Fredxx wrote:

On 20/12/2017 23:09, Steve Walker wrote:
On 20/12/2017 14:41, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
My complaint isn't about what was on at that moment, it was about the
sort of liberal leftist guff always being on. Why should I buy a TV
licence just to have this weird mindset given such dominance?

Why should I be forced to buy a licence when the BBC shows sport etc I
have no interest in?

I can answer that one. I don't expect them to only make progs that I will
always like. As everyone who pays for a licence will have different
tastes.

What I would like is of the BBC to only make programs that are unlikely
to get large numbers of viewers - the commercial channels can take care
of anything that brings in mass audiences. I would expect that if I got
my wish, many things on the BBC wouldn't appeal to me, but some would
and different bits would appeal to different people.

I've often thought the same.

Where new talent is discovered, original programs created, and if
successful can transition to commercial channels.

Isn't that how it use to work?

No. Perhaps it should,[1] but the simple fact is that if the BBC only
appealed to minorities who wanted to try a new kind of programme in
their field the argument that they no longer provided a service for the
population would be used to withdraw substantially all their funding.
This has been obvious since the late fifties, and hence the need for the
BBC to appeal to a mass audience ever since 1956.

[1] though this argument would have been inappropriate when the BBC was
the only provider, when their policy was to give us a ration of
enjoyable stuff but with a preponderance of education and enlightenment,
that is, boring stuff.





--

Roger Hayter