Is BBC really worth licence fee?
MANY of us have grown up with the BBC and see it as a cornerstone of our lives (Spenborough Guardian Letters "Resist pressure to cut BBC's funding, August 13). We watched Muffin the Mule, Blue Peter, The Lone Ranger, Ironside, Poldark, Harry 'O', Kojak or even Starsky and Hutch. Those were the days of two Channels, then three when it was a license to print money for ITV.
Today we are in the digital age, where the TV cake is cut into tiny amounts and ITV struggle to even make money.
In this world is the BBC worth the licence fee, or should it be reduced or even removed altogether?
If you are on limited means should you be forced to pay a relatively vast sum to the BBC, rather than to another subscription service?
Have you noticed that you watch the six o'clock news and then watch the local news, they show the same story but with a different journalist and so presumably a different crew.
There is room for cuts! Do we need daytime BBC One when we have all the digital channels, and Murder She Wrote was originally on ITV anyway!
Do we need BBC Three and BBC Four?
I've hardly watched BBC One except for the news for years, so why should it not be a subscription service. And it should have a vast vault of programmes to show from the past.
The BBC has not been that bright. It destroyed a lot of video tapes of programmes and has produced many programmes through outside production companies, who then have the sell on rights and repeat rights for other channels. Another argument for breaking up this un-commercial enterprise.
Why is the BBC News channel just supplied by licence, it will be expensive, but you'll see the cost of the news.
Many might even object to that.
Sky does not count in this argument, unless you are a Sports fan. Sky hardly ever has a UK-made programme on it. There you will largely see American programmes.
But can you justify the BBC today? I cannot, because they've almost ceased making expensive dramas. 'Flog it' and 'Cash in the Attic' sums up the BBC.
DEREK CARTWRIGHT
Manor Farm Drive
SOOTHILL
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Weather for Cleckheaton
Sunday 12 February 2012
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