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Is the licence fee good value for money?

Is the licence fee good value for money?

  • Yes

    Votes: 73 79.3%

  • no

    Votes: 19 20.7%
  • Total voters
    92
I don't watch that much on the Beeb and hardly listen to their radio services at all, however as I pay Sky £55 a month, another £11 a month is no big deal.
 
What about a bit of devil's advocate...

Abolish the licence fee and fund the BBC through advertising.

There would be no licence to pay for any TV or radio station in the UK.

- How much would the BBC be affected?
- Would other broadcasters be affected by the BBC competing for their advertising revenue.
- Is there enough advertising to go round?
- How would the quality of BBC programming be affected?
 
Abolish the licence fee and fund the BBC through advertising.
Click to expand...

The total value of the TV advertising market for 2008 didn't match the funding the BBC gets through the licence fee. If you suddenly introduced the BBC as a commercial TV station, the entire TV industry would suffer a huge drop in money.

Which would subsequently lead to a collapse of most of the UK telly industry as it currently stands. Hope that answers your questions.
 
Dan U said:
i'd agree with that

mate of mine lives in Hong Kong and he would definitely pay a reasonable amount of money annually to access iplayer easily.
Click to expand...

I just cannot fathom why some sort of agreement couldn't be worked out. Even if a tenth of the 5 million British people who lived abroad were able to do this, that's 500,000 x 140 quid. They should be less punitive towards people who find it hard to pay in Britain, and make it easier for well off expats to access the stuff from abroad.
 
kyser_soze said:
Without a doubt it's value for money. The thing people forget is that the fee funds radio, online, interactive services and the rest of it. Yes, BBC Worldwide contributes a lot of money to the Beeb, and possibly should be looked at in any kind of funding review. However, these ideas for top-slicing and the rest of the bollocks is just that.

The other point worth bearing in mind. TV advertising revenues are collapsing - internet advertising now accounts for the bulk of money spent in the UK (and elsewhere). Viewing figures for any one channel or show are also falling, meaning that spot rates are much lower than they were. Once TV ad revenue falls beyond a certain point, it's only the subscription channels that'll be left - you'll have to pay to watch TV whatever, and there'll be ads on it.
Click to expand...

I think the thing I was getting at is that the licence is a bit anachronistic - if it's only subscription, if you don't pay for a certain channel, then you simply don't get it and you won't be fined a huge fine for not having it, which quite frankly does seem a little totalitarian..
 
upsidedownwalrus said:
I just cannot fathom why some sort of agreement couldn't be worked out. Even if a tenth of the 5 million British people who lived abroad were able to do this, that's 500,000 x 140 quid. They should be less punitive towards people who find it hard to pay in Britain, and make it easier for well off expats to access the stuff from abroad.
Click to expand...

One of the issues WRT acessing bbc content overseas is the rights agreements the cast and crew sign. If you broadcast (or even narrowcast) or otherwise distribute content to a place that isn't covered by the cast/crew contracts in terms of residual payments (this is one example) they have a right to refuse consent to broadcast until it's resolved.

It's not a pricing or technical issue (I would imagine the beeb would love it if it could charge overseas listeners/viewers for content - stuff like R1 have enormous overseas online audiences), it's a legal one, and it's the same reason you can't get streams of many US TV shows overseas - the distribution rights only apply to the US.
 
I still reckon something could be worked out with it though. There are a hell of a lot of people in China alone who are keen to learn English and many of them DO still favour British english and would love access to our programmes for that reason too - I reckon you could get 5m subscribers in China as a pessimistic guestimate...
 
kyser_soze said:
I would imagine the beeb would love it if it could charge overseas listeners/viewers for content - stuff like R1 have enormous overseas online audiences
Click to expand...

A large proportion of the stuff is actually blocked for overseas viewers or listeners, though, like footy commentaries. It used to arse me off no end. Sometimes when I was sick of Chinese commentators I would almost have paid just to get five live commentary...
 
upsidedownwalrus said:
I think the thing I was getting at is that the licence is a bit anachronistic - if it's only subscription, if you don't pay for a certain channel, then you simply don't get it and you won't be fined a huge fine for not having it, which quite frankly does seem a little totalitarian..
Click to expand...

but that is just not a very socialist attitude, and besides the second there is a subscription type secneario then the BBC is further forced to pander to ratings rather then the collective good(or a less wanky phrase meaning similar)!

What i don't really get is why there is a separate license fee rather then it coming straight out of our taxes like the nhs or the military or any of the other things collected by the national government.

dave
 
What i don't really get is why there is a separate license fee rather then it coming straight out of our taxes like the nhs or the military or any of the other things collected by the national government
Click to expand...

To stop govts ripping spending on it out during times of economic strife, or to simply cut funding because the govt of the day doesn't like the politics it's seeing (this happened to ABC in Australia under Howard). That the fee itself is approved by govt is bad enough - as seen under both Tory and Labour admninstrations, the govt can put a degree of squeeze on the Beeb. Imagine how it would be if it was directly funded by taxation?
 
Why would their be a difference if gov has powers over the fee anyway?

Would the fact that that the monies gained would fluctuate so much mean that the gov would feel the need to have more control, or something?


dave
 
There're a few actual reasons for teh fee being a hypothecated tax that's collected independently of the govt. Probably something Lord Reith insisted on way back in the day.
 
..

Ms T said:
Have you seen the dire finances of ITV/C4 recently? Costume dramas are hugely expensive and one of the things the Beeb does very well.
Click to expand...


I have to diasagree on the costume drama front- there's been some dire ones of late.. minimal plot/tedious characters..pointless waste of money. Can't remember the names.. "Casanova" for example - real crap.. I think they're just churning them out now.

Can't really comment on the finance of ITV/C4. Presumably if there was a cut down BBC - which just did all the dull stuff - news/current affairs etc.. then their audience share and hence revenue might improve.. No idea really.

:)
 
Hollis said:
I have to diasagree on the costume drama front- there's been some dire ones of late.. minimal plot/tedious characters..pointless waste of money. Can't remember the names.. "Casanova" for example - real crap.. I think they're just churning them out now.

Can't really comment on the finance of ITV/C4. Presumably if there was a cut down BBC - which just did all the dull stuff - news/current affairs etc.. then their audience share and hence revenue might improve.. No idea really.

:)
Click to expand...

What about Bleak House/Little Dorrit/Cranford/Emma etc etc. All hugely popular, and the Beeb makes money by selling them abroad.

And you're right - you don't have a clue. Stick to WW2, there's a good chap. ;):p
 
Can't really comment on the finance of ITV/C4. Presumably if there was a cut down BBC - which just did all the dull stuff - news/current affairs etc.. then their audience share and hence revenue might improve.. No idea really.
Click to expand...

Even if you did this, the telly ad market, like all offline ad markets except maybe glossy fashion mags, will continue to decline in the face of Google AdWords (OK search generally, but Google has about 60% of the PPC search market)...
 
Ms T said:
What about Bleak House/Little Dorrit/Cranford/Emma etc etc. All hugely popular, and the Beeb makes money by selling them abroad.

And you're right - you don't have a clue. Stick to WW2, there's a good chap. ;):p
Click to expand...


Yes - I would be interested to know if the costume drama's pay for themselves - I imagine this is why they churn out stuff like "Casanova."
 
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