Readers of The Independent are unconvinced by the BBC’s latest round of programme cuts, which saw Live at the Apollo axed after 22 years on air, alongside Blankety Blank and Celebrity Mastermind.
The cull is part of new director-general Matt Brittin’s plan to strip £100m from the corporation’s content budget ahead of next year’s charter renewal – a process that has also seen the BBC trying to close the gap between the 94 per cent of adults who use its services and the 80 per cent who actually pay the licence fee.
Many commenters were unconvinced. Some say they’ve already stopped watching and paying, switching to Netflix or Amazon Prime instead.
Others found something to defend: several backed the BBC’s shift away from mainstream programming towards niche and highbrow content, while some argued the real problem is a handful of overpaid stars hogging screen time that could fund new talent instead.
Adverts, several suggested, might be the fix nobody at the BBC wants to admit.
Here’s what you had to say:
The BBC used to make brilliant arts shows
All true, and very sad. But I’d also include shows like Old Grey Whistle Test, Rock Goes to College, The Late Show, Film 26 (the Barry Norman show).
Basically loads of brilliant arts shows.
I used to genuinely love the BBC, but it’s starting to make me wonder what’s the point if it just chases viewers all the time.
Weighing up whether to cancel the licence altogether
The BBC licence fee that all of us law-abiding citizens have been paying over the last 20 years is like a kick up the backside.
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I hardly ever watch the Beeb, apart from the World Cup and Small Prophets with Mackenzie Crook, a true genius in any era.
I certainly do not listen to its overrated radio programmes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Although I have to pay a little bit less and get free deliveries to boot, Amazon Prime has become my choice of TV viewing. Other subscription channels are available.
In fact I have enraged myself that much, I am considering unsubscribing from the BBC once and for all. Good night, beeeeeeep.
Fund niche and highbrow shows instead
It’s good to see the BBC axing mass audience mainstream programming for once, which the commercial sector can and does deliver just as well.
If anything justifies retaining a licence fee, it is to fund niche, small-audience and highbrow shows which commercial TV would never touch.
We stopped paying after 50 years
We bought our first TV licence in 1975 when we got married, and faithfully paid it for the next 50 years.
But, post-Covid, we realised we didn’t watch ‘live TV’ any more – the programmes, series and films were better on Netflix and all the decent, honest journalists had migrated to YouTube: Marr, Maitlis, Sopel and the like.
So, we stopped paying for a service that’s crammed with poor, tired repeats and biased news.
Poor old ‘Auntie Beeb’ – what happened (after Andrew Gilligan)?
Why is the BBC ‘above ads?’
Nobody likes adverts but this is the obvious way to stop the rises in the licence fee and plummeting high-quality content.
Why is the BBC ‘above’ ads? I resent paying for the licence when I hardly ever watch it. Give a paid-for, ad-free option for the purists and the affluent.
Spread the money around instead of overpaying stars
Easy solution – stop spending vast amounts on a few ‘slebs’ who get all the BBC gigs, and instead hire new talent for a fraction of the cost, thereby creating a pipeline of new talent.
I liked Adrian Chiles when he did Working Lunch, but went off him when they put him in almost every programme. Same for the awful Claudia Winkelman and now Romesh.
Give everyone no more than three programmes, and spread the money around, rather than creating annoying, ever-present ‘national treasures’ who do little to affect the quality of the programme they present.
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Fifty pence a day is worth it
If any business has less income then economies have to be made. Subjective, I know, but why anyone would rather pay the US streamers such as Amazon or Netflix is beyond me, rather than the 50 pence a day for the quality and quantity of the BBC.
If I hear once more about BBC news being biased I’ll look at GB News – an absolute joke! Said many a time: if you are right-leaning you say it’s left-wing biased, and vice versa.
Trying to do too much
The problem with the BBC is that it tries to do too much as a way of freezing out its commercial opposition, which a public service broadcaster should not do. BBC is so biased that they are not even subtle about it.
Adverts in a limited fashion
Can the BBC not be allowed to show adverts in a very limited fashion, like one blue-chip organisation ad before big events, to supplement the licence fee? The BBC really should have one prime-time show for each genre. I would say Live at the Apollo is the one for stand-up comedy.
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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