I was listening to Andrew Castle on LBC this morning, and he was discussing government proposals that non-payment of the TV licence fee could be decriminalised.
The licence fee gets criticized a lot by those who don’t think it fair that the BBC gets its money handed to it on a plate when commercial broadcasters struggle to get anywhere near the BBC’s income.
There is a Conservative agenda against the BBC at the moment – forcing it to streamline services and spend its money more efficiently than it does do. For good reason, I think. Put more money in to high quality programmes, and cut the waste.
A member of the Conservative Party myself, I am perhaps the odd one out. £145.50 a year works out as £12 a month: the BBC is very good value for money. I listen to a lot of BBC radio, I watch a lot of their very interesting documentaries. I much prefer the BBC’s output to what is on offer from the commercial channels – LBC and Classic FM being the exception!
But the licence fee does need modernising – the funding model of the BBC is not without its problems.
That said, I am happy to pay the BBC licence fee; I would happily pay more… Perhaps, up to £25 seems reasonable to me!?
