Tory idea is not one of it’s finest
The Conservatives are floating an idea for sharing the proceeds of the television lecence fee with broadcasters other than the BBC, it’s not the finest idea I’ve ever heard on how to deal with the out of touch corporation!
What the licence fee buys
More than 25 million households pay an average of £10.96 per month for the licence. Of this:
49p is used to develop the BBC’s 240 websites
£7.54 keeps on air the eight television channels, including BBC One and BBC Two
£1.17 ensures that the ten national radio channels broadcast a range of music, news and sport
75p goes to the 40 local radio stations, from Radio Jersey to Radio nan Gaidheal
£1.01 covers the cost of broadcasting all television and radio output and collecting the fee
BBC websites are massive, really massive, one might question the need for keeping so many available and alive. Of the eight national TV channels how many are actually watched? Of the ten national radio stations who listens to any apart from Radios 1,2,3,4,and 5? If almost 10% of the licence fee is consumed by it’s collection costs and broadcasting costs then we must question the financial budgetary skills of the corporation.
Really it is time to consider removing the licence fee altogether and requiring the BBC to become self financing, raising it’s own revenue in the same fashion as other broadcasters in the UK market. It ought to become a private body with shareholders, competing in the market for advertising revenue, perhaps with a requirement and subsidy to allow the World Service to operate as it does at present. There should be no need for the licence fee to be seen as little more than an additional tax to be used in keeping the BBC in the comfort zone to which it has become accustomed.
With an almost certain source of revenue from the licence fee it is little wonder that the broadcaster fails to inspire or improve it’s output. A better course of action for David Cameron would be to privatise it as soon as the Conservatives are elected!
£10.96 a month? That’s five pints of beer, three all-day passes on the Metro, or forty minutes of a Sunderland home game.
Sounds like a bargain to me.
Comment by Michael Hudson — December 15, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
Michael!
Couldn’t agree more! If you’ve ever spent any time watching Tv in Canada or the US, or almost anywhere else for that matter, you appreciate what a joy it is to come home to the BBC. To be able to watch TV without incessant adverts every few minutes is worth the Licence fee alone. Where else in the world could you settle down next Tuesday evening to the first episode of what promises to be a fantastic production of Oliver Twist followed by an hour of Spooks - with no imnterruptions?
As you said - a bargain!
Comment by Westy — December 16, 2007 @ 12:13 am