The BBC is state propaganda plain and simple and heavily biased towards the left wing nany state.
And yet it regularly gets complaints about being against the "state"
Re the Licence fee Freeze, the BBC has already I think been looking at that possibility and planning for it, but the Tories do seem to be getting worryingly close to Murdoch's posterior recently with various of their announced policies.
However it's also worth remembering that the Tories "plans" for the BBC in the past haven't worked out that well, I remember their plan to force it to concentrate more on "PSB" and drop a lot the "expensive" entertainment, which they eventually worked out would save the public £6 a year for a huge loss in content (much of the BBC's "entertainment" content largely pays for itself over time, and I think over it's life works out cheaper than the pure PSB which has little commercial resale value).
Whilst I don't agree completely with the licence fee, I do see the reasoning behind it - it's the only way we can have a broadcaster who is big enough to be effective, whilst at the same time not swayed by "commercial" pressures.
I look at ITV's line up, then C4's line up and finally the line up on 5 and the Sky channels and almost despair at times.
I miss the days when ITV actually had a range of content, had a functioning PSB element (they even stopped commisioning new Childrens content for 2 years if memory serves), and had regional differences/programming that wasn't just a logo at the end of the show.
Likewise C4 before they realised that BB and the like were very cheap ways to get a lot of viewers the advertisers want.
The pity of it is, that the commercial broadcasters in their eagerness to get a short term increase in profits/viewers have forgotten something very important about TV/Film/Music - a good programme might cost a lot, and may not pay for itself on first viewing, but will keep bringing in money for years (decades), the likes of X-factor/BB/I'm a Zelebrety get me on TV! are effectively one shots with little or no repeat/home video appeal.
The BBC gets a lot of complaints about being too right wing, too left wing, supporting Israel, supporting the Palistines, having too much sport, having too little sport etc, but seems to be the most balanced of the UK broadcasters in terms of tone and content much of the time.
It's also historically been the one that has spent money on R&D as it's been able to look ahead (Nicam, Digital recordings, various microphone designs, HD over freeview etc for a few minor examples).
