Licence fee freeze will hit programmes, BBC director general says

39 comments
  1. Government cuts funding. BBC has to make cuts. Government complains about the impact of the cuts e.g. more repeats. Government uses this argument to justify more cuts in funding. It’s a cycle that the government doesn’t seem bothered about stopping.

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    The government needs to stop blaming the BBC for things that they are responsible for. You can’t keep cutting funding and seem shocked when the quantity of new shows declines.

  2. Why not allow the bbc to run advertising and change for i player subscription? In order to help ween them off the license fee

  3. I’ve received a letter threatening to throw me in prison about once a month for the last three years that all promptly go in the bin unopened. If they’re looking to cut costs then maybe stationery and post is a good place to start?

  4. Writing has been on the wall for years for the BBC. Netflix has been in business since 1997! The iPlayer was a technical marvel when it was launched back in 2007.

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    BBC could easily have built a subscription/one off payment model in to the iPlayer years ago but have sat on their laurels and now have the audacity to moan that they’re underfunded because the government won’t raid pensioners for more money.

    Get fucked – you own shitloads of fantastic content, monetise it properly and invest that money in to your programmes and stop relying on pensioners to prop you up.

  5. Will hit programs….when did they last make a good string of programming?

    I’ve not watched anything the BBC has produced in almost a year now and honestly I don’t feel like I’m missing out

  6. The BBC should ditch everything apart from public interest programming

    Like…. the apprentice is ok if I can’t find anything on netflix, but I wouldn’t subscribe to it. I don’t see why we are collectively all paying for a shit alternative to Netflix and Prime

  7. Id have a better image of the bbc and its license if it wasnt for the letters from capita.

    Im 33 and the bbc will never get another £ from me.

  8. ITT people totally misunderstanding what the BBC does, the restrictions put on it by its charter and moaning about content other people watch.

  9. This is just an empty threat to shut the BBC up about the tories, they won’t actually go through with it. They really are just pathetic.. We are through the bottom of the barrel, this is the dangerous stage, keep yourselves safe and when it comes vote like your families life depend on it (thats if you can by the time it comes)!

  10. Of course they’ll sacrifice the programming that people like/is “too left wing” and preserve the news function that props up the Tory messaging

  11. Gone without seeing BBC for long enough. Live TV in general. Only thing it did well was kids TV and fuck me other countries are making better kids TV these days.

  12. Apologies, I can’t find anywhere to ask this and askuk immediately removed my thread! My license is up for renewal next week. Does the freeze apply starting from yesterday/today? I was thinking that I shouldn’t pay/renew it this time around because I have a feeling it’ll be very hard to get my money back once I’ve given it to them once everyone catches on and demands a refund.

    edit: I did a bit more reading and it seems I had it confused. I believe now I still need to pay, but it’s just a freeze on the fee going up, rather than a freeze on needing to pay!

  13. If the BBC has less Money maybe they will stop making shite like Strictly Come dancing, Bake off, Sewing fuckin Bee and the like. TV for the brain dead and that’s a disservice to the brain dead.

  14. People get so weird about the BBC. Both left and right think it’s appallingly biased which leaves me to think most of the time it’s probably somewhere in the middle in terms of impartiality, as it should be. It’d not perfect, but how can it be? It’s human nature to be affronted by views you don’t agree with so people see one thing on the BBC that gets their back up and they lose their mind.
    It’s going to be the next Brexit; people foaming at the mouth until they scrap it thinking it will somehow magically improve their quality of life once it’s gone. It won’t.

  15. Why on Earth are so many Labour supporters defending the TV license funding model, when it effectively functions as a flat tax?

    It’s deeply regressive. Everybody pays the same amount no matter how rich or poor.

    Labour should be championing a much fairer payment model. Particularly one that doesn’t involve legally sanctioned threatening letters being sent to vulnerable people.

    I slap my head in despair that Labour have walked into such an obvious trap on this one.

  16. Well if they ever did anything original or groundbreaking I am sure that I would miss it. Sadly aside from the David Attenborough stuff most of the output seems to be monotonous handle turning cranking out the same programs year after year.

    Also can we all remember that Channel 4 is also state owned, and operated without a license fee!

  17. Oh no.
    Guess you’ll just have to go into disrepute and let all the shows go under funded, ultimately killing the viewership.

    Paying the executives smaller bonuses would NEVER work.

  18. Let’s be honest, thr BBC has enjoyed a privilege (garenteed income supplemented by what it can generate itself) and has paid stupid wages for a public broadcaster. Yes it makes good shows but times change. I used to like Debenham but yiu know what it didnt adapt and it fell by the wayside.The BBC needs to get back basics. It attacked corbyn alienating many on the left, it attacked brexit and fought against it ans offended many on that side and unfortunately there are very few people left to speak up for it.

    And let’s be honest…if its so good why can you go to jail for not paying for it? Netflix don’t jail u if you don’t pay….my gas company won’t jail me. Why the BBC….

  19. I get the licence fee needs replacing but why the Tories have to swipe away funds from it too?

    Does it not realise the BBC along with the NHS is the only thing left to be proud about this nation?

    Look Attenborough in the eye and tell him he’s not worth it

  20. BBC Arabic, BBC Hindi, BBC Bangla, BBC Hausa, BBC Nepali, BBC Brasil, BBC Mundo, BBC Persian, BBC Punjabi, BBC Russian Service, BBC Somali Service, BBC Ukrainian, and BBC Urdu

  21. What programmes? All I see is daytime television, football, and strictly. Anything worse watching has moved elsewhere.

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