Originally Posted by
SkipTracer:
“If only the BBC was like that.
”
If it was, it would be incredibly dumbed down. Remember, Netflix only makes a tiny tiny tiny portion of its own content, the rest is all older stuff from other networks.
The BBC makes the vast majority of its own content, and content that doesn't always chase the ratings. If it was subscription based - at the amount it charges right now, it would produce only a fraction of the content it does now, and that would be dumbed down to chase the highest ratings.
The license fee really is like a tax, and while we all hate paying tax, we do it so that we can share the responsibility of having a society with infrastructure. All those roads you will never use has to be paid for. All that education, hospitals etc.
The BBC is the same and while some people moan about it, it is without doubt the best public broadcaster in the world. So many other countries have license fees (or pay for their public broadcaster directly through tax) and they are a fraction of what the BBC is. Many pay more for theirs than the BBC and get a lot less back.
The license fee costs £145.50 per year, or around 40pence per day for a household (which means most people pay a lot less than 40pence per day) and you get for that little bit of money 10 television channels (including BBC Red Button) (which includes the most popular channels in the country), 17 standard radio stations and 44 additional local stations (which includes incredible stations like BBC 4 and 6), the world's largest and by far most advanced FTA catch-up service in the BBC iPlayer, 24 hour news channel that although none can ever be totally unbiased, it is probably the closest you will get, plus a huge website and sports section.
And there is more... for less than 40p per day for most people.
If you still don't use any of that, and don't like paying 40p or less per day, then think of it as you do for anything that comes out of tax and benefits others.