The BBC really can’t read the room.
The BBC could turn it back on a flat fee and means test TV licences, with richer households paying more.
People are tuning out in their thousands. This, then is the response. Squeeze those still willing to pay.
The proposal comes as director general Tim Davie warned that the corporation has no “God-given right to exist”, as he laid the groundwork for a radical overhaul of the licence fee, which could include novel funding options.
Here’s a novel idea – support yourselves. Host advertising or go subscription. Then people who want to watch the drivel and the propaganda can pay directly for it.
“Recently one politician stated that the BBC has no ‘God-given right to exist’. I agree. I know that any sense of complacency, defensiveness or arrogance leaves institutions fatally distanced from those they serve. We can only ever be as important and relevant as the positive impact we have on society.”
Frankly, the time has come for it not to. Nothing it says can be relied upon to be true, factual or unbiased.
It is also understood more radical options such as a means test will be considered,
You won’t be means testing me. The very idea that you should set yourself up to even think about means testing people shows just how out of touch you really are. I refuse to pay for you. I despise you utterly and completely. I will pay nothing for your upkeep, let alone go through the indignity of being means tested for the privilege of having you beam your shitty propaganda into my home. I will not sully my home with your output. I will not pay for you. I will not be means tested. Go fuck yourself.
Hopefully they go for it, because it’ll go down about as well as the poll tax. You know that the millions on benefits would all be given a free pass, so the weight would fall on the average household. They’d have to pay for Mohammed, Abdul and DeShawn, so their TV fee would triple or more. Everyone would run screaming from the building into the arms of the on demand streaming services.
And the whole thing would be unworkable anyway – even HMRC don’t know what household incomes are, as the shambles over child care payments shows – they can’t differentiate between a family with one earner getting £50k and one where two people earn £45k each. They think the latter earn ‘less’ than the former because there is no mechanism to link unrelated (and unmarried) people’s incomes together. If HMRC can’t do it, how does the BBC think they are going to be able to? And then police it afterwards? They’d need a compliance department the size of HMRC, they’d be trying to determine how much every household in the country earns in real time. After all if you declared your household income to be £50k (and thats what it actually is) and were paying ‘BBC tax’ on that basis, surely if you lose your job and end up on minimum wage and UC your TV licence should immediately be free right? So how does the system allow for that? Or the converse – you get a promotion or a nice bonus. How does the BBC tax account for that?
There would be such mass avoidance, evasion and blank refusal to pay that the BBC would be bankrupted in a very short order. So its a great idea, lets hope they bring it in as soon as possible!
Here in New Zealand ,there is no TV licence ,it is all sponsored by adverts.The result is that broadcast programmes are crap ( how many variations of Love Island and Married at first sight can there be?) Hence the popularity of streaming services like Netflix.There is one government supported channel but at a” hands off” distance.The News programme is losing viewers fast and is consequently losing revenue from its advertisers such that a lot of programmes are being axed with the presenters being made redundant. Much wailing and rending of garments has ensued ,with the general public’s attitude being “Oh dear,what a pity, never mind.”
The same should happen to the BBC,it could do with a real dose of reality.
As far as the licence is concerned,for a long time I did not have a TV and despite telling them this I was still bombarded with letters threatening me with prosecution unless I got one.
Entitled Bastards the lot of them.
“I know that any sense of complacency, defensiveness or arrogance leaves institutions fatally distanced from those they serve.”
The BBC’s complete sense of complacency, defensiveness and arrogance has left this institution fatally distanced from those that they claim to serve. I think that’s what you meant to say.
“I despise you utterly and completely. I will pay nothing for your upkeep, let alone go through the indignity of being means tested for the privilege of having you beam your shitty propaganda into my home. I will not sully my home with your output. I will not pay for you. I will not be means tested. Go fuck yourself.”
Why can’t you just say what you think instead of being all wishy washy and sitting on the fence? 😉
I think he is pussy footing around because his real thoughts would have him in the Tower for hate crimes. I can understand his cautious approach. Can’t be too careful nowadays.
I suspect the ‘means-test’ provocation may be a decoy, to draw attention away from other, less palatable possibilities.
Like having the BBC funded from general taxation, so you have to pay for it even if you don’t have a TV.
Just cut off the money, and let nature take its course.
Wasn’t there a move at one point to put a ‘PC tax’ in place to fund free internet? Wonder if they’ll suggest that as a possible option, making any media-enabling device unaffordable…
The fact that they are so against advertising or allowing those who want to pay, to do so through subscription, shows that they know they would be bankrupt and history if they tried it, as not enough people want their shitty service
See also, the NHS