Originally Posted by Antbox:
“Wait, World Service is a BBC service. That's not "money taken away from the BBC Licence Fee" any more than the £1.3 billion that the BBC spend on BBC One.
The World Service is the responsibility of the Foreign Office and was funded out of the Foreign Office Budget. In 2010 the coalition government made the licence payer responsible for the funding.
The funding of broadband has been dropped, as you mentioned.
The funding is being phased out and will be £150 million until 2017/2018, £80 million 2018/2019 £20 million 2019/2020.
"SC4" is actually S4C, a valued Public Service Broadcasting service for Wales, which has always had the involvement of the BBC and fulfils BBC objectives in that it allows the BBC to discharge their obligation to make and/or broadcast Welsh-language programming, without having to actually broadcast it on the BBC's English-language channels.
S4C (sorry for getting C and 4 the wrong way round) is Channel Four Wales and should be funded in the same way Channel Four is funded through advertising.
News Monitoring is a discretionary activity. If the BBC wishes to monitor the news, that's the BBC using its own money as it sees fit, not "money taken away from the BBC licence fee". These days the BBC seems to monitor Twitter more closely than foreign broadcasts anyway.
News monitoring was set up as part of the Foreign Office and independent of the BBC to monitor foreign news broadcasts and was extensively used in the second world war, the cold war and since has been used to translate over 100 language broadcasts and currently pays special attention to monitoring the middle east crisis. The funding was transferred to the licence payer in 2013.
Local TV? OK, possibly I will give you that one. I think the BBC could contribute to local TV in better ways, certainly. But in any case that figure is insignificantly small compared to the £4 billion licence fee income, and the intent is certainly 'public service', so hard to get too excited about it.
The figure of £4 billion is always banded about mostly mistakenly that the BBC receives £4 billion from the licence fee. So here is the current and projected figures and what the BBC will receive under the new charter proposals. Local TV may be insignificant but my main point is that the licence fee is funding a great deal more than the BBC. £500 million currently, £1.1 billion by 2021 and the end of the next charter £1.5 billion. In total £13.4 billion will be taken out of the licence fee and I think if you carried out a poll and asked either how much the BBC receives from the licence fee or what the licence fee raises I would bet very highly that £13 billion taken from the licence fee would shock most.
2016 Licence Fee £3.72 billion BBC £3.25 billion
2021 Licence Fee £4.18 billion BBC £3.07 billion
2028 Licence Fee £4.92 billion BBC £3.43 billion
The "cost" of over-75s TV licences is not a cost at all - it's not a cost if you were never entitled to collect the money in the first place. The BBC themselves have publicly confirmed that the impact of the changes is cost neutral, so that's not "money taken away from the licence fee" either.
The BBC received a rebate from the DWP to compensate for the over 75 free licences. This was a social policy introduced by Gordon Brown to allieviate the furore surrounding the pension grab. It should never have been used for this purpose and still shouldn't be.
This cost will be borne by the licence payer in full by 2020. Cost neutral is dependent on the licence fee rising in line with inflation, closing the iplayer loophole (good luck with that one) So the licence payer must face a rise in the licence fee determined by the rate of inflation just to keep the licence fee cost neutral. Currently the licence Fee is £`145.50. By 2028 if it rises in line with the BOE Inflation target will be £185. Currently the BBC receives £127 from the licence payer in 2028 that will rise only by £2 to £129. Are you happy to pay an extra £40 a year in 2028 to give away free licences? To cover Foreign Office responsibilities? The BBC only gets £2 of it. How far will that go?
As I have posted many times, I believed the licence fee provided a balance because the advertising pot funded the commercial sector and offered a broad range of content to be affordable for the majority especially for those priced out of PAY TV. My view today is that under current proposals I cannot support the licence fee in it's present form as £500 million, rising to £1.5 billion by 2028 will be taken out of the licence fee and not be spent on supporting a broad range of content and services to balance the commercial sector.
What would be the view if we removed the same percentage from public places and services, our museums, parks, arts centres etc. Oh sorry the government are already cutting the grants for these services.
”
“Wait, World Service is a BBC service. That's not "money taken away from the BBC Licence Fee" any more than the £1.3 billion that the BBC spend on BBC One.
The World Service is the responsibility of the Foreign Office and was funded out of the Foreign Office Budget. In 2010 the coalition government made the licence payer responsible for the funding.
The funding of broadband has been dropped, as you mentioned.
The funding is being phased out and will be £150 million until 2017/2018, £80 million 2018/2019 £20 million 2019/2020.
"SC4" is actually S4C, a valued Public Service Broadcasting service for Wales, which has always had the involvement of the BBC and fulfils BBC objectives in that it allows the BBC to discharge their obligation to make and/or broadcast Welsh-language programming, without having to actually broadcast it on the BBC's English-language channels.
S4C (sorry for getting C and 4 the wrong way round) is Channel Four Wales and should be funded in the same way Channel Four is funded through advertising.
News Monitoring is a discretionary activity. If the BBC wishes to monitor the news, that's the BBC using its own money as it sees fit, not "money taken away from the BBC licence fee". These days the BBC seems to monitor Twitter more closely than foreign broadcasts anyway.

News monitoring was set up as part of the Foreign Office and independent of the BBC to monitor foreign news broadcasts and was extensively used in the second world war, the cold war and since has been used to translate over 100 language broadcasts and currently pays special attention to monitoring the middle east crisis. The funding was transferred to the licence payer in 2013.
Local TV? OK, possibly I will give you that one. I think the BBC could contribute to local TV in better ways, certainly. But in any case that figure is insignificantly small compared to the £4 billion licence fee income, and the intent is certainly 'public service', so hard to get too excited about it.
The figure of £4 billion is always banded about mostly mistakenly that the BBC receives £4 billion from the licence fee. So here is the current and projected figures and what the BBC will receive under the new charter proposals. Local TV may be insignificant but my main point is that the licence fee is funding a great deal more than the BBC. £500 million currently, £1.1 billion by 2021 and the end of the next charter £1.5 billion. In total £13.4 billion will be taken out of the licence fee and I think if you carried out a poll and asked either how much the BBC receives from the licence fee or what the licence fee raises I would bet very highly that £13 billion taken from the licence fee would shock most.
2016 Licence Fee £3.72 billion BBC £3.25 billion
2021 Licence Fee £4.18 billion BBC £3.07 billion
2028 Licence Fee £4.92 billion BBC £3.43 billion
The "cost" of over-75s TV licences is not a cost at all - it's not a cost if you were never entitled to collect the money in the first place. The BBC themselves have publicly confirmed that the impact of the changes is cost neutral, so that's not "money taken away from the licence fee" either.
The BBC received a rebate from the DWP to compensate for the over 75 free licences. This was a social policy introduced by Gordon Brown to allieviate the furore surrounding the pension grab. It should never have been used for this purpose and still shouldn't be.
This cost will be borne by the licence payer in full by 2020. Cost neutral is dependent on the licence fee rising in line with inflation, closing the iplayer loophole (good luck with that one) So the licence payer must face a rise in the licence fee determined by the rate of inflation just to keep the licence fee cost neutral. Currently the licence Fee is £`145.50. By 2028 if it rises in line with the BOE Inflation target will be £185. Currently the BBC receives £127 from the licence payer in 2028 that will rise only by £2 to £129. Are you happy to pay an extra £40 a year in 2028 to give away free licences? To cover Foreign Office responsibilities? The BBC only gets £2 of it. How far will that go?
As I have posted many times, I believed the licence fee provided a balance because the advertising pot funded the commercial sector and offered a broad range of content to be affordable for the majority especially for those priced out of PAY TV. My view today is that under current proposals I cannot support the licence fee in it's present form as £500 million, rising to £1.5 billion by 2028 will be taken out of the licence fee and not be spent on supporting a broad range of content and services to balance the commercial sector.
What would be the view if we removed the same percentage from public places and services, our museums, parks, arts centres etc. Oh sorry the government are already cutting the grants for these services.
”
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