The BBC

[RexCathedra]

BBC news absolutely beats the pants off anything available in the States for coverage of world events, science, sport beyond our big 5 (NBA, MLB, NFL, college football, college basketball), etc, etc.

My 20-something children's opinion of the UK is largely colored by the Beeb -- they think it's typical of the UK (do not disabuse them of this notion) and the UK benefits thereby.

 

[cunning fergus]

What a load of old nonsense. You do realise you're paying tax for a whole load of stuff you might not use, right? That's a form of fascism too?

I would love it if they did find a way to let people like yourself opt out. You'd be in a sad lonely minority though.

I have no problem paying tax, this isnt what this thread is about.

The law currently forces UK residents to pay 175 pa. as a consequence of owning a TV. There is nothing democratic about that.

Taxes pay for essential services and we can vote for political parties subject to their views on how that money will be spent.

Licence fee payers have to buy a licence every year and have no ability to influence how their money is spent.

To be honest though I dont want influence, I want out.

 

[lawros left foot]

So, with no licence fee ,all television ends up like ITV,wall to wall crap,and endless adverts,only broken up by phone in competitions at premium rates.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Taxes pay for essential services.

Agree. And public service objectively reported news is an essential service.

 

[Red'n'Blue]

I like the new video player the BBC have. Great for the tennis.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

So, with no licence fee ,all television ends up like ITV,wall to wall crap,and endless adverts,only broken up by phone in competitions at premium rates.

At best. Just wait until someone like Berlusconi or Murdock starts running it.

 

[jackanada]

Right wing often being unfair and biased ? This has to be a joke. I think you should buy the Guardian/Independent/Mirror etc, and then you can come back on here and make that assumption.

hahahahhahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahhahhahahhahahahhahahhahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahahha.... really, though the guardian is far too smug and middle class and woefully detached from the realities of most peoples lives, the indy i just find a bit rubbish (though it has the only cryptic crosswords I get on with) and the mirror is only left wing when compared with the other tabloids, much as mitt romney is left wing compared with hitler.

 

[Winker]

The best for economic news and views must be 'Geoff Randall Live' on Sky. If you want hand-wringing left-wing shit then watch Channel 4 News. If you want anti-British, anti-American, anti-Israeli myopia then watch the beeb (their idea of balance is to attack everything in the world that works and to promote chaos, anarchy and hatred; because it is different and suits the drug-bedraggled minds of the trendy 60's creeps that now run it).

 

[DJ Leon]

Agree. And public service objectively reported news is an essential service.

Quite.

As I've said before, if people could opt out of the licence fee and couldn't get BBC content anywhere else for free, it'd be interesting to see how many people would be happy to do so. It's hard to know while you're living it what will be the things that matter in the future, but imagine in the past if you'd not been able to watch the Cup Final, or never seen Only Fools and Horses or Doctor Who. I think not having the BBC's news content (you know the Trotskyist propaganda) would make you realise how good it is too.

 

[Jimmy Come Lately]

Since it hasn't been posted yet, Mitch Benn's "I'm Proud of the BBC". I have nothing further to add.

 

[El Presidente]

I have no problem paying tax, this isnt what this thread is about.

The law currently forces UK residents to pay 175 pa. as a consequence of owning a TV. There is nothing democratic about that.

Licence fee payers have to buy a licence every year and have no ability to influence how their money is spent.

1: You have a democratic choice as to whether or not you buy a television, so no one forces you to buy a TV licence.

2: You are free to vote for a party who had in their manifesto a commitment to abolish the licence fee.

 

[drew]

So, with no licence fee ,all television ends up like ITV,wall to wall crap,and endless adverts,only broken up by phone in competitions at premium rates.

As Herr Tubthumper implies, this is only based on the fact that, in many areas, Itv are measuring themselves against the Beeb. Take the Beeb away and the benchmark drops further.

The best for economic news and views must be 'Geoff Randall Live' on Sky. If you want hand-wringing left-wing shit then watch Channel 4 News. If you want anti-British, anti-American, anti-Israeli myopia then watch the beeb (their idea of balance is to attack everything in the world that works and to promote chaos, anarchy and hatred; because it is different and suits the drug-bedraggled minds of the trendy 60's creeps that now run it).

Have to say that I've never noticed the Beeb being anti british! Maybe they reflect an accurate assessment that, in the eyes of America, the american funded state of Israel can do no wrong. What's wrong with that?

 

[Leekbrookgull]

The BBC is amazing. Since moving abroad, I've realised the British achievements I'm most proud of are the BBC and the NHS. Moving abroad really makes you look at your own country in a new light.

Both are constantly under attack from the right, as the vested interests which dominate this country would rather we paid much, much more for far worse services provided by their equally-loaded mates. The British people's inability to see past the agendas of right-wing newspaper proprietors, their political allies, and (in turn) their wealthy backers is, conversely, the thing about Britain I'm least proud of.

Alot in what you say,when abroad for me there is only one News channel News24 as for Radio if it important Radio 4.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

I have no problem paying tax, this isnt what this thread is about.

The law currently forces UK residents to pay 175 pa. as a consequence of owning a TV. There is nothing democratic about that.

Taxes pay for essential services and we can vote for political parties subject to their views on how that money will be spent.

Licence fee payers have to buy a licence every year and have no ability to influence how their money is spent.

To be honest though I dont want influence, I want out.

Where too ?

 

[Woodchip]

I miss The Beeb and I've only been in NZ for 30 hours.

 

[rouseytastic]

I wish the BBC would open up its archives to the public that have already paid for it via the license fee.

That is an excellent idea in theory. Would be great to watch old episodes of Game On whenever I fancied

 

[clippedgull]

To be fair this isn't the BBC's fault.

I work for a TV production company - though 99% of our sales are to C4 not the BBC the model is the same: C4 commission a show and pay £x for the sole rights to broadcast it in the UK (this includes primary broadcast plus x number of repeats), plus also the sole rights to online 'broadcast' in the UK. We sell the rights to foreign broadcasters to broadcast shows in their own countries (e.g. CBS in the US) and to foreign companies who will pay for exclusive online rights in those countries.

It would cost the BBC a FORTUNE to buy worldwide online rights, so they don't do it. This is correct in my opinion - the world isn't funding them, so why should they spend all that money making sure the world can watch their shows?

I think you may have missed his point!

As a TV Licence payer he wanted to be able to log in (by username and password) and watch IPlayer wherever he wanted to outside the UK. This can easily be done of course by anyone using a VPN service whether they have a licence or not.

 

[DTES]

I think you may have missed his point!

As a TV Licence payer he wanted to be able to log in (by username and password) and watch IPlayer wherever he wanted to outside the UK. This can easily be done of course by anyone using a VPN service whether they have a licence or not.

Log in or not, the BBC simply do not have the legal right to stream (most of) their shows to anyone who wants to watch them outside of the UK (whether they live outside the UK, or whether they're just temporarily out of the country).

The fact you can use a VPN to trick their server into thinking you're inside the UK is neither here nor there.

Of course, I get why someone would want it, but it isn't the BBC's fault.

 

[Superphil]

Occasionally you get a gem like this too!

BBC Faux Pas

 

[thisistips]

Log in or not, the BBC simply do not have the legal right to stream (most of) their shows to anyone who wants to watch them outside of the UK (whether they live outside the UK, or whether they're just temporarily out of the country).

The fact you can use a VPN to trick their server into thinking you're inside the UK is neither here nor there.

Of course, I get why someone would want it, but it isn't the BBC's fault.

You are both right of course. I want what I can't have for the reason DTES says. There is an international iPlayer that works in a slightly different way - subscription based (less than the licence fee by the way) and you can download episodes to an iPad - but I have never got it to work. I think it's because my iTunes is a UK account. Tomorrow I move to Switzerland for a while, so I will try resetting it to Switzerland and see if it makes a difference. I'm at least hoping for the news and the odd drama and comedy. I'm reluctant to use the VPN trick because it's illegal.