"T i m" wrote
| To provide the same level of programming (?) with, say, 1/3rd of
| households subscribing would triple the subscription cost.
| If your guesstimate is right then wouldn't that reflect the perceived
| 'value' of their output and demonstrate why lots of people feel the
| licence is expensive

That's because the majority of people are really rather stupid. The point of
the BBC is that it is a public service broadcaster, not dependent on
recruiting viewers for its customers (the advertisers). It should be able to
do things on grounds of quality rather than commercial viability. I don't
think it does that well enough.

| Again, I have spent what little time I actually listen to the radio
| (normally only in the car / bathroom) with Capital Radio' but now
| sometimes find myself with (as I get older g I'm 47) Radio1
| (especially when out of range of Capital).

I wonder what the average age of a Radio 1 listener is now.

Owain