We already contribute, it's called a tv licence.

Look, cuts have to be made somewhere, otherwise how can they afford to send half their workforce for days on end to cover the American elections and its aftermath? The most disgusting thing for me was learning on Twitter, of all places, about the horrendous tram crash, then turning on BBC News (and yes more fool me) to learn more, but to find not one mention of this accident, they were more interested in their biased coverage of the US election. Sorry, argue with me all you want, but this is wrong.

It is sadly starting to look like a permanent austerity EastEnders is a real possibility.

Yes.

This is not a recent thing, however. This has been happening for a good decade now and maybe even longer.

It would have been subtle at first, but around about 2008, you'd have noticed quite a dramatic change, as cast lists got shorter per episode and as a result, there was much more filler.

In 2010/2011, during the Santer/Kirkwood transition, the show had become massively popular once again, so I think the BBC invested a bit more money in to it, but since about mid 2011, it's just got worse and I think the main reason is due to cuts.

DTC tried hard to revive EastEnders, but with so many cuts, a lot of his big work came across as cheap and tacky! Obviously now under SOC, it's more noticeable than ever!

The show now has less stunts (Though this isn't necessarily a bad thing), less on location filming, and I can't remember the last time we had a documentary on the show, such as EastEnders revealed, etc... just cheap 10 minute ones on iPlayer.

I think Enders would have had a much better decade if the BBC invested a bit more money in to it. Even the marketing and advertising are now lacklustre.

This is also something Ross Kemp and Scott Maslen have picked up on in the past few years.

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I remember a TV documentary, a few years back, mentioning that you can sometimes tell if a series is strapped for cash by how many Extras you see milling about - If there are hardly any, then it means the show is saving money on fees for background Actors. It was making reference to the sometimes cavernous interiors of 'Hollyoaks', but there are telltale signs on EastEnders - closer camera angles on exchanges at the stalls in the market, fewer customers at The Vic - Also, how rarely anyone who's not a main cast member is seen in the Minute Mart or even the way that the only ever occupants of the launderette seem to be Dot and whichever resident is spilling out their troubles to Dot.
No wonder Belinda's salon went bust.

To be fair it wasn't just the bbc that was guilty of ignoring the tram crash