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by jiggy2011 5014 days ago
In the UK, if you watch any broadcast TV at all including cable or satellite you have to pay a TV license fee. This is a completely separate fee to whatever your cable/satellite service provider charges.

This license fee is paid to the BBC and used to support their programming regardless of whether or not you consume their content.

Basically this means that sometimes you can be forced to pay for stuff you simply don't want.

On the other hand , BBC programmes do not carry any advertising and are not funded by central government, so in theory at least they are impartial when it comes to coverage of politics etc. It also means they are not supported by corporate interests either, so won't scew programmes to avoid upsetting advertisers.

Whether or not they really are impartial is largely a matter of opinion, but I would personally say that they are at least less biased that other channels.
2 comments
arethuza 5014 days ago
"Whether or not they really are impartial is largely a matter of opinion"

The BBC seems to be consistently hated by governments of every party, so they are presumably doing something right.

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gadders 5014 days ago
Not really, no.

They were "hated" by the last Labour government, purely because of the BBC's anti-war stance.

On most issues, such as the EU, the environment, Israel and the Middle East etc their opinion seems to follow that of the Guardian (a left-leaning Newspaper).

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arethuza 5014 days ago
"BBC's anti-war stance"

If nothing else I guess that shows that they aren't simply a government mouthpiece.

And it's hardly that they are anti-war (I can remember their coverage of everything from the Falklands onward) - they were anti Gulf War 2 but then most people in the UK were...

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adrianhoward 5014 days ago
Yes really.

I lived through (pause to count...) eight prime ministers. I can't recall any of those governments loving the BBC to death :-)

For some reason vaguely impartial reporting seems to annoy politicians - left or right.

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adrianhoward 5014 days ago
This license fee is paid to the BBC and used to support their programming regardless of whether or not you consume their content

And "programming" means more than just TV. It covers the radio, web stuff, etc. etc.

(there used to be a radio licence in the UK too in years gone past - abolished in 1971).

As ever wikipedia has the gory details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_Uni...

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