The BBC

The BBC is ok, it has a vast range of services that swing in quality from great to shite and it's rare that I don't utilise at least on of those services every single day.

However, the increasing commercialisation of the BBC is becoming increasingly annoying. Barely a half-hour goes by on any BBC platform without a long trailer for another part of the BBC or, even worse, BBC shows forcing their way into news programmes and masquerading as news. The upcoming Strictly Come Dancing appearing under the guise of a human interest story on a news show 2 days before is cynical and crass marketing of the sort Murdoch would get hard over. As are the monotonous references to 'the BBC' every five minutes.

But mostly, the problem with the BBC is the method in which it is funded. To force people into paying a license fee, with the threat of an extortionate fine or imprisonment hanging over those who don't pay, to watch the tv's they have already paid for is nothing short of scandalous. Television is the mass entertainment of society, yet it can be legally withdrawn on the basis of you not subsidising one channel. It's laughable.

The BBC is rightly the most popular station in the country, but that has nothing to do with the license fee anymore. The license fee has served its purpose in allowing the corporation to build up, over almost 80 years, an unrivalled braqnd in terms of quality & trust. The BBC should get it's hands out of the immoral coffers of the license fee and stand on it's own two feet with funding via subscription.

If it fails to survive as it is, then we were never that enamoured of it in the first place. Since I, along with millions of others, would happily pay a subscription for the breadth of reach, services and quality that the BBC offers, I don't see it having to change in the slightest.
Time for the BBC to grow up and walk away from the wet nurse of the license fee teat.