Yikes, I seemed to have touched a bit of a nerve there!
Have you considered that running a live public service broadcast network for the benefit of everyone takes a fair amount of cash?
I’d also suggest that for the money, the BBC puts out an order of magnitude more content than prime, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and HBO combined each week across all its platforms. Streaming services put out very little in the way of new content and rely on their back catalogues to add value.
I also find it incredibly hard to believe that you or your family haven’t benefitted from any BBC services. I’m just not buying it.
The taking away of free licences for pensioners was an obvious stitch up by the government, they stopped proving the funding to the BBC to cover that cost. You really any use that as an anti BBC argument.
Commercialising the BBC will likely strip away what makes it world renowned for what it does. The complete lack of commercial interests and general lack of political influence in the BBC make it what it is.
Take that away and we will end up with something more akin to what the US has which is utter tripe. Hell if the government had its way, the BBC would be more like RT.
Ultimately the TV licence is a stealth tax, but it’s a steal tax worth paying to have an independent public service broadcaster for the benefit of the UK.
I’d even go as far as saying it should be mandatory for every household to be collected via counsel tax, that would cut the cost a smidge and all the admin needed to administer the TV licence.