Next on the hit list is the BBC – they are about to get a reality check on the meaning of austerity and big budget cuts. And you know what? Jo public will probably find their licence fee reduced – excellent.
In fact bloody brilliant – the emphasis being on bloody! Wilt enjoys those blood and guts kind of programmes
See the Telegraph article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7895750/Licence-fee-for-wasteful-BBC-will-be-cut.html
And the BBC article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10670182
Don’t get Wilt wrong, the BBC (and the UK broadcasters in general) is still probably the best TV/Radio media in the world – compare it to US media, for example, and you would think the US are the centre of the universe – they are so parochial to the extent that the term must have been originally coined to describe US media.
Unlike of course Hollywood, these days, who make very reasonable efforts to portray concerns much wider afield – albeit there is a lot of dross too.
Mind you, compared to North Korea, the US media is a pinnacle of fully encompassing media journalism.
Wilt
Good points Wilt - Iran too does its level best to join North Korea at the same pinnacle. As a longstanding supporter of the campaign to abolish the televsion licence I hope that a reduction in the fee will be a first step on the way to this. I would resent having to pay for the Times first in order to then buy the Sun yet this is exactly what is happening in the UK with the TV licence. What really annoys me though is the disgraceful way in which the BBC has outsourced its licensing enforcement to the odious and unprincipled organisation Capita. Capita specialises in harassing members of the public who do not have a licence. It assumes that every address must have a licence and that it knows the defaulters because it is all "on the database". Now the reality is that you only need a licence if you have a TV used to receive broadcasts, not if you don't have a TV or use one to watch videos and it is not connected to an aerial. Watching online does not require a licence. Detuning a TV would render it even less liable.
ReplyDeleteCapita does not take no for an answer and never believes anyone who tells them that they do not require a licence and it demands through a variety of scurrilous, implied threats that the householder responds to their enquiries. Responding is not mandatory. Capita licensing staff have no right of entry to your home either. Tell them to fuck off and get a warrant to search for a TV. They won't do this as it will cost them money. Instead they will go after the usual easy targets, single mothers, people in housing estates and students and then tip off the local press who are only too happy to run the stories of the poor victims in their area to fill column inches.
I like the BBC but they have too guaranteed a huge revenue stream. Staff are pretty unaccountable and overpaid. They allow their agents to threaten and harass the public. I would prefer a subscription so that I only get what I pay for. If I want to read the Sun I should not have to pay for the Times or the Telegraph before being allowed to do so.