Long live the BBC!

I like the BBC too.

OK, that wasn’t so politically controversial was it…

I guess what I really mean is that while the BBC may not be perfect, it’s doing a pretty good job and I don’t want it to become a political football (again) and lobbyists from the other broadcasters should certainly not throw stones – in fact they should keep out of it, definitely when they have other interests and concerns (such as charging for news content) they’re currently struggling with. More on that later.

I agree with much of what you say, Jack. Especially the nation vs shareholder accountability. The word you missed (avoided deliberately?) was neutrality. Private concerns will always struggle to do well with that, as your examples illustrate.

What gave me the fear was certain UK politicos following the speech stating it was in tune with their thinking.

Veering away from the political stuff I’ll state that the vast majority of TV watching (the exceptions are a few US imports on other stations), radio listening (exclusively on that channel in fact), and news reading (website) I do is from the BBC. Perhaps it suits me as a middle-class southerner particularly well, but there is plenty of output from the BBC that I don’t like for others with different tastes.

Discussing the whole charging for news with colleagues and friends it certainly is a difficulty for independent news sources. However, if I had to accept charging for news content online which would be the service I would willingly pay for? The BBC is the answer… oh hang on I pay a license fee, I guess I already am paying for it!

Leave the BBC alone!

In fact, I’m in a bit of a quandary these days – after many years of not having telly and not paying the license fee, the content available on iPlayer is so excellent that I’m beginning to feel morally obliged to pay up. Unfortunately, it’s not the easiest thing to part with money you don’t absolutely need to part with and you don’t really have spare.