The licence fee of £139.50 per year is excellent value for money - discuss.

Its worth it to me, just to get Radio 3 let alone all the other stuff you rightly point out. Then there is the BBC Proms. The greatest music festival on earth kept alive by the brilliant work of the BBC.

Oh, good point - live events like BBC Proms and ofcourse Electric Proms too!

Yep, don't forget though that you no longer need a license if you only listen to radio and do not watch any TV.

I can't complain. I think £12 a month is fine, considering that nearly all of my viewing seems to be BBC-centric...

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Ditto that - top VFM for Radio 4, 5 and the footy guys on Radio Scotland alone. Radio 2 has some great stuff (Radcliffe, Maconie, the live gigs, etc.) and the web content is extremely good.

"32 pounds for a TV licence? It's a disgrace. It's far too low...the excellent service the BBC provides, it should be at least four hundred pounds"...

"The Test Card is quite magnificent - it justifies the licence fee on it's own. Personally, I think the fee is far too low. I would willingly sell my house and all it's contents to fund the BBC..."

But Mr. Mulligan of Rowhampton called to say...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ypjvSH8IYoA (3m10 onwards!!!)

Andrew Everard:

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

  Indeed.  Although I was expecting at least one "why should I pay for things I dont use" rant.

meh. we all pay for things we dont use. i have an incredibly minimal sky package and still barely use most of the channels i couldnt get anyway, and i have dozens and dozens i never watch at all, but i think getting everyone to work to a pay as you go model would be a nightmare*

 

*more folk here will understand all that far better than i...

It's not so much the cost itself that annoys me, it's how they use it. Even if I only payed a penny a month, I wouldn't want a fraction of it to go to Clarkson, Ross and all those other dimwits who earn millions for being homophobic bullies...

Sorry, rant over. 

I'm sorry. 'Hole In The Wall'............ I don't think I need to say anything else.......

We dont all get bbc hd though..

I think the licence fee is a complete waste of money & should be scrapped.

I never watch the bbc anyway & i don't see why i should pay for the licence fee, it's way too much.

slewis:

I think the licence fee is a complete waste of money & should be scrapped.

I never watch the bbc anyway & i don't see why i should pay for the licence fee, it's way too much.

You pay for all the other channels whether you watch them or not.

All those £multi-million TV advertising budgets that companies pay out for. So who do you think they pass on the costs to?

Reminds me of the... "we have no children why should we pay for schools?" or... "I keep myself healthy why should I pay for other people to be sick?" type of arguments.

I do wish the BBC would be a little more adventurous though and stop trying to ape other channels. A lot of television output is based on the 'give the punter what they want' philosophy. Trouble with that is that you end up with loads of predictable, lowest common denominator, non-challenging programmes.

Just now and then it would be refreshing to see a channel put out something no-one ever knew they wanted. Something original and interesting and even sometimes challenging. This is the BBC's job I feel and they are often too scared (of Government and Mail on Sunday type thinking) to do anything other than 'safe' and predictable. There are exceptions (too few) but they are timidly put out on BBC4 where the masses will not be disturbed from their usual diet of pap.

Big Chris:

I'm sorry. 'Hole In The Wall'............ I don't think I need to say anything else.......

 

i respectfully disagree lol!

al7478:

Big Chris:

I'm sorry. 'Hole In The Wall'............ I don't think I need to say anything else.......

 

i respectfully disagree lol!

I don't know why they've got that grinning goon Anton Du Beke on the payroll. He's got as much charisma as a corpse. And the less said about that permatanned gimp Dale Winton, the better.