[jambutty]

When are people going to get it into their collective heads that the license fee goes to the government and the government funds the BBC after taking their cut? The BBC also funds itself by producing and selling a variety of programmes worldwide and also buys programmes from other TV companies.

Garinda - Although we are all used to covert advertising on the BBC such as at sporting venues, isn't the supposed absence of advertising on the BBC the reason we have to pay a licence fee?

No it isn’t. We pay a TV license fee so that we can receive video signals and watch TV from any source and on any equipment. It is no different to paying the Road Fund License in that we must have one to take our vehicle on the public highway. If you want to use a CB radio you need a license. If you want to become an Amateur radio enthusiast and to communicate with other hams you need a license. You even need a license to get married. We used to have a license to listen to the radio or wireless as it was called and at one time we even had to have a license to keep a dog. You need a license to sell alcohol. Even some businesses need a license to operate. In all cases the money raised goes to the government.

However to address the topic. BBC TV has always inadvertently advertised products when showing sporting events and today we have the xxxxxxx Premier Division and Match of the Day is introduced that way as well as Final Score.

The BBC does not advertise for gain although it does advertise it’s own programmes and sometimes to excess.

Excuse me but since when has Big Brother been a quality programme or Corrie or East Enders, and other soaps or much of the other dross that is shown as ‘entertainment’? It is all subjective but the BBC does have the edge over commercial TV in quality programmes. The awards received by the BBC establishes that quite clearly. But that doesn’t mean that ITV doesn’t have some quality programmes because it does but the quality is ruined by constant interruption with adverts for the same old products. Products that talk down to the average person. Adverts that show men to be drunken, uncaring football hooligans who are constantly being put down by a woman and ridiculed by them whilst at the same time pandering to the vanity of women by advertising make up and look glamorous products. And the women fall for them like a ton of bricks.

So if someone thinks that Big Brother and Corrie etc are quality programmes then that is their opinion. I happen to think that they are garbage. So who is right? Both and neither! We are all entitled to like and dislike what we want.

If the government did away with the TV license you could bet your sweet life that it would find some other way to extort money out of us to fund the BBC and invariably it would be more than the current cost.