Should the BBC be privatised?

[DonkeyApple]

Dixie68 said:

I don't agree with the 'quality' arguments. Yes, 'Life on Earth' et al are very good, but so was 'Life After Man', (Discovery Channel), 'Yellowstone', (History Channel) and many others. How about 'Band of Brothers', (HBO)? There are many more.

But not everyone pays it anyway! I'd wager a lot of people who 'can't miss' an episode of Eastenders don't even have a TV licence.
Not one person I know who is lowly paid or on the dole has a TV licence - not one. They all get the letters but they ignore them and the few who have had an 'inspector' visit just didn't let them in. I even know of someone who is paid a great wage, has a lovely house and car who also doesn't have a licence as he says the BBC is 'crap'. He hasn't had a licence for over 15 years.
And I don't disagree with him, I only pay mine for an easy life.

Yellowstone was a BBC production.

People who watch Eastenders, or any soap opera, if not female, should be killed.

And I suspect that the chances of getting caught not paying the license are remote if you are a little bit clever about it.

[Eric Mc]

Dixie68 said:

I don't agree with the 'quality' arguments. Yes, 'Life on Earth' et al are very good, but so was 'Life After Man', (Discovery Channel), 'Yellowstone', (History Channel) and many others. How about 'Band of Brothers', (HBO)? There are many more.

But not everyone pays it anyway! I'd wager a lot of people who 'can't miss' an episode of Eastenders don't even have a TV licence.
Not one person I know who is lowly paid or on the dole has a TV licence - not one. They all get the letters but they ignore them and the few who have had an 'inspector' visit just didn't let them in. I even know of someone who is paid a great wage, has a lovely house and car who also doesn't have a licence as he says the BBC is 'crap'. He hasn't had a licence for over 15 years.
And I don't disagree with him, I only pay mine for an easy life.

Band of Brothers was a joint HBO/BBC co-production - so not a good example to pick if wanting to expose the BBC as not being good.

I find a lot of the documentaries on the science and history channels very good - but they are often reptitive, limited in scope and rarely ground breaking.

[grumbledoak]

Parrot of Doom said:

You have to be joking. Andrew Marr infuriated Gordon Brown by asking him if he was medicated. Labour ministers and MPs regularly get a beating on QT, and just listen to John Humphries on Radio 4 interviewing MPs.

Rubbish. "Red" Marr was due to interview Cameron shortly after, where he was to be much tougher. This was more a feint. QT is generally such a lefty audience that they appear hand-picked, and Labour ministers generally get an easy ride unless another panelist chooses to take the fight to them. The whole thing sucks, and privatisation is the only cure.

[thinfourth2]

grumbledoak said:

Parrot of Doom said:

You have to be joking. Andrew Marr infuriated Gordon Brown by asking him if he was medicated. Labour ministers and MPs regularly get a beating on QT, and just listen to John Humphries on Radio 4 interviewing MPs.

Rubbish. "Red" Marr was due to interview Cameron shortly after, where he was to be much tougher. This was more a feint. QT is generally such a lefty audience that they appear hand-picked, and Labour ministers generally get an easy ride unless another panelist chooses to take the fight to them. The whole thing sucks, and privatisation is the only cure.

Yeah then we can take the ITV approach where QT will be replaced by a cutting edge program looking at how our current crop of politicians can sing and dance


So if the beeb is so utterly useless then why aren't there utterly fantastic political programs on the commercial channels????

[DonkeyApple]

grumbledoak said:

Parrot of Doom said:

You have to be joking. Andrew Marr infuriated Gordon Brown by asking him if he was medicated. Labour ministers and MPs regularly get a beating on QT, and just listen to John Humphries on Radio 4 interviewing MPs.

Rubbish. "Red" Marr was due to interview Cameron shortly after, where he was to be much tougher. This was more a feint. QT is generally such a lefty audience that they appear hand-picked, and Labour ministers generally get an easy ride unless another panelist chooses to take the fight to them. The whole thing sucks, and privatisation is the only cure.

No. Privatisation means ad revenue. Strongest revs come from products for morons. This means they would have to air TV for morons.

A vote for privatisation is a vote for more Trisha, Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity, Jeremy Kyle etc.

Is that what you want Grumble? Another 7 TV channels of Jeremy Kyle. Is it?

It's totally unacceptable.

An imperfect BBC is easily more acceptable than more low brow tripe pandering to the welfare society.

A privatised company must pander to the demands of greater society. We all know that greater society are fkwits.

We have to have some entity that holds ideals different to that of the Jeremy Kyle/Loose Women generation that is the majority.

[grumbledoak]

DonkeyApple said:

A vote for privatisation is a vote for more Trisha, Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity, Jeremy Kyle etc.

Is that what you want Grumble? Another 7 TV channels of Jeremy Kyle. Is it?

I neither watch, nor pay for, any of that rubbish. I don't watch, but am forced to pay for, the BBC's rubbish.

[Dixie68]

Eric Mc said:

Band of Brothers was a joint HBO/BBC co-production - so not a good example to pick if wanting to expose the BBC as not being good.

I find a lot of the documentaries on the science and history channels very good - but they are often reptitive, limited in scope and rarely ground breaking.

Actually it's a very good reason to pick it because it's obviously been sold on, generating income - a 'commercial' enterprise if you will. And I didn't choose those programmes as examples of what's not good, I chose them as examples of what IS good but not solely produced by our licence fees.

[DonkeyApple]

grumbledoak said:

DonkeyApple said:

A vote for privatisation is a vote for more Trisha, Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity, Jeremy Kyle etc.

Is that what you want Grumble? Another 7 TV channels of Jeremy Kyle. Is it?

I neither watch, nor pay for, any of that rubbish. I don't watch, but am forced to pay for, the BBC's rubbish.

But it's not all rubbish. Obviously every channel has its share of drivel.

The license is what, £10 a month?

Let's say you watch 10 hours of BBC shows a month, at £1/hour you can't possibly complain. Unless you're a Yorkshireman?

[grumbledoak]

DonkeyApple said:

Let's say you watch 10 hours of BBC shows a month, at £1/hour you can't possibly complain. Unless you're a Yorkshireman?

No. Let's say I choose what I pay for. Not you.

[DonkeyApple]

grumbledoak said:

DonkeyApple said:

Let's say you watch 10 hours of BBC shows a month, at £1/hour you can't possibly complain. Unless you're a Yorkshireman?

No. Let's say I choose what I pay for. Not you.

But you do choose what you pay for. I choose to watch TV in a live environment so I choose to pay for the license.

The license is only required if you want to wish broadcast TV live. You don't need it for just owning a TV or for watching historic content.

If you want 100% control of your content then you can have it, along with everyone else. You can use other media to watch your specific programmes without needing a license.

The simplest solution is BBC iPlayer. We license payers even finance a product that is free to use and does not require a TV license.

As such, the TV license is really a fee to watch a program in a live environment along with everyone else. Watch it 24 hours later, ie run your TV shedule just one day in arrears and it is completely free.

So this begs the question, why if you feel so strongly about this do you continue to pay when you don't have to?

IT strikes me that this isn't about the Licence Fee itself but the current existence of the BBC. ?

[Parrot of Doom]

grumbledoak said:

Parrot of Doom said:

You have to be joking. Andrew Marr infuriated Gordon Brown by asking him if he was medicated. Labour ministers and MPs regularly get a beating on QT, and just listen to John Humphries on Radio 4 interviewing MPs.

Rubbish. "Red" Marr was due to interview Cameron shortly after, where he was to be much tougher. This was more a feint. QT is generally such a lefty audience that they appear hand-picked, and Labour ministers generally get an easy ride unless another panelist chooses to take the fight to them. The whole thing sucks, and privatisation is the only cure.

Those that look to find bias generally find it in everything.

By the way if you think that privatisation somehow is analogous to a more open and honest form of political debate, you're off your trolley.

[DonkeyApple]

Parrot of Doom said:

grumbledoak said:

Parrot of Doom said:

You have to be joking. Andrew Marr infuriated Gordon Brown by asking him if he was medicated. Labour ministers and MPs regularly get a beating on QT, and just listen to John Humphries on Radio 4 interviewing MPs.

Rubbish. "Red" Marr was due to interview Cameron shortly after, where he was to be much tougher. This was more a feint. QT is generally such a lefty audience that they appear hand-picked, and Labour ministers generally get an easy ride unless another panelist chooses to take the fight to them. The whole thing sucks, and privatisation is the only cure.

Those that look to find bias generally find it in everything.

By the way if you think that privatisation somehow is analogous to a more open and honest form of political debate, you're off your trolley.

Are you implying that Fox Media, The Sun, The Times et all follow the political beliefs of Rupert Murdoch. I find that shocking.

[grumbledoak]

DonkeyApple said:

Are you implying that Fox Media, The Sun, The Times et all follow the political beliefs of Rupert Murdoch. I find that shocking.

I pay for none of these things. If you cannot see the difference then it is probably you that is off your trolley.

Or, possibly, 'biased'.

[DonkeyApple]

grumbledoak said:

DonkeyApple said:

Are you implying that Fox Media, The Sun, The Times et all follow the political beliefs of Rupert Murdoch. I find that shocking.

I pay for none of these things. If you cannot see the difference then it is probably you that is off your trolley.

Or, possibly, 'biased'.

That comment was for PoD. You've read it out of context.

Just tell me why you pay for a License Fee that you don't need and clearly don't want? That's the bit I don't get. You clearly feel very strongly about it.

[grumbledoak]

DonkeyApple said:

Just tell me why you pay for a License Fee that you don't need and clearly don't want? That's the bit I don't get. You clearly feel very strongly about it.

If you want to watch DVDs and commercial television, you must pay for the BBC. You can end up in court if you don't, you'll at the very least get a load of hassle. If the BBC were privatised that would not be the case. I'd buy CBeebies, at most, and quite probably none of it.

[eldar]

grumbledoak said:

DonkeyApple said:

A vote for privatisation is a vote for more Trisha, Big Brother, I'm a Celebrity, Jeremy Kyle etc.

Is that what you want Grumble? Another 7 TV channels of Jeremy Kyle. Is it?

I neither watch, nor pay for, any of that rubbish. I don't watch, but am forced to pay for, the BBC's rubbish.

You do pay for it. All those adverts have to be paid for, and it ain't just Jeremy's fans that pay the bill.

Either pay up front, as BBC, or pay up front and adverts, Sky or just adverts ITV. There ain't no thing as a free TV programme...

[DonkeyApple]

grumbledoak said:

DonkeyApple said:

Just tell me why you pay for a License Fee that you don't need and clearly don't want? That's the bit I don't get. You clearly feel very strongly about it.

If you want to watch DVDs and commercial television, you must pay for the BBC. You can end up in court if you don't, you'll at the very least get a load of hassle. If the BBC were privatised that would not be the case. I'd buy CBeebies, at most, and quite probably none of it.

That isn't correct.

You only require the TV License to watch television in the live environment.

This means that you don't need it to view any 'non live' media. This includes DVDs, videos etc, 4OD, iPlayer anything that plays media at your selection at a time other than when it is shown live via public broadcast.

[Halb]

Lefty 200 Drams said:

The whole phone-voting scandal thing should have been the nail in the coffin. It certainly would have been if it were a private company...

ITV didn't collapse


I love the Beeb, it isn't the only funded telly service in the world and so is not unique. It in my opinion also does push the quality of other stations up. We don't have the size of the American market here, so we will never have a HBO. We have Sky, and every sole production of theirs is cheap and st. They need help from US backers for anything of any quality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

[elster]

grumbledoak said:

DonkeyApple said:

Let's say you watch 10 hours of BBC shows a month, at £1/hour you can't possibly complain. Unless you're a Yorkshireman?

No. Let's say I choose what I pay for. Not you.

So you don't watch any TV.

If you say you stick to watching the commercial channels I pity your eyes.

They would also become a subscription service if the licence fee was abolished.

[Halb]

tinman0 said:

jmorgan said:

Privatise the beeb and quality programing vanishes from the UK, welcome to the US and car crash telly.

Trouble is that most of the popular tv shows are now made in the US, so your argument doesn't really stack up.

The BBC has one jewel left in Top Gear, and that's more about JC and Andy Wilman than the BBC itself.

The days of the BBC's quality programming are long since over. If the BBC was so successful, then why do we have Sky?

Beeb has many jewels, as have been mentioned in this thread. Some of the top shows in the UK are imports, many/most are still home grown. The HBO dramas that come over here are the best. UK telly just doesn't have the money to make as many. We have had some gems, The State Within was one in the last year I enjoyed.