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TV Licence Super Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken
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I know this thread goes round and round. But comedy and sport should not be subsidised for TV as it is personal Preference as it can be viewed if you pay separately.

Everyone needs roads, everyone might need a hospital etc.

As many have said a compromise for education, news, infrastructure etc could be rolled into tax and the BBC is limited to this. Substantial savings.


But east enders, sports in wages for Presenters etc could Easily be stripped out and go behind a subscription pay wall.
There's nothing I like on BBC. Nothing at all. And that's fine. This is why I don't have a TV licence. There is no national benefit to trash soaps, tacky game shows. But there is to education and news etc.

I'm also not one of those who says the BBC is super right, super left or whatever. I do think we need the critical stuff. Just not the fluff.
 
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I know this thread goes round and round. But comedy and sport should not be subsidised for TV as it is personal Preference as it can be viewed if you pay separately.

Everyone needs roads, everyone might need a hospital etc.

As many have said a compromise for education, news, infrastructure etc could be rolled into tax and the BBC is limited to this. Substantial savings.


But east enders, sports in wages for Presenters etc could Easily be stripped out and go behind a subscription pay wall.
There's nothing I like on BBC. Nothing at all. And that's fine. This is why I don't have a TV licence. There is no national benefit to trash soaps, tacky game shows. But there is to education and news etc.

I'm also not one of those who says the BBC is super right, super left or whatever. I do think we need the critical stuff. Just not the fluff.

But then the critical stuff can all be found on demand elsewhere. Usually for free. The internet has made the BBC pointless, but they want the thing which replaced them to be what props them up, while they stay in the 1990s.

This generation don't even know what a TV license is. Their first port of call for news etc is online and not even the BBC website.
 
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But then the critical stuff can all be found on demand elsewhere. Usually for free. The internet has made the BBC pointless.

I'm not sure. BBC does a lot of at source stuff. And many sources just scrape this.

Especially UK local stuff.

I'm not sure I really want more Chinese/American influence in kids education either.

I would call this critical myself. But it's fair to debate.

I'd be happy to pay 50 quid a year (let's say) for this.
 
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But that's the point, why would any other business that isn't profitable be allowed to carry on operating?
Because they provide a public service and make programmes that commercial broadcasters wouldn't. They also seem to do a lot to train up new talent and are probably one of the major reasons that the UK still has a pretty significant film and TV industry.
 
Because they provide a public service and make programmes that commercial broadcasters wouldn't. They also seem to do a lot to train up new talent and are probably one of the major reasons that the UK still has a pretty significant film and TV industry.

The BBC doesn't have much stake in the UK film industry anymore. Much of it is foreign and comes to the UK for the great tax breaks we offer to movie makers.

BBC studios doesn't a town any studios lol. The biggest ones in the UK (Carrington hangers) are privately owned.
 
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They will then start being measured heavily on viewing figures and value for money. Which is going to look awful and this won't improve that.
They are still the UKs most watched broadcaster, I believe YouTube has passed them for individual viewers per month now, but the actual time people spend watching the BBC is far higher than YouTube.
 
They are still the UKs most watched broadcaster, I believe YouTube has passed them for individual viewers per month now, but the actual time people spend watching the BBC is far higher than YouTube.

Because it's just left on the background by many people, including businesses. You can't do that with anything else.
 
Because they provide a public service and make programmes that commercial broadcasters wouldn't.
I've no what public service they provide or what valuable programmes they make, but if these sides of things is so important to everyone, then by all means fund them from a license tax.
In doing that though, you can then spin the rest of the mainstream fluff like Eastenders and Strictly off into a commercial side and that can make it's own money (via it's own subscription service or licensing to other platforms) - if the programs actually are great then people will pay for them.
 
The BBC doesn't have much stake in the UK film industry anymore. Much of it is foreign and comes to the UK for the great tax breaks we offer to movie makers.
Possibly a lot of foreign money behind the films, but a lot of British staff working on them, same for TV, there's an awful lot of TV content made here by the streamers, plenty of the staff there have come through the BBC, even a lot of the show-runners and actors.
 
and Winston knew that in 1937

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BBC studios doesn't a town any studios lol. The biggest ones in the UK (Carrington hangers) are privately owned.
New Broadcasting House is owned by the BBC (iirc) and incorporates TV and Radio studios. They do own other properties but a lot of studios the BBC use are leased (Elstree is AXA; Roath Lock Welsh government etc) and managed through BBC Studioworks (in turn BBC Studios).

Although i'm not quite sure what Cardington Studios (hangar 2) comes into all of this, as i don't believe the BBC have ever owned/leased/managed it and (as a production studio) has always been privately owned and leased to Warner Bros and the likes :confused:

Because it's just left on the background by many people, including businesses. You can't do that with anything else.
A fair few of the streaming platforms have 'autoplay', like Youtube; so yes, you can leave it on in the background if you wish.
 
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New Broadcasting House is owned by the BBC (iirc) and incorporates TV and Radio studios. They do own other properties but a lot of studios the BBC use are leased (Elstree is AXA; Roath Lock Welsh government etc) and managed through BBC Studioworks (in turn BBC Studios).

Although i'm not quite sure what Cardington Studios (hangar 2) comes into all of this, as i don't believe the BBC have ever owned/leased/managed it and (as a production studio) has always been privately owned and leased to Warner Bros and the likes :confused:


A fair few of the streaming platforms have 'autoplay', like Youtube; so yes, you can leave it on in the background if you wish.

They will stop after a certain amount of time with a user prompt, you can't just leave them running all day like you can TV.

Cardington is where the big movies usually go. Rather than use the BBC for anything.


Maybe they've seen some actual sense

I thought they closed BBC Three years ago. Not that I've watched TV since 2020
 
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Not really, they have no choice.
Good, every other broadcaster/streaming service/media platform has to figure out how to operate without being bailed out, so I'm glad to see they finally realise they need to cut the minority stuff in order to be able to pay the bills.

If it continues it risks fading into irrelevance.
It already is irrelevant. Let it die already.

Once its gone the soft power aspect is not something we will regain.
No idea what this means
 
No idea what this means
Then you dont even understand what you are losing. I suggest researching the world service in particular and how it benefits the UK. Now we could retain the world service but if the wider BBC falls away it will lose its influence eventually.

It already is irrelevant. Let it die already.
In your opinion.
 
They will stop after a certain amount of time with a user prompt, you can't just leave them running all day like you can TV.

Cardington is where the big movies usually go. Rather than use the BBC for anything.



I thought they closed BBC Three years ago. Not that I've watched TV since 2020
They did and it went online only but they eventually brought it back as rhe iplayer only thing wasn't getting good viewer numbers.
 
Then you dont even understand what you are losing. I suggest researching the world service in particular and how it benefits the UK. Now we could retain the world service but if the wider BBC falls away it will lose its influence eventually.


In your opinion.
I did and its soft power has collapsed, getting weaker by the year. The BBC has become politically divided, bias and that’s not opinion its fact. Criticism for the BBC now comes from every side, left, right even centre. In short, its soft power is weaker than many assume, its domestic trust and prestige have declined massively in recent decades and getting worse by the year while getting more polarised. The BBC is in steady downward spiral that has been going on for years with no signs of getting better.
 
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