Burnsy

The way we consume media has changed and local radio is a victim in all of it. Burnsy is a dying breed of journalist, proper old school but he says things as they are. Football managers and local politicians across the region must be breathing a sigh of relief today though.

I would rather the BBC put adverts on all their channels, if it means radio services don't take cuts. I don't really watch BBC much these days. I don't really see why I even should pay a TV license when all the other channels have adverts anyway.

Contemplating dropping my TV license altogether and just not watching live TV whatsoever, already got an Amazon Prime subscription, I'll probally try out Netflix - I was watching it quite abit over in the USA.

No TV license in the USA.... I've not really looked into other countries.

Quoted from Azimuth

NHS bugets, expenditure and wages are a completely seperate issue to funding State Pensions.

That may be the perceived wisdom, but it is simply not true. The UK government creates the money to pay for the NHS budget, expenditure and wages in exactly the same way that it creates the money to fund State Pensions. 'National Insurance' has long been just another type of income tax by another name. It all goes into the same pot (thereby cancelling out some of the money created by government, oddly enough).

Whatever Lineker gets paid is what he has been offered. He'd be earning the same, if not more, if he was at Sky. BBC funding has effectively been slashed by successive Tory governments (freezes on the licence fee at times of high inflation coming not long after the BBC was forced to fund the free licences for pensioners), which isn't surprising, because they despise the idea of anything outside of commercial TV. The BBC management have taken the choice to cut local radio while at the same time also cutting back on the World Service and other overseas operations (bye bye lots of 'soft power' for the UK from this choice). Some of the TV newsreaders have been given the heave-ho as well, haven't they?

The government has decided to cut the amount of money available to the BBC - blaming Lineker for the BBC management cutting back on local radio is simply ridiculous.

Quoted from grimsby pete

Just remember you will all be pensioners one day.

I have worked all my life and even moved to Suffolk to find a better job.

You will all have paid your taxes so will be entitled to receive whatever the government of the time gives you.

Don't get me wrong, Pete. Our state pension is crap in comparison to most of our peers, so I don't begrudge it going up via the 'triple-lock' route, which will gradually make pensioners wealthier and hopefully make lives easier. The problem is that the pension is going up at the same time as benefits are being cut in real terms as is public sector pay. Is it right that pensioners should be getting wealthier whilst everyone else is getting poorer? Not to mention the fact that the pension age is moving ever-upwards for many of these people so they will have to work longer to get theirs!

Just another public service the Tories are trashing because it doesn't ar$e lick to them, or make money for shareholders.

My take on the BBC…

The RPI has roughly doubled in the last 19 years from the figure in early 2004. In that time the license fee has “only” increased from £121 to £159 which is a 31% increase but a real terms cut of 35%.

Obviously the license fee isn’t the BBC’s only source of income, but the Tories have been deliberately starving it of cash since 2010.

I have no problem paying the license fee, but I think it’s outdated and needs scrapping.

Local BBC radio station could be properly funded by adding it to council tax as a small additional payment similar to police (when the license fee is abolished).

National radio… what is the point anymore of Radio 1, 2 and 3? Either scrap them or make them a commercial venture to make profit for BBC TV funding. Radio 4 & 5 Live could possibly be amalgamated into 2 or 3 diffferent stations. A news and current affairs station and an entertainment and sport coverage station(s).

TV services… do we need the BBC doing as much live sports and highlights as they do? Does MOTD offer good value? If the BBC didn’t buy the highlights package they’d just end up on ITV, C4 or C5 with the PL receiving less money. Does there need to be BBC 1 to 4? BBC 4 shows a lot of archive stuff, so could it be abolished with its new content moved to BBC 2? Could newsnight be moved to BBC News Channel to make space in the schedule?

BBC iPlayer… could there be adverts to fund the services? Could they go down the ITV X / 4OD model of offering a subscription for ad-free?

The license fee could be abolished and replaced with a small levy on subscription tv and streaming  services. We all know Netflix, Prime video, Disney plus and co pay zero tax in the UK because of clever accounting practices. A levy will reverse that and see them having to pay some tax here.

Bout time the goverment didnt fund the BBC at all and stop licences for good.
Let the old dinosaur figure out its own way of surviving

I really do despair at some the comments made. For me the BBC is one of the country's few remaining crown jewels and people won't realise what they've had until its gone.

I suspect it will end up being a subscription service with a tiny percentage of its current output charged at twice the price of the current licence fee.

Really like Burnsy, have enjoyed listening to him for what seems like decades, maybe it is!

My favourite momment was when Jolley asked who he was lol

Quoted from Roast Em Bobby

I really do despair at some the comments made. For me the BBC is one of the country's few remaining crown jewels and people won't realise what they've had until its gone.

I suspect it will end up being a subscription service with a tiny percentage of its current output charged at twice the price of the current licence fee.

Good to see a few sensible posts amongst this debate. The BBC has been treated like a political football over the last 20 years, and bashing it provides a good distraction for the Government of the day. With real term cuts of over 30%, it’s no wonder staff have to leave. My choice would be people such as Lineker rather than local radio, but these are the decisions someone has to make.

I actually think that the BBC represent brilliant value for money, and consume a lot of their news, sport and drama across both TV and radio. I can’t stand adverts on commercial channels, and always channel hop when these come on.