Has the BBC had its day?

And S4C from 2015.

I was just about to post a huge diatribe about how valuable the BBC is in its current form but then I realised someone's already done it much better than I ever can (because he can play the guitar and I'm a mere keyboardist). Ladies and gentlemen and others, Mitch Benn.

It dates back before that, to 1923 when the fledgling BBC only had a few stations in the big cities, eg 2LO in London

The BBC started funding S4C last year

Well I think he's right that the licence fee is unsustainable - but his reasoning complete and utter nonsense. Getting rid of the licence fee will HARM the competition, massively, because overnight you'll have the behemoth BBC competing for the ad spend.

One vaguely reasonable suggestion I read a couple months ago was that the licence fee could be collected via the council tax instead of it's current methods. Personally I think this idea could be workable as you could always then apply for an exemption from the licence fee (a bit like how you can apply for single occupancy on your council tax etc.). I also wonder whether in the 21st century there still needs to be a lower fee to black & white TVs. Maybe in the era of the internet, mobiles and tablets the "TV licence fee" needs to be renamed slightly to reflect the change in the way we watch TV.

As already mentioned the licence fee has already for many years been top-sliced for non-BBC projects. Firstly for the freeview switch-over, and now to help local TV start up. Then of course there is the government forcing it to fund SC4 and the various world service stations as part of the last settlement. If the licence fee was to be axed then the government would loose out as the BBC would almost certainly axe it's world service & foreign stations (unless the foreign office reverted to funding them again).

I think the Dutch have a better system as all forms of Television has to be paid for (cable, satellite, digitenne (similar to Freeview in that it is received via aeriel)) but from the basic monthly payment about €10.50 goes straight to the national broadcaster - basically a licence/duty via the backdoor. In other words to watch TV you have to pay for it and as such paying for the national broadcaster!!!!

To be fair to Mr Portillo (a phrase rarely uttered), I think his argument was that it is unfair to give the entire license fee to the BBC and that producers of other worthy public service programming should be able to compete for a part of it. Obviously, there are some unanswered questions and holes in that argument...

He had an opportunity to flesh out his case on the Moral Maze a couple of years ago:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n6rsm

Thanks for posting. I was wondering if something like this could work over here but wasn't sure what to write.

Everybody who watches TV should pay their licence, this way could make sure everyone who watches pays. If you have two or more platforms you could exempt yourself by placing your other Box details on the payment details so you don't get charged twice for your payment towards the BBC/Local TV/S4C/World Service. It seems a slightly fairer way of doing things to me...slightly.

Indeed one hole being the commercial broadcasters don't want the same scrutiny as BBC from having some of the licence fee, I'm led to believe.

I still believe Local TV channel should be scaped, and its content merged back into ITV and Ch4. I do believe it would be mean the BBC, ITV, CH4 and local consortium working together to produce programme for said local areas etc.

Though it must be said it would likely to be Regional than Local on ITV. You do have a point though as one of the current problems of the Local TV stations is no National backbone (which ITV, not Channel 4 could provide). However that is surely something the 'local' TV stations should be working on themselves as per ITV before.

I'm not a fan of giving ITV (INDEPENDENT television) Licence Fee money though, preferring the option of Contract Rights Renewal being amended or scrapped instead (something with which so many media mergers happening could make sense) to fund Regional News/Political programming. As stated by 'chris' above, ITV are also unlikely to want extra scrutiny like the BBC for taking Licence Fee money.

To be honest though I also just think we can have it (greedy that I am) - limited Regional TV from BBC/ITV and Local TV from the Local TV network.

So therefore I disagree with Mr Portillo's viewpoint about the Licence Fee being shared with commercial Broadcasters who produce limited PSB (except maybe Channel 4 if required to help a hole in funding).

The commercial broadcasters wouldn't necessarily need to be subject of the same scrutiny as the BBC. I imagine to money could be given to support specific projects and that the scrutiny wouldn't extend beyond that project and how its goals are achieved.

I know a similar system exists in Denmark where a portion of the license fee is used to fund certain programming on commercial broadcasters. It's called "Public Service Puljen" and works like the BFI funding for films in the UK.