This is the thingThe BBC has a following by a certain age group and part of that age group feels they don't and won't break the law. The other part of that group loves daytime TV or radio whatever is on be it repeats or not. Then you have those who love your strictly, and then you have your drama and soap buffs who will just keep watching. Many of those people will rightly call it value. The other parts of that age group and the age group descending don't watch the BBC or in part very little. Others get TV from other places at an additional cost. Others hate the fact that they pay to watch another platform but have to pay the BBC in the form of a TV license. But now the BBC content has dropped which includes repeats during the day, a few ongoing new content of the evening and if you are lucky a bit of sport. Now as the years pass less people are watching and paying the BBC. Either down to age and viewing habits or people are ditching it which numbers tell you it's the case. The question is this. How can the beeb continue with the license with revenue tumbling while new content is being squeezed due to that? The organisation is too big now, needs to be more streamlined to counter the issues. As to issues, I'm not sure how long Tim D will be around. Too much has happened on his watch with too many visits to the house to explain. So what happens next? It is so hard as the license fee can't continue because everyone will get less in viewing terms and the organisation will need more money to operate. Putting the license fee up will not help the issue whatsoever. Can it go subscription? It can but you have to ditch about 50% of its workforce and more. You will lose a huge chunk of people willing to part with money for the content. My view is in time it can only go back to basics. Scrap local radio, and stick to a few radio stations with high listenership. Stick to 2-3 chs only workforce will have to be cut make new cheap content for daytime like your bargain hunt and work on new content for the evening viewership while ditching the content that is poor in ratings. On that note,i see they are making some new episodes of Bargain Hunt. Must be doing something right as a repeat of the antique show got higher viewing numbers than the BAFTAs did. It is a bad situation that even YouTubers get more live viewing numbers than many mainstream content does. Do I pay for the TV license, yes I do. Is it value to me, most likely not as i don't watch much live TV content like I used to. The days in my life when i religiously watched Question Time followed by THIS WEEK with Top Gear on a Sunday have long gone. Even question time is not exactly a weekly viewing must, and that is due to the revolving panel in many cases. I dont watch soaps and i dont spend my life watching dramas or a 4 part series. I want to watch the sport that the mainstream does not counter for. I want to watch much more other content but the idea of having to pay the BBC for that content is wrong and that is why as the years pass the numbers paying are getting less and that is why you are getting less for your license as a loyal person.Of course, you have your numbers that think it is valuable and why not, they most likely don't or don't have the capability to watch other content while a specific age group leaves us every year.Get the organisation sorted internally, cut hard within and streamline the organisation and then introduce more and better content and you may survive under a license. But you may have to try and get the under 50s onboard and a harder task of getting the under 30s onboard.Too much going on within and less being pushed outside while your balance sheet suffers every year
Julian Pavey ● 32d