Leave the licence fee alone!

by John Fitzsimons on 16 June 2009  |  1 comment
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The Government looks likely to propose changes to the licence fee which will see commercial broadcasters get a slice, at the expense of the BBC, but that would be a terrible mistake.

I love the Beeb. I make no bones about it, I absolutely love it.

In fact, it's probably the thing that makes me the most proud of being British. The news output on the box is magnificent, its sports coverage remains far superior to most other channels, and it continues to be the sole source of challenging television that isn't simply imported from America.

And that's before mentioning the incredible radio stations (personally I think Test Match Special is worth the license fee alone) and the astonishing website, which must be one of the most viewed sites in the world. Do you go a day without going on it? I know I don't.

What's more, the reputation of the BBC across the globe is incredible. Hell, in the press room of the amazing US drama The West Wing, there is even a desk for the BBC. You wouldn't get that with Sky News would you?

However, the BBC now faces the prospect of seeing parts of the licence fee taken away to help out its commercial rivals, particularly in terms of funding regional news programmes.

In my view, this would be a mistake. A commercial broadcaster is exactly that, commercial. If they are not raising as much through brainless advertising as the BBC does from the licence fee, well that's just tough really.

I'm all for cutting some of the costs of the BBC - some of the salaries are obviously quite excessive, particularly for certain 'entertainment' hosts (I'm looking at you Norton), so they can go. And while BBC4 shows the sort of programmes BBC2 did in the days before cookery programmes, BBC3 is on the whole a bit of a waste. So that can go as well.

But the principle of splitting the licence fee is what troubles me the most. Channel 4 is clearly in need of some help, which is why it has been lobbying for so long to merge with BBC Worldwide, the commercial division of the BBC.

However, Five has made clear its desire to merge with Channel 4, a move which would involve no extra cost to the public purse.

That's surely a better option than putting the output of possibly our greatest ever invention at risk? There is a very real risk that this is just the beginning, and will lead to the demise of the BBC, which would be tragedy.

The Beeb is a national treasure, and it needs the licence fee to survive. Leave it as it is!