, regional and public. And my Welsh is basic and terrible.

I also find arguments that presenters are paid too much alongside otherwise slavish devotion to market forces a bit nonsensical.

 

[bimble]

I don’t watch tv news at all but when people go on about how terrible the bbc news is I just think about the state of the news tv options in other countries and idk it can’t be anywhere near as bad as most of that.
Last year is the very first time I paid for a license fee, just got fed up of the letters. Did feel some resentment cos i use it so little but still would choose to pay for it to survive if it meant a bit more on the tax bill.

 

[Pickman's model]

They will dismantle the BBC, then the NHS, they have already decimated the care sector.

Tbh they have already dismantled the BBC which is really a commissioning body now. How many programmes are actually made by the BBC now instead of for them?

 

[Lord Camomile]

The whole budget of S4C and Radio Cymru would cost every person in Wales about £2 a month. I'd happily pay that, although I'd like to think about how we could make it more genuinely diverse, regional and public. And my Welsh is basic and terrible.

I also find arguments that presenters are paid too much alongside otherwise slavish devotion to market forces a bit nonsensical.

Presumably it would cost more than £2 a month as other people decided not to (or couldn't) happily pay that.

I've said before, I think the BBC is far from perfect, but I'm honestly not sure how the alternative is preferable. In the current climate, at least, I can't see many of peoples' complaints about the BBC being resolved by whatever would replace it.

But that's not rhetorical, genuinely don't know and genuinely curious if anyone has any suggestions.

 

[MickiQ]

Maybe it will help with GBNews viewing figures.

Nah the only thing that will help with that is a firmware update on the tv so that they automatically switch to it every 10 mins

 

[Carvaged]

Well I don't use 99% of the roads, railways, pipes, electricity lines, shops, parks, forests, houses etc. Blow them all up imo, they're all useless.

 

[Supine]

I see the dead cat is working

 

[oryx]

Really?

This needs to be looked at in the context of what other broadcasters pay their presenters.

And yes, I know one of the counter-arguments is that it's funded publicly, i.e. by a compulsory (if you want to have a TV) licence fee.

It's the same argument as some public servants (civil servants, local government bosses etc. being paid 'more than the Prime Minister'. Using TAXPAYERS' MONEY

And with that you have the counter-argument of attracting and retaining 'talent' (yes, I know that is debatable in the context of some of these).

The problem is a general one of obscenely high pay, obscene in the context of the enormous and increasing gap between the well-paid and low paid. And it's a general one, not just relevant to broadcasting, obviously.

And again stating the obvious, abolishing the licence fee isn't going to make it go away.

 

[Gromit]

I also find arguments that presenters are paid too much alongside otherwise slavish devotion to market forces a bit nonsensical.

Once upon a time TV advertising was effective and lucrative.
This ploughed huge revenues into the industry and salaries accordingly.

Now it doesn't and so industry salaries should reflect the new reality not the past.

In my opinion the same goes for any industry that ain't as successful any more. Just cause 18th century opera singers were like millionaires back then doesn't mean they should be now when hardly any fucker goes to the opera any more.

 

[elbows]

Once upon a time TV advertising was effective and lucrative.
This ploughed huge revenues into the industry and salaries accordingly.

Now it doesn't and so industry salaries should reflect the new reality not the past.

In my opinion the same goes for any industry that ain't as successful any more. Just cause 18th century opera singers were like millionaires back then doesn't mean they should be now when hardly any fucker goes to the opera any more.

TV advertising revenue still amounts to billions per year.

There are challenges including the implications of video on demand, but thats part of the reason why live sports are given vast amounts of money for tv rights.

 

[bimble]

Half the ads on American (& other) tv are for pharmaceuticals, and that wouldn’t work here, or not until the nhs is properly dismantled anyway.

 

[Pickman's model]

TV advertising revenue still amounts to billions per year.

There are challenges including the implications of video on demand, but thats part of the reason why live sports are given vast amounts of money for tv rights.

I am always surprised by how wrong gromit can be on every subject he posts about

 

[Gromit]

TV advertising revenue still amounts to billions per year.

There are challenges including the implications of video on demand, but thats part of the reason why live sports are given vast amounts of money for tv rights.

TV advertising was king. Like 90% expenditure was TV and 10% print.

Now it's spread across Search Engines, Internet Ads, Video embeds, print, TV, Sport sponsorships, celeb endorsements, Influencers and the list goes on.

It's big money still but it ain't nowhere near as big as it was.

 

[bimble]

I think we are living in a confused transition period and at the other end of it will be block subscription services, like one fee for this collected group of media providers one for another block of them, the current system where you’re supposed to pay for every online news source & streaming channel separately is temporary & unsustainable. How those deals are made which lump media together will probably have pretty profound consequences.

 

[JimW]

After the general collapse we'll all be back to stories round the campfire and eager for titbits from any traveller across the wastelands anyway.

 

[Raheem]

After the general collapse we'll all be back to stories round the campfire and eager for titbits from any traveller across the wastelands anyway.

An oblique reference to U75, I take it.

 

[Gromit]

After the general collapse we'll all be back to stories round the campfire and eager for titbits from any traveller across the wastelands anyway.

Fuck Kevin Costner. If he comes anywhere near my radioactive scrub I'm setting the duckodiles on him.

 

[Sasaferrato]

The whole budget of S4C and Radio Cymru would cost every person in Wales about £2 a month. I'd happily pay that, although I'd like to think about how we could make it more genuinely diverse, regional and public. And my Welsh is basic and terrible.

I also find arguments that presenters are paid too much alongside otherwise slavish devotion to market forces a bit nonsensical.

The budget for the BBC Gaelic service is £457 per viewer per annum.

 

[JimW]

The budget for the BBC Gaelic service is £457 per viewer per annum.

If we sacked off useless shit like the royal family we could run three or four channels at those prices!

 

[Johnny Vodka]

There are no people in prison for not paying the licence fee

From that Guardian article.

Dorries said: “This licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors are over. Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.”

I don't believe it either. And since when did the Tories give two shits about people who are short of money?

 

[Pickman's model]

From that Guardian article.



I don't believe it either. And since when did the Tories give two shits about people who are short of money?

I would have thought Nadine Dorries found the thought of elderly people being threatened with prison or bailiffs knocking on doors arousing.

 

[Lord Camomile]

The budget for the BBC Gaelic service is £457 per viewer per annum.

And?

I'm nigh certain there are things that cost the public orders of magnitude more than that, and are of far less cultural value.

And I'm not talking about "high quality art and culture", but also just the culture between us all as people, who sit around and watch shite just because it's enjoyable, and then talk about it with other people, and feel considered and catered for.

As a society we can afford it, and should, if our government wasn't doing everything they could to help their mates avoid paying into, whilst simultaneously taking out of, public funds.

* ahem * so apparently that's a bit of a button...

 

[Gromit]

From that Guardian article.



I don't believe it either. And since when did the Tories give two shits about people who are short of money?

It's headline grabbing bullshit.

They do care about elderly voters though as:
1. They tend to be Tory
2. They vote in droves unlike young people who got better things to do

It won't be the last announcement as contract runs till 2027 and Labour will be in government before then.

 

[Pickman's model]

The budget for the BBC Gaelic service is £457 per viewer per annum.

Once again you know the price of everything and the value of nothing

 

[sleaterkinney]

What do you mean “replace with”? What is this bizarre view that the BBC is holding back commercialism? Most TV is already not BBC TV. And I don’t watch adverts on any of it. Meanwhile, are you making the claim that the BBC somehow don’t care about ratings? They employ Danny Dyer to do a big dumbed down game show with lots of glitz because what — it’s culturally valuable?

Murdoch and the Mail are attacking it because it’s a competitor, because they want to replace it.