I think it's obvious that Murdoch hoped the BBC would close BBC News and most online activities - it must be widely assumed that forcing the BBC to foot the bill for free licences for the elderly was a favour to Murdoch for his support during the election. Personally I think the future of BBC needs to be agreed by cross party consensus and then protected by a device similar to the Royal Charter on Press Self-Regulation that prevents politicians tampering with the BBC at a later date as a favour to their political benefactors.
More radically perhaps, in the future I'd be happy for BBC1 (with its soaps, sitcoms, talent shows and quiz shows) to become a premium bolt-on channel for an additional subscription/supplement to licence fee, as and when technology exists to make that possible for every UK citizen. So long as the factual stuff (Crimewatch etc) is moved off BBC1 and on to free-to-air licence-funded BBC2, only the "popular entertainment" that competes with ITV should be left on BBC1. I'd also like more vintage archive programming from the BBC archives available on BBC4 (like a TV version of Radio4 Extra).
Sunday 23 August 2015 11:13PM
I think it's obvious that Murdoch hoped the BBC would close BBC News and most online activities - it must be widely assumed that forcing the BBC to foot the bill for free licences for the elderly was a favour to Murdoch for his support during the election. Personally I think the future of BBC needs to be agreed by cross party consensus and then protected by a device similar to the Royal Charter on Press Self-Regulation that prevents politicians tampering with the BBC at a later date as a favour to their political benefactors.
More radically perhaps, in the future I'd be happy for BBC1 (with its soaps, sitcoms, talent shows and quiz shows) to become a premium bolt-on channel for an additional subscription/supplement to licence fee, as and when technology exists to make that possible for every UK citizen. So long as the factual stuff (Crimewatch etc) is moved off BBC1 and on to free-to-air licence-funded BBC2, only the "popular entertainment" that competes with ITV should be left on BBC1. I'd also like more vintage archive programming from the BBC archives available on BBC4 (like a TV version of Radio4 Extra).