The BBC announced some changes yesterday with a view to focussing more on quality programming and keeping the license fee stable. Three headline changes are the closure of Radio 6, Asian Network and a reduction in the website.
The BBC is one of Britains premier institutions but there can be no doubt that it has expanded far too broadly for too long and somehow been allowed to get away with it. My own opinion is that the license fee should be capped at £120 for the next 10 years. The excellence of the BBC should be unharmed by this as it’s cost increases are more related to excessive air time given to fringe programming and apparant over representation like teams from different channels at the same event.
With facilities like the iPlayer it should be possible to programme less time and enable it to be watched or heard when required.
At the moment Radio 6 is getting the most support against closure, and I admit to never having heard it. From what I’ve read it is claimed new bands are given an opportunity on this station. Yet watching the Brits this year I didn’t hear any new bands – Kasabian, Robbie Williams and Liam Gallagher got the British headlines. It seems that whatever they do in the USA is producing better new acts. No British world talent has been found for a few years, Arctic Monkeys come to mind and Lilly Allen seems well known.
I will admit to being a fan of the BBC and fortunately as it is a charge on every household its charges are able to be kept down to what appears quite cheap when compared with other stations. Although when I add it to my other subscriptions and the broadband, telephone and mobile charges my bills for communication become large. Also there is a conundrum that if the BBC focusses on too much quality it might lose the justification for a compulsory charge as its appeal will be too limited.