Cuts the size of BBC Two's budget needed after licence fee squeeze, says insider

Comments

• killeronthecorner@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Baroness Stowell, Chair of the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee, said: “Decisions about funding mechanisms have to be led by a clear articulation of what the country wants from its national broadcaster, and how it will change for that to be delivered. The BBC needs to be more open and front-footed in setting that out, or else face change being imposed upon it.”

  And there it is. The classic Tory playbook: intentionally underfund, declare unsustainable, and open up for private interests; in this case, likely advertising and other types of product placement.

  Nothing is sacred to these malicious pricks.

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  • NateNate60@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That’s not restricted to the UK. Conservative parties across the world use the same tactic. American conservatives have been trying to sell off the US Postal Service for ages claiming it’s “unprofitable” while strangling it with regulations and dumb rules like forcing it to fund pensions 70 years in advance.

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    • Luvs2Spuj@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The notion that a public service needs to be profitable is so backwards.

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    • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah but we’re in a UK community talking about the UK…

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  • Aggravationstation@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Sacred? Ridiculous.

    The BBC, this “institution”, has used legal threats to screw the British public out of money to pay for the inane whims of Oxbridge alumni, stirred up hatred and support for the blood sucking elites of this country and shielded sex offenders for the better part of a century.

    Then they turn around and sell the fruits of license fee payer funds to other channels internationally, via VHS, DVD and Blu-ray sales then finally to the premium streaming services. You have to pay to see the shows you paid to make!

    That’s not to mention the amount of money they get in merchandise sales. Remember the Cyberman Voice Changer Helmet? That was the top toy one Christmas.

    Times have changed, the BBC needs to die.

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    • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This has literally nothing to do with the tories’ agenda.

      Take all the issue with paying a TV license that you want, but don’t for a second act like the Tories won’t have their cake and eat it with privatisation.

      You’ll be paying the license fee, watching adverts, and thanking them for it if they can have their way entirely.

      Much like the inevitable privitisation of the NHS - should they maintain power - won’t lead to any realized tax cuts.

      They hate you and think you’re a piece of shit. Don’t let them distract you from that for a single damn moment.

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• danielquinn@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  As a Canadian expat, I was actually excited to start paying a license fee when I moved here. I’d grown up on a bunch of BBC dramas and comedies and thought it pretty cool to be able to contribute. I thought the BBC was like our CBC: publicly funded and not controlled by the state.

  Then I started living here, and following the BBC coverage of issues I cared about. I was blown away by the amount of propaganda and straight up Tory shilling the BBC does. I cancelled my license fees after a year and didn’t look back.

  I’m well aware of the Tory tactic of corrupting a service until the public calls for privatisation, but from where I’m sitting, there’s nothing worth saving anymore. The irresponsible journalism coming out of there is only slightly better than The Sun, but carries more weight due to their hard earned reputation.

  I’d rather see it burn than let that reputation be leveraged to burn the rest of us.

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  • christophski@feddit.uk ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The public is never the one calling for privatisation, the government do that

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  • HeartyBeast@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    straight up Tory shilling the BBC does.

    I’d love to see you justify this. The BBC doesn’t shill for anyone as far as I can see. Its coverage generally is straight down the line -sure with a status quo bias.

    Some of Laura Kuenesburg’s social media posts were idiotic, but new political editor Chris Mason is excellent in my opinion.

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    • danielquinn@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Sure, here’s a short list of just some of the terrible shit they did over the last few months to bias the public toward the Tories:

      • Laura Kuennsberg (senior political editor) revealed the results of secret postal votes two days before the election.
      • She also falsely accused a member of the public of punching a Tory adviser.
      • One of their reporters said "If Johnson wins the majority that he so deserves” live on air.
      • They edited Remembrance Day epitaph footage and replaced it with 2016 footage.
      • They edited out audience laughter at Boris Johnson during a Question Time special.
      • They ran a special Question Time show for young people and stacked the audience with leavers despite 70% of the under 30’s wanting to remain.
      • They claimed vote Leave was cleared of wrongdoing during the Brexit referendum (they weren’t).
      • An Investigation into Facebook ads found that the Conservatives lie 88% of the time, while Labour didn’t lie at all. The BBC reported that “Ads are ‘indecent, dishonest and untruthful’” without citing who was doing the lying.

      This is before we talk about their efforts to paint opposition as communists.

      A lot of this goes back to 2016 when the Conservatives changed the rules around how the BBC’s board was appointed. Basically the BBC hasn’t been “arms-length” for three years and it’s glaringly obvious in their journalism.

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