The BBC is both a national broadcaster providing public service broadcasting in return for special tax, and a commercial broadcaster in the world market operating through commercial subsidiaries BBC Commercial Ltd, BBC Studios Ltd and UK TV Media Ltd. It has a valuable back book of programmes and a well know brand worldwide.
BBC Commercial is small, turning over just ÂŁ2bn. Licence fee activity brought in another ÂŁ3.74bn. After selling its main property assets the BBC has a small balance sheet for a world media company, with just ÂŁ2.66bn of capital and reserves on the balance sheet.
If we look at the US media majors we see far larger and better capitalised groups. Amazon, parent of Amazon prime entertainment, has a full group market capitalisation of $1760 billion. Disney is worth $177bn, Comcast $178bn, Netflix $243 bn and Thomson Reuters $98 bn. These all dwarf the BBC in a very competitive world market. The turnover of Netflix, Comcast and Disney at $240 bn is 31 times BBC total turnover and 92 times BBC Commercial turnover. Even Amazon prime videos on its own has a turnover double that of BBC Commercial.
The BBC sold off TV Centre and entered into a complex sale and leaseback or bond issue financing for Broadcasting House to raise ÂŁ813 million.
The BBC Commercial arm to compete with the main media world players needs to raise capital and scale up. It could be spun off with commercial contracts to use and pay for BBC back material and any other privileged links. The new commercial company should be free to raise both equity and debt to be able to spend on more and better programming and routes to market.
February 8, 2024
I remember when the Conservative Party wanted to conserve the valued features of our nation and culture. Long gone, sadly! Nowadays the Conservatives don’t have a good word for our Universities, our judges, our civil service, police and army numbers are down, and their Brexit’s catastrophoic impact on Northern Ireland has broken up the Union. Now it’s the BBC they want to wreck. Very very sad
February 8, 2024
You’ll be voting Reform then ?
February 8, 2024
JRâs party was going to sort out the BBC 14 years ago. I thought we had a culture and media minister- where have they been? Same for civil service, public sector pay not higher than PM, bonfire of quangos, economy, taxation, Brexit, law and order, borders, take back control of money and laws- 4,000 EU laws still on the book and the bill for law change scrapped! JRâs party has got rid of our manufacturing and skilled jobs, treacherous Mayâs net stupid, required for national security transferring them to our enemies!
Tory party actions delivered big state high taxes, poverty, vulnerability, despair and decline and rid us of our nation state and way of life by alien cultures and suppress any dissent.
I cannot wait for JRâs to be obliterated.
February 8, 2024
They were even going to sell off ch4 …..whatever happened ?
February 8, 2024
@Hope – you appear not only to sum up the progress of the Conservative Party after 14 years, but think further it is virtually the whole of Parliament they haven’t been bothered with the job we pay them for
February 8, 2024
The BBC needs to make its mind up. Is it a public service broadcaster or a left wing propaganda deseminator . The fact it is financed by a tax means it should follow it’s charter. Comparing it to Amazon or Netflix is silly as no one goes to jail for not using their services.
I stopped funding this openly Marxist organisation after the bias of Brexit.
February 8, 2024
The lefties who infest the BBC have wrecked it. BBC Poll-Tax refusniks are defunding it.
February 8, 2024
When you say âConservativesâ donât have a good word, are you saying all conservatives, MPs, employees, members, supporters, voters.
I read this that John wants to build up the BBC commercial side to raise revenue, make more programs in the UK, support UK talent and sell programs worldwide to make a global entertainment competitor to those companies he mentioned.
February 8, 2024
The main problem with BBC is that it is over-commercialised (95% to 99%) of what it does today can be done by commercial organisations. Therefore it’s become almost redundant) and WOKE (and left-wing).
But that’s not a reason to get rid of it. Rather, it needs some radical transformation by someone with a genuine love for decent, original and innovative TV (hopefully such a person will appear).
If the Tories get rid of the BBC they will just be seen as culture vandals (and so another nail in the Tory’s possible coffin).
February 8, 2024
Lemming :
You are confusing the âConservativesâ (part of the Parliamentary UniParty) with âconservativesâ. The âconservativesâ in the country are unhappy that our Parliament, Civil Service, universities, judges, police, many quangos, regulatory bodies and national institutions and even now the army are determined to transition us to an Afro ME looking state with the twin policies of Net Zero and mass immigration (legal or illegal, it doesn’t matter).
Today I read that the RSPCA, the WWF and the National Trust together with other such organisations have complained to an all-party group of MPs that British countryside is a âracist, colonial white spaceâ and the countryâs green spaces are governed by âwhite British cultural valuesâ.
The MPs had asked for evidence on the links between âsystemic racismâ and climate change.
February 8, 2024
No, the RSPCA, the WWF and the National Trust have done no such thing. You are getting angry about things that have happened only inside your head
February 8, 2024
FFS. We desperately need Reform!!!
February 8, 2024
The BBC has already wrecked itself with its many woke & idiotic political lines and endless lies and propaganda especially on Covid and the net harm vaccines and on climate alarmism.
The government keeps the many universities in business by supplying their students with soft loans (often grants in practice especially for women it seems due to career breaks etc.) usually for worthless degrees (75%?) costing circa ÂŁ60k and three years+ also letting them in effect to sell UK immigration rights to students (and their families) if they just study media studies at the ex-Bogner Poly or similar.
February 8, 2024
The BBC on good form today on the encouraging, but minor break through in controlled fusion, (The Joint European Torus (JET) a magnetically confined plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, UK this on the World at One). Firstly their energy âexpertâ did not seem to realise that we already have manmade fusion on earth (just not controlled fusion alas) then he seemed to think 69MJ for 5 secs is 15 Watts and enough to boil 70 Kettles of water. Has he been to the Dianne Abbot school of Maths and Physics or just having an off day? At least he was not talking drivel about climate alarmism in from of pictures or weather porn, forest fires or volcanoes as usual with the BBC propaganda outfit I suppose.
February 8, 2024
In terms of its role to dispense public information, news, political information and opinion the BBC has chosen via the politics of its staff to veer away from its charter statement. It has become a woke, left wing propaganda machine of highly selective news and opinion. I would be happy for it to become, likeThe Guardian, its icon in print, a customer choice. Let those that want it pay a suscriltion for it. It should in no way be allowed to exist on a universal fee/tax from those choosing to buy a TV set.
The elements it does well, such as drama, could live on an income from advertising as do virtually all other broadcasters. I would give it a maximum period of three years to effect the change. Sport could be on subscription.
It will take the emergence of the Reform Party to do it, all other parties appeare to have a vested interest in perpetuating the current state of affairs, which is why nothing has been done to date. The general public are not content with the soporific of just talking about it, while doing nothing.
February 8, 2024
+1 Agricola. It produces estructive propaganda and if you have a TV set, you must pay for it. In Russia at least there is no TV licence to pay!
February 8, 2024
Yeah but they only have one TV channel
February 8, 2024
3 nationwide channels and 6,700 local/regional channels.
Even wikipedia would have given you this information. And if there are 28 of those that are state-owned, there are 37 fully private ones.
February 8, 2024
Have you ever heard the term ‘satire’, you need to relax more
February 8, 2024
Wikipedia says that in 2019 there were dozens of Russian TV channels, over half privately owned. Has that changed since the war began, Glen? Or isn’t this a subject you know anything about?
February 8, 2024
Satire – They all conform to one message …putins message
February 9, 2024
I guess you speak Russian and can vouch for the statement above. However one can wonder why Vladimir Kara-Murza, Marina Ovsyannikova, Mikhail Afanasyev, Maria Ponomarenko, Alexei Gorinov, Sergey Smirnov, Nikita Girin have recently been put in jail. Have they been too dithyrambic in their praise for Vladimir Vladimirovich P.?
February 8, 2024
Spot on +++
February 8, 2024
Agricola, ++++++
February 8, 2024
The TV Licence should be abolished. It is clearly unfair to insist that I must pay the BBC if I wish to watch any other channel live but not watch BBC or use iPlayer. The Licence is equivalent to having to buy a year’s subscription to The Guardian in order to buy one copy of The Telegraph.
The Licence should not be replaced by any form of taxation. The BBC insists it is popular so should have no problems attracting companies who wish to show adverts on it. Now that delivering TV over the internet is established the BBC could go for a subscription model, in which payment removes the adverts. If the BBC is as popular as it claims there will be plenty of subscribers.
February 8, 2024
Indeed fund it by adverts or subscription make them compete. Though the BBC already has endless adverts mainly for BBC products and charities & other obvious placements within programmes too.
February 8, 2024
In a few years the BBC viewership will half as people realise you can get better on-demand content for less than the price of the license
fee. Live TV is dead. The BBC has been lobbying for a few years to be paid by a tax on-demand services.
The best solution for the BBC is to produce content that people want. But we have seen it is full of woke managers and will only hire woke staff. It has been given every opportunity to reform but is unwilling to do so.
So now the BBC needs to scale back drastically and produce one channel and be paid directly by the Government.
February 8, 2024
Ps
The government is us via tax, so no way.
February 8, 2024
I don’t think live tv is dead as such. We had problems with our service and an engineer came and in discussion told us they are all pushing for streaming services these days and want to get rid of live tv. He said the majority of people he visits do not want this as they like to record programmes to watch when they want and of course to skip over the annoying adverts. That’s the way we watch these days. Had a subscription to Netflix and another big cinema channel but got rid of those after the trial period as there is nothing for people of my age to watch – all seems to be extreme violence and endless swearing. No doubt why we get such big social problems as people are influenced by this sort of rubbish and we have a coarser society as a result.
February 8, 2024
âLiveâ TV is mostly wrong. Its timing clashes with when and what viewers want to see. If someone wants to view something live they can view it while the person on the spot holding their phone camera is sharing their images, instead of going through some BBC channel biased copy of it after.
Most TV programmes are delayed by a few seconds anyway, so âliveâ is a false claim of time.
News is only new as it happens. A few minutes later it degrades to a video of the past. Much TV news content is new to the people waiting to see oddments that interest them, but too much is about matters many would prefer to know nothing about, like football and tiddlywinks.
All TV programmes exist to serve the consumer. Consumer demand is On Demand, The BBC is in low demand, declining fast.
February 8, 2024
Ofcom.org.uk âMedia nations 2023: Latest TV viewing and listening trends revealedâ, 03/08/2023.
Statista.com 10/11/2023 âMost popular TV channels and video streaming services in the United Kingdom in 3rd quarter 2023â.
February 8, 2024
Good morning.
Good article. The one thing it misses, is the fact that the BBC has been around for over 100 years and some of the others have only arrived this century. The TV Tax is stifling competition and affecting domestic media that broadcast over the airwaves. Just imagine if the likes of Nextflix and Amazon were UK companies ? Just think of all the revenue they could bring into the UK.
I use to argue for the abolishment of such a tax, now I am happy for the market to decide. đ
February 8, 2024
The market to decide? But the BBC is grossly unfair competition for the other broadcasters who get no subsidy and thus have to charge subscriptions or run endless tedious adverts. Where are the fair competition authorities here? Just as âfreeâ state schools and the NHS are unfair competition to private schools and healthcare. It you do not use something you should not have to pay for it. We should have education vouchers that people can top up and should get tax breaks on private medical care as we save the NHS a fortune.
Endless other misguided market rigging in energy, cars & public transport, lack of housing & OTT planning restrictions, home heating, bank lending, anti-white male discriminationâŠalso does huge damage to the economy.
February 8, 2024
Netflix and Amazon be British? Never would be allowed. If we invent anything of value it is commercialised and sold off for a fast buck to foreigners. They’d sell the fillings out of our teeth if we left our mouths open long enough.
February 8, 2024
The problem is that the BBC will now have its license fee renewed under a Labour Government, which will mean higher taxes to pay for on-demand TV.
February 8, 2024
The main problem with the BBC is their absurd political lines. People do not want to pay tax that are used to lie to them.
I saw the Sunak âflip chartâ Party Political Broadcast last night. Sunak really is rather a silly chap. He claims credit for protecting (shutting down) the NHS during covid, furlough and the net harm vaccine programme but these were all huge error cost a fortune and doing net harm (especially the net teck âvaccinesâ that you lie to us are âunequivocally safeâ despite are the stats to the contrary. This policies also, together with your and the BoE QE currency debasement agenda and your mad net zero lunacy were the main causes of inflation.
He then goes on about inflation and his out four other totally failed pledges net immigration at ÂŁ750k, a hopeless NHS, taxes still rising despite his lies, debt still rising too. Why focus it all on Sunak?
February 8, 2024
especially the new tech. âvaccinesâ.
Later in the broadcast he says there are only two ways governments can pay for things they borrow or they tax. Well Sunak other ways too as you mist know they can debase the ÂŁ with vast QE as Sunak and Andrew Bailey did so massively – hence the inflation and subsequent high interest rates to control this. They could also sell assets or cut out the vast waste in government (net zero, over regulation, HS2, the net harm vaccines⊠but you have done none of this have you Sunak?
Your inflation at 4% does notâ ease living costsâ as you claim they are still rising.just slightly less quickly. So we will see how the elections go on Today is it?
February 8, 2024
He reminds me of a 6th former pretending to have the power to do some fairly stupid things. The problem is he’s older, has the power but screws up just like his 6th former self.
February 8, 2024
Indeed I always rather distrusted head boys, they were usually brightish but not too bright (a bit like most teachers in fact) perhaps intending to studying geography, history, english, PPE, law and rather toadyish and compliant too. I often wondered what they would have become had Germany won the war. Like politicians they tended to address people as if you they were rather dim 9 year olds. See Sunakâs party broadcast last might.
May was even worse at this – was she head girl she is the right type? I was usually with the brighter, boisterous chaps at the back pointing out any errors or holes in the head boys agenda, usually using humour & satirical questions.
February 8, 2024
What are the stats showing covid vaccines are unsafe? I am familiar with the data in Australia that shows them to be safe, less familiar with UKs but what I have seen shows the vaccines (same vaccines) to be safe. Aside from crank videos on youtube, do you have any evidence?
February 8, 2024
The AstraZeneca vaccine was soon widely withdrawn because of blood clotting issues.
February 8, 2024
Indeed these we spotted very early in many countries – Japan I think was one of the earliest – but it still took ages to stop them in the UK. How many suffered or died during this long delay?
February 8, 2024
Well the Australia data actually shows excess deaths timing well with the vaccine roll out and data and here Covid largely arrived later so the figure are more clear. See also the New Zealand leaked data. Dr John Campbell videos notes give references to loads of very worrying data and studies. Andrew Bridgen is largely right. Start with his excess deaths around the world videos. What else is causing the excess death worldwide and larely timing with the Covid vaccine roll out (and by age roll out).
February 8, 2024
I’m not sure that bragging about closing down the NHS to anyone except a Covid patient; forcing private businesses to shut and then take out huge loans to get up and running again; or the coerced jab programme are going to be positive messages for Sunak at the election.
More and more people are waking up to what a disaster the lockdowns were. And a great many people either have been, or know someone, who has been “adversely affected” by the experimental gene therapy.
February 8, 2024
So the ASA finally acts on EV âzero emissionâ lies. EVs are actually more emissions and more CO2 but elsewhere vehicles – except for the 30% greater tyre wear which is still on the roads.
Will they now look at the âone bus can replace 75 cars lies on adverts (about 6 cars in reality) or the CO2 devil gas climate alarmist lies mainly coming from government MSM, the BBCâŠ
February 8, 2024
What Iâd like to know is who is still promoting the jab.
Who is offering a management scheme for the jab.
Who is prob still raking it in from the jab.
Ideas?
LL you seem to be able to criticise the PM whereas I just get deleted for pointing out what seem to me to be irrefutable facts. And thus I become anxious and cryptic. Did I dream/misunderstand what I read in several papers?
Maybe the party is trying to keep the Tory home fires burning against all the odds?
Stay âtight lippedâ donât rock the boat?
February 8, 2024
Oh! AhâŠmaybe then the harms are the diversion?
Such comments get published.
So are we meant to think that that particular shot is the dangerous one whilst promotors move on to the next âthingâ? Shingles is one on the list I believe. And they want to repurpose mRNA vacs for more serious diseases than flu.
After all one vaccine must be as profitable as another.
Especially if mandated.
February 8, 2024
Shingles is a common side effect of vaccines and indeed old age it is dormant and comes back when the immune system get compromised or overloaded. I know one person who had it down one arm a few days after a A/Z Covid vaccine.
February 8, 2024
Do not rock the boat? It is already upside down and well under water.
February 8, 2024
Once again you demand that the BBC, our national broadcaster, be broken up and privatised, doubtless to be sold to wealthy foreigners (just like the water/sewage dumping industry, the railways, energy, steel, shipbuilding etc etc) who will impose their views upon the BBC listener base. Yet another privatisation disaster for the country.
February 8, 2024
You don’t like foreigners much do you ? Especially those EU countries that own some of our utility companies. Typical Little Englander.
February 8, 2024
Me too. Put England first I say. Yeh.
February 8, 2024
+1
February 8, 2024
The BBC is a tedious, inefficient and deluded national propaganda outfit. They pushed the net harm vaccines at us (even to children and people who had had covid and had no need of them). They now fail, like Sunak, to even discuss the vast numbers of excess deaths they have caused both in the UK and around the World. The BBC and Sunak blame Truss for the economic issue but he and Bailey had booby trapped the economy before she and Kwasi took over – she was just the final trigger the staw that broke the Camelâs back. Her policies were basically right as growth is the only way out. For growth we need far less government, no net zero, cheap reliable energy, no more dangerous vaccines, lower simpler taxes, quality only (and far lower numbers of) immigrants and a bonfire of red tape. Things Sunak and Hunt are clearly completely set against.
February 8, 2024
While I agree in part regarding everything being about ÂŁÂŁÂŁ’s and selling everything off to wealthy foreigners, the BBC itself is imposing a one line view upon those who pay the licence fee. A lot of that view is coming from foreigners anyway, particularly the globalists view.
That should not be so, nor should it be over representing minority groups so as to alienate the majority.
As for the ever present mass of sneering left wing wealthy elite within its ranks, time should be called on them.
A dumber set I’ve yet to come across as most of what they advocate will eventually catch up with them!!! I suppose arrogance hand in hand with not being very bright clouds their judgement.
February 8, 2024
If you like the BBC, pay for it. I donât like the BBC. Why should I pay for it so I can watch live TV produced by other broadcasters that I pay? Please justify.
February 8, 2024
+1
February 8, 2024
What stops it doing these things as the nationalised industry it is? Wonât financial centres loan money to nationalised industries? Why donât they have a profit motive, a growth objective?
February 8, 2024
Well the BBC have been imposing their odd woke views on all their listsners and viewers for as long as I can remember. There is no need for them to be sold to anyone, they just need to change their income source. Subscription or advertising are their options. Theg can then preach woke to the converted.
February 8, 2024
Obviously privatisation is essential for things like aviation (look at Ryanair!) but it’s possible to become a privatisation junkie (like wanting to privatise everything until the British people own nothing – and even our air and earth will be owned by foreigners one day … they already own our water …).
Got to be OBJECTIVE about privatisation not subjective / ideological about it.
February 8, 2024
I very rarely watch the BBC these days SG, apart perhaps BBC Parliament occasionally. Nor do I listen to BBC Radio 2 in my car these days either (not since Ken left). So I’m not sure I would actually notice if the BBC disappeared alltogether. I would be sad of course, that a once great British institution (like so many others) has passed away but that is happening everywhere.
When I visit my sons, they don’t use ‘Radio’ at home at all (music is streamed around the house and controlled via speech or mobile) and they have access to numerous paid-for TV subscriptions (Disney+ for the grandkids, Netflix for Mum and Sky Sport for Dad). In terms of ‘News’ (as far as I can tell) they get that from Social Media (if they even bother).
So my general impression is that the BBC are busy alienating many folk who might have once used their services, whilst failing completely to attract newer generations who never grew up with them and have many other alternatives they clearly prefer…
Frankly, if not for my wife, I would get rid of my TV and consume my media via my lap-top and never pay the TV license again. I mostly watch stuff on my laptop these days anyway, because frankly I don’t want to watch endless travel & cooking shows, not to mention all the murder mysteries. đ
February 8, 2024
Yes, privatisation has not been a success of any sort as far as I can see- higher prices, poorer service and nothing left in the kitty to show for it. Also selling council houses and not replacing them was a big mistake, so now we have housing problems as well. Short sighted fast buck politics based on an old ideology is no good.
February 8, 2024
It appears that this is a country full of people who resist âviews being imposed upon themâ. After all the Woke/socialist BBC has failed miserably.
These blasted people even made up their own minds about Brexit, for example, when the whole weight of the MSM, Government and EU aligned against it.
Watch the opinion swing this afternoon, when the facts in the Ukraine are exposed by Tucker Carlson doing the job of a journalist, a scientist, academe and every decent civilized person, i.e obtaining THE FACTS (not the BBC or Prince Harryâs truth) so that solutions can be found, apologies proffered and disaster averted!
February 9, 2024
Julian Assange,BBC interview 2014:-
“The powerful,if they want to keep their power,will try to know as much about us as they can,and they will try to make that we know as little about them as possible.”
February 8, 2024
Good Morning,
I am listening to Radio 4 this morning. (yes, holding my nose!)
There first report is that World temperature is now 1.5Deg. C above pre-industrial levels. As usual, only a prof interviewed who said we’re on the way to armageddon, and the labour MP Barry Gardener. No counter argument.
The first and obvious question NOT asked, ‘..1.5deg C above WHAT TEMPERATURE..’ If we don’t know what is that temperature, in digits to the tenth of a degree, how do we know what is 1.5 above it?
BBC NEWS, Not fit for purpose.
February 8, 2024
How many locations around the world, both hemispheres, poles, inland and coastal, what times of day -sunrise /sunset? same month, are known’ accurate (ha ha) pre-industrial compared to this year?
– just asking for some decent comparisons, or heaven forbid 1.5 is some wild guess at a point of no-return?
February 8, 2024
Exactly and what pre-industrial average 100 year, 1000 years or 10 million years and how did they get these averages exactly?
February 8, 2024
The most interesting question is why BBC Commercial is so small and unsuccessful compared to the likes of Netflix when it has such a massive back-catalogue of programming. Those conservatives on the Left who want the BBC never to change should explain to us why that is.
February 8, 2024
Incompetent staff and they never needed to really compete so they did not bother.
February 8, 2024
The basic injustice of being forced to pay the BBC to watch live television broadcast by others is not mentioned. I pay for Netflix – but I canât watch their live output unless I pay the BBC. This is unjust. Why do you allow it, Mr. Redwood?
I donât and wonât pay the BBC licence because:
1) I donât like their political bias
2) I wonât contribute to Linekerâs, Zoe Ballâs and all the othersâ outrageous salaries. How dare they take a licence fee by the force of law and then start paying âstarsâ millions with it. Anyone can read the bloody news.
February 8, 2024
140,000 old people licence fees PA just to pay for Gary Lineker!
February 8, 2024
Lineker got £1.4 m in 2020/2021. That year the licence fee was around £140, which means 10,000 old people paid for him. Congratulations LL, once again you did it ⊠wrong.
February 8, 2024
Sorry 14,000 on the figures I got (not 140,000) still rather of people, many of whom will be struggling to even pay for their heating and food.
February 8, 2024
Well the odd extra zero when typing it in but what do you mean by “once again”?
February 8, 2024
The difference between BBC and the other is that the BBC is a national company willing to sell globally rather than a global company operating in nations. It will therefore be smaller than the others.
I do not agree with the obsession with being global, there is plenty o market available in the UK with no tax or regulatory requirements to negotiate.
I have no problem with the licence fee although opting out should be easier, I have a problem with the programme content and editorial lines. The BBC should mostly represent the majority and should not misrepresent the demographics of the country.
February 8, 2024
Like many folk who have an interest in politics, the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session is something that I like to watch – either in real-time on the BBC, or afterwards on YouTube
Sunak hit a new low in yesterday’s session. Starmer (a trained barrister) is adept at getting under his skin with well-prepared and penetrative questions. Starmer’s objective (as in a court of law) is to enrage Sunak so that he loses his temper in front of the nation and says something regrettable. Yesteday, he achieved this in spades.
Starmer rarely loses his temper in the frequently jovial jousting at the despatch box. But after Sunak’s tasteless remark about gender identity, Starmer, who was visibly angry, paused before standing to the despatch box and said: âOf all the weeks to say that, when Briannaâs mother is in this chamber â shame.â
It’s time that the party recognises the political liability that is this un-elected PM (with no mandate from the electorate) and ditches this idiot before he does more damage to the UK’s international reputation. Otherwise, he will hang on until Jan 2026 to go to the country in the hope that something will turn up in the meantime. The polls may very well be worse then.
February 8, 2024
It’s very sad that this young person was murdered and I feel great sympathy for the parents.
However, jumping on this tragedy to justify ‘Trans’ ideologies generally is just dreadful. Female rights are being trampled wholesale by a few very determined people with extreme ideas. Biological males competing in womans events, rapists who elect to be identified as women (after they have been caught), allowing very young children to make profound and irreversible changes to their bodies. I’m afraid the list is long and this terrible event does not make these other things right.
February 8, 2024
The whole idea of paying a tax to watch one small part of the TV viewing available to the consumer, is archaic nonsense.
February 8, 2024
The problem for me is not an issue of money. We need gov. permission to watch. That is not acceptable.
February 8, 2024
Typo – apologies, i meant to say Jan 2025
February 8, 2024
I suspect that if the BBC lost its Left wing and Wokist bias eveyone would be perfectly happy with it. In the UK TV, Radio and health services are expected to be free at the point of delivery. While most people are content to pay for services they can choose most people loathe having to watch advertisements. If the Mute button were banned from remote controls there would be an outcry. As it is there is a continual battle between broadcasters to stop people skipping or muting ads and individuals who continually search for ways to skip advertising. So why does anyone want to privatise the BBC? Despite its political bias it nevertheless still produces some of the best drama available on TV anywhere – some would say that with a guaranteed income how can it not produce good quality? To which the answer is that assuring quality and setting standards are precisely the reasons why its income was guaaranteed in the first place. People in the arts including music tend not to be conservative but progressive, concerned for underdogs, however that label may be defined. Good art is in general not commercially sustainable anywhere in the world with a few possible (and momentary) exceptions in America. Patronage outside government is rare. Corporations now are more vulnerable to social engineering and wokism than ever. Commercial ownerhip is no guarantee of either quality or neutrality.
The answer comes down to governance and it is diffcult for any government to ensure political neutrality. Labour is sympathetic to the left wing bias and conservatives – as distinct from the Conservative Party – is actively hostile to it which leads to confrontation rather than sympathetic resolution. And the supposedly independent watchdog is as open to bias as any state organisation or private company. Who watches the watchers?
Perhaps a subscription service is the only satisfactory alternative so that people can choose programmes sypathetic to their own biasses. The state can compete on equal terms. But a subscription model would not necessarily raise quailty. It is more likely to result in a race for a mass audience to maximise the size of an audience if it needs advertising. Separate advertising channel? We have them already in Australia and hardly anyone watches them so ads are still mixed in with other programmes.
How would the arts fare with a subscription only model. It would probably not survive unless it too relied on mass appeal – like Classic fm which has a very small repertoire. The Australian Digital Concert Hall is a non-government organisation funded by private sponsorship, government grants, donations and ticket sales. It broadcasts from a number of concert venues with a live audience. It started during Covid and is proving sustainable. Could this be a model for all the performing arts? The Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the National Theatre in the UK and several others on the continent – also starting during Covid – similarly stream their own productions. Could all these be channelled through a single organisation? Could the same model apply to sport? Full length films are already catered for by streaming platforms like by Netflicks, Prime Video, Apple, Disney.
What’s left? News. Just remove the bias andconfine it to separate dedicated organisations. Put opinion into separate services so there is full competition and either no state funding or limited and equally distributed state funding.
February 8, 2024
The only positive factor in favour of the BBC is that it is advertisement free.
February 8, 2024
but not propaganda free
February 8, 2024
not quite – sometimes it advertises commercial television programs.
February 8, 2024
No it had load of ads and back door placements for movies, shows, actors⊠and for BBC products and charities. Surprising they have not launched a BBC soap powder or washing up liquid yet!
February 8, 2024
I favour a subscription service for those who WANT to continually be preached at by left-wing propagandists.
I fail to see why British householders should have to fund “free” programming for foreigners, so apart from the World Service (which, funnily enough, is considerably less “woke” than its British output) they too should have to pay to subscribe for the non-World Service programming.
The Not-a-Conservative-Government has had 14 years to reform the BBC and stop the incessant bias, or scrap the BBC Poll Tax and let the people do it for them. It has refused ….. so I’m not holding my breath now or paying attention to any more “promises.”
February 8, 2024
Indeed. A bit like finally action on non existent dental services. The Not a conservative Party have only had 14 years to sort it. You’d think there might be an election later this year.
It also emerges via GB News that the Rwanda scheme won’t work and the Snake knew it even when he promised to sort it. Well, what a surprise said no one anywhere, ever. Useless woke Tory’s.
February 8, 2024
Sir John, it is worth mentioning that all of the media businesses you listed worth north of $100 billion are the scale they are because they provide the public with what it is prepared to voluntarily pay for.
The BBC on the other hand exists due to state and law forcing people to pay, vie threats of fines and jail. Those of us who want to watch live broadcasting, any live broadcasting not even from the BBC, have to pay the BBC licence fee. It is a classic communist strategy of funding straight out of the communist era and sadly the communist mindset has contaminated the very culture the BBC advances.
To avoid any misunderstanding, I admit to paying the licence fee, but I do not ever watch the BBC live or listen to the BBC radio.
February 8, 2024
I’d rather the BBC was dissolved in its present form, and recreated in its original form.
We all know the issues with the BBC – time HMG did something useful and got rid of this pathetic indoctrination machine……. Trouble is that the HMG take full advantage of the BBC’s capabilities to push their ideology – what would they do without it?
As for the BBC’s lack of ability to raise income, it seems their finance people fail in the same distorted way that their ideologists do, with too much treacle.
February 8, 2024
Be great if John Redwood could interview some top entrepreneurs on his website – to give other entrepreneurs ideas and inspiration.
I’m a big fan of Michael O’Leary. But be great if John Redwood could interview people such as the Perkins husband and wife of Specsavers (great British brand – my supersavers, that I got for free as second pair, still going after years including being sat on on a crowded train in India – not just in terms of branding and advertising but also value for money, customer service, quality for what you buy etc). And maybe Sir Richard Branson, too. But mainly entrepreneurs in the high tech sector would be good.
Best.
February 8, 2024
I am a big fan of Sir Tim Martin. He looks like an ex rugby player but he is a lot smarter than he looks.
I can use his clever app to see what ales are on in his establishments in the vicinity. Not foolproof if not updated but pretty good.
Wimbledon this afternoon.
February 8, 2024
Scampi and chips with an alcoholic drink ÂŁ7.62 between 2pm and 5pm. A Tanquary 10 and tonic or a pint of Leffe are both close to ÂŁ5. Cheap cafes cannot compete with that.
It is packed unlike most other pubs. Unfortunately it is right next to Wimbledon theatre. So ould wans going to matinees are a risk. Women take forever ordering at the bar too. The app bypasses that as you can order from the table.
Cue posts from those who have never been in Spoons but think they are full of ignorant Brexiteers and violent types. Not my experience around the country.
A caff is better for breakfast, as I detest hash browns. Greggs is better for a bacon butty.
February 8, 2024
Just stop funding the BBC, the Met Office, all net-zero projects
February 8, 2024
There is a case to be made for the existence of the BBC as both a national broadcaster providing public service broadcasting and as a commercial broadcaster and to be funded by a TV tax.
Unfortunately the current BBC fails miserably with the former. The BBC should not be allowed to adhere to one political view but be forced, as The National Broadcaster, to air a wide variety of views and opinions. In effect, to just provide the broadcasting facilities for other groups or organisations to provide the programmes. The BBC has more than sufficient channels to achieve this.
Currently the best example, is the fact that the BBC has decided that no-one is allowed to have an opinion, let alone a programme, countering their belief that we have a climate crisis and must unilaterally submit to an economy destroying Net Zero Strategy.
The lack of debate on this subject because of the views of our very powerful state broadcaster is a measure of the extent to which our democracy has declined in recent years.
February 8, 2024
The tiny amount of good the BBC does should be retained. Beyond that, paying the BBC licence feels like a gang is demanding money with menaces, and being so blatant as to offer a receipt for protection money.
February 8, 2024
some viewers’ good, other viewers’ bad.
February 9, 2024
Yes; opinions do vary, but free choice does not favour paying for a protection racket.
February 8, 2024
That would be a very sensible way forward, and then if the BBC continued to provide content that no-one wanted to see, it would go under. However, if the Government lacks the guts to deal appropriately with Channel 4, what chance is there of any sensible solution for the BBC?
February 8, 2024
The BBC is useful for the BBC World Service which extends GB’s soft power.âThis alone should receive Government funding.âThe licence fee should be phased to nothing by rapidly extending the licence term over time.âRenewals drop away each year from this and the existing migration.âWhen renewals are sufficiently low, the licence fee would be scrapped.
We do not have a state supermarket operating alongside Tescos.âNor a state coffee chain.âI do not pick my wallpaper at diy.gov.uk.âThat the GPO long ago gave a consortium a monopoly licence to broadcast should not saddle the public’s purse today, directly or through taxation.âYes, the BBC has a valuable backlog of material.âIf the BBC goes under when set adrift from subsidy then those assets won’t sink with it.
February 8, 2024
Break it up, into a Hybrid (Public Broadcaster – News, Pay per view programming, Catalogue – iPlayer)!
It does not need so much subsidy? But pay, yearly, just for the Public Broadcasting?
In Cardiff, It houses all the Nationalists, and is used to openly promote Independence!
Why does it have so many buildings, and so many bases (Cardiff bigger then all the rest,, London, Manchester, Scotland, NI, so on)?
There are so many options, just use some creativity? But, is it open? there seems to be so many People (HoL) wanting looking for influence/control!
It becomes pointless even discussing it!
February 8, 2024
The BBC will never be able to compete until it drops its political agenda.
The West has been force fed woke socialism in such quantity it is now gagging.
Moreover nobody trusts the BBC, so they will NEVER win an interview like the one Tucker Carlson will broadcast today, because the interviewee does not believe that they will be fairly interviewed and their responses accurately represented.
The BBC is âdoneâ. Scrap it along with the NHS, the BOE and the Charities Commission which allows anti-British political entities to act as Charities.
February 8, 2024
The BBC is no longer what it used to be . There are voices now I cannot understand , newscasters that appear without a tie , programmes that are repeated time and time again and , above all , the right to charge a licence fee when other commercial operators provide alternative and better services at no charge . The only good thing left is the weather forecasting . The Government would be wise to abolish the BBC immediately .
February 8, 2024
I can also remember when you could watch the BBC Bert and believe that what you were told was fact (or at least it was to the best of their knowledge). The presenters were ‘well presented’ and professional (e.g they kept their private views to themselves). Open debate was encouraged, with the viewer being allowed to make their own mind up on the merits of different views.
Then the BBC decided that I could no longer listen to Nigel Lawson, as his thoughts on Global Warming didn’t agree with theirs. The “Science had been settled”. It was about that time that I realised that the ‘old’ BBC no longer existed and my faith in their ability to provide me with unbiased, uncensored information had been severely compromsed. Things have gone downhill since then, Brexit being an example…
February 8, 2024
â The only good thing left is the weather forecasting â
I am not sure about that – even disregarding Michael Fish.
The shipping forecast used to be read like poetry. Very pleasing, even though it has little relevance to me. A reminder that we are a maritime nation. Now they just get some herbert to make the announcement. The magic is gone.
February 8, 2024
The essential problem with the BBC is you can no longer believe what it says. It is obsessed with Global Warming / Climate Change and totally dishonest in its reporting. Despite its charter requiring it to be unbiased, it will allow no one on air, however well-qualified, to question GW/CC.
Its reporting from Israel/ Gaza is biased towards Hamas. It can’t say what it is, a terrorist organisation; it accepts Hamas statements as Holy writ, but questions Israel’s statements as if they were the terrorists! It does not report on rockets still being fired from Gaza and Lebanon.
BBC verify is a joke since it merely confirms the BBC’s view and treats complaints from the public with contempt. It no longer deserves the license fee, but yet again the Conservative Government refuses to act!
February 8, 2024
I do not care what happens to the BBC. Its woke , it lies and it dishes out WEF propaganda.
I do not pay and never will as it keeps my blood pressure down.
Lets hope it sinks!
February 8, 2024
… indeed, it is the political indoctrination by forcing the Woke agenda down our throats that is the step too far …
February 8, 2024
Banging my same old drum.
IMO the BBC has always been used for propaganda of a far extreme left kind.
It is just that for years people did not realise it.
They thought it nice ( and convenient) for kids to be annexed in another room watching Muffin the Mule.
They thought it natural that teenagers should be hived off into a totally alien culture.
They gawped as the soap operas became more and more violent and degraded. ( art or nature holds up the mirror?)
And they accepted the notion that every sit com should be exquisitely crafted to mock and denigrate the U.K. and what was its culture. Oh we like to laugh at ourselves! Ho!!
And now âŠit drips with all that is destroying us.
February 9, 2024
I was never a great fan of Muffin the Mule – now Bill & Ben (and Weed) that was much more entertaining!
February 8, 2024
The incoming Labour government will see that the BBC is left intact. This article is merely a noise on the outside of the power base now.
The unelectable Tories are already a third party irrelevance to most people now and we are getting an unelectable government and unelectable PM that few want.
Britain is finished and it’s becoming quite visibly obvious that it’s finished too.
February 8, 2024
If the UK is finished, it is the work of totally inadequate politicians and their scribes.
February 8, 2024
O/T
Gary Lineker said that he should be free to opine because his views have nothing to do with the BBC.
Then he told Richard Madely on TV that “I must use the platform that I have been given to support causes.”
That was a missed gotchya moment but is on record so can still be used.
February 8, 2024
For those who would enjoy a wry smile – read on:-
Gary Lineker has said he is using Twitter/X less often as the platform has become “increasingly toxic”.
The Match of the Day presenter has been criticised in recent years after speaking out on political issues such as the government’s Rwanda policy. His comments led to a debate about impartiality rules and BBC presenters’ behaviour on social media.
But Lineker says he is trying to stay away from the “vitriolic side” of the platform.
“You can’t have a nuanced conversation on there anymore so I’ve stepped away from that side of things,” he said at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch.
“Obviously [Twitter has] always been a bit of a cesspit and it’s become increasingly toxic.”
—–
From the biggest toxic contributor.
February 8, 2024
Paula :
I have no issue with Gary Lineker saying what he likes and hopefully our country will become that way for everyone.
I am happy for Mr. Linekar to be the spokesperson for the BBC as I would rather know the BBCâs views to better judge their output, particularly their news.
In fact I would be entirely happy for the whole BBC news and current affairs staff to freely tweet their real views.
I just wish I wasnât forced to pay for the BBC simply by watching any live TV.
February 8, 2024
From my experience once companies start selling off fully owned and occupied property to raise cash, and lease it back, they are on a downwards slope, as that usually means overheads increase, and rents will usually increase over future years.
The only exception to the above would be if the cash raised is invested in something far, far more profitable.
Have the BBC done that ?
February 8, 2024
BBC reporting – ‘For the first time, global warming has exceeded 1.5C across an entire year, according to the EU’s climate service’ ….why aren’t we all dead ….why are the BBC allowed to report such nosence, also schools closed cross the UK due to Met Office amber warning, but no snow yet
February 9, 2024
Yes but apparently “Scientists” say it has to do so (exceed 1.5C annually that is) consistantly for several decades before it really matters. Maybe the Chinese, Indians and Americans will have all seen the light by then…fortunately with a Labor Government we will have Carbon Free Energy here in the UK by 2030 (just have to find the odd Trillion or so..) Meanwhile in Cloud Cuckoo Land everything is being Electrified (even the Clockwork Cuckoo Clocks)
February 9, 2024
so its not hit 1.5c its exceed 1.5c ……thats very clever
February 8, 2024
The issues with the BBC are concerns of impartiality and the licence fee.
As the licence fee is compulsory whether you use the service or not, it is illegal not to have a licence and hefty fines are applied if you have a device that can receive their output. On that basis the LF is a tax. It is another UK style fudge as seen everywhere have compulsory payments but infer by seemingly deception they are not a tax.
All tax taken by whatever method in a democracy requires political over-site, the Government appoints the BBC Chairman, therefore the Government is the manager of the BBC. So, it is the Conservative Government that calls the shots on our behalf on the BBC stance on impartiality. You could even say the BBCâs stance on everything is a reflection of the Government of the days view.
As with Quangoâs and everything else of that ilk the Conservative Government canât force the UK Taxpayer to pay, by Law, then suggest the direction, service provide and end product is nothing to do with them.
February 8, 2024
The BBC has often had a hidden agenda promoting their world view on us instead of what the public wants to hear instead and we have to pay for this daily unwanted biased fayre regardless of become branded as criminals if we don’t pay their “Licence to bias”.
The relentless:
“Hamas is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the UK government”
begs the question: ” (but not by the BBC) “.
The BBC pro EU agenda was so obvious for years and relentless they ignored all criticism living in their own bubble. You hear nothing about EU failures and why on earth do so many daily risk lives leaving “the wonderful safe prosperous EU” shores preferring Brexit Britain instead?
February 8, 2024
Always remember, there is the EU and Europe. The EU is a left wing undemocratic dictatorship , Europe and its contrasting parts can be an absolutely delightful place to live. The EU is currently under assault from many of those component countries so lets see what evolves following their elections.
February 9, 2024
I did relish seeing a French Farmer (Avec Tracteur) outside Paris telling a reporter that he wished France had had the good sense to leave the EU (like Britain). Clearly the benefits of being inside the CAP are wearing thin in some parts.
February 8, 2024
They don’t care who the customer is, they don’t care how they’re funded, they produce what they want …who’s going to stop them – no one in parliament
February 8, 2024
Sir John
Not a lot to disagree with in your summations – https://conservativehome.com/2024/02/07/john-redwood-the-budget-will-be-crucial-to-showing-voters-the-point-of-returning-a-conservative-government/
âThe Government understand that winning people back is above all about the economy. Three of Sunakâs own five pledges are to lower the debts, halve inflation, and grow the economy.
That is the right emphasis. People expect from a Conservative government prudent finance, lower taxes, more jobs and decent growth.â
The Conservative Government is at the top of the tree in an example to us all. This is reflected in how others act, if the Conservative Government doesnât care, if the Conservative Government is a prolific spender and borrower, if a Conservative Government shrugs of its responsibilities in not giving âTwo Hootsâ and proceeds to pile on taxes and borrowing without ensuring a return, if a Conservative Government refuses to defend the greater majority of the People of the structures of our Society â then is it any Suprise that everyone else takes a similar stand.
February 8, 2024
This Conservative Government is to concerned and focused on appeasement of those that wish to undermine the UK and would never in a million years vote for a Conservative Government. This Conservative Government is too concerned and focused on appeasement of what now appears to be their Foreign unelected, unaccountable masters. With the undimming of the point of a UK Legislate in favour of foreign dictators of laws that are created by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.
From what I see is the voter wishes to see a return of a UK Government, a UK Legislator with one that knows they are the responsible managers of the UK, its economy, its direction. This one it so wound up its own ego and with those that either would never vote for them or canât vote for them. If they where honest with themselves this Conservative Government would recognise everything, they do in these appeasements is about destroying the UK not building the UK.
February 8, 2024
Why was it a good idea to sell off Broadcasting House and BBC Television studios? Was the move to Salford in any way beneficial or was it an example of gesture politics? Does anyone live in Salford from choice? Why does the BBC allow itself to be stuck with certain individuals who receive gross over exposure irrespective of their actual talent? Do football fans prefer to watch a football match or watch some people with modest verbal skills talking about it? If the BBC had a higher budget would it be able to produce the sorts of programmes that their audience admired in the past or is the problem again one of gesture politics? Are the Board of Governors fit for purpose or have they also been appointed on the basis of gesture politics? Should the Chairman be appointed by politicians for having been a substantial donor? Should the BBC align itself with any foreign nation or political organisation?
Reply The sale and leasebacks were a very bad idea. Dear borrowing.
February 8, 2024
Peter Edwin Allen (born 4 February 1946) is an English radio broadcaster with 40 years’ experience in journalism. He was with BBC Radio 5 Live since it started in 1994, and co-presented the Drive programme for 16 years from 1998 to 2014.
Then they moved to Salford, and he left the program.
February 8, 2024
Could it be that turning 68 in 2014 he simply retired?
February 8, 2024
The BBC Licence, is that a truism or a fraud?. You can have a car, but donât need a licence for it, you can drive it around your own private property and you donât need a licence.
You can have a TV to display Netflix or whatever but never watch the BBC, but you are illegal and can get fined because you own something that could. Not that you do! but you could.
Itâs a bit like Mayor Khanâs ULEZ, you can have a car fully compliant with all emissions standards but he can fine you by saying (not proving) it doesnât. The sleight of hand being played is cars complied with emission standards up to 10 years before there was a requirement for them and before the State keep records about them.
There has been a drift in Political standards being applied in the UK that moves from the accuser having the responsibility of âburden of proofâ. The PO situation came about by this shift to the accuser not having to even prove there was money missing, it was their say-so nothing else â so that made them right and they were the prime prosecutors.
That is not a good or fair way for laws to be enforced.
February 8, 2024
The BBC is no longer fit for purpose, it’s way past its prime, and decades behind the times. It has to be broken up and developed as a commercial broadcaster or be shut down completely. No longer should it rely upon the British people it despises so that it can pay grotesque salaries to so many undeserving presenters and managers. Now is the hour for it to stand on its own feet, if it still has any. This is a promise the Government can put it its next manifesto and this time keep to it!
February 8, 2024
When Labour win the next GE the BBC will be worth the money by how they will be making us all feel so much better.
No NHS queues, no potholes, no budget deficits, no further immigration data or statisticsâŠ.our unilateral Net Zero rationing of food, energy and travel will be saving the planet from climate breakdownâŠ.crime down, educational standards upâŠâŠparadise regainedâŠ.
February 8, 2024
Interesting to read the DT today: David Frost finally admits to another Leave lie. Apparently the European Union isn’t actually going to implode/collapse soon after all.
No sign of an apology for all the referendum claims on that subject though.
February 9, 2024
Is your bottom lip quivering? Oh diddums, isn’t democracy such a pain up the arse
February 10, 2024
The BBC is disgustingly anti British and anti western.