Vote UKIP and get the BBC.
All that is holding back the rampages of a BBC on steroids is the EU….leave the EU and the BBC will be free to crush the commercial sector. Never vote UKIP…hurrah for Carswell and his anti-UKIP Kamikazee death plunge!
BBC faces illegal state aid backlash from producers over expansion
The BBC faces a major backlash from independent television producers over plans by director-general Tony Hall to compete for programme commissions from other broadcasters and internet services such as Amazon and Netflix.
A group of Britain’s biggest independent producers is preparing a complaint that the expansion will distort competition and amount to illegal state aid.
The threat of a legal complaint to European competition authorities comes as a blow to Lord Hall’s plans for the BBC.
Lord Hall’s plans have led to suspicions from commercial players that the BBC is seeking to build up its global presence with the help of taxpayer support.
A commercial BBC Studios would at least be expected to feed profits from programme-making for other broadcasters back into the BBC to supplement the licence fee. The £3.7bn per year in taxpayer funds are already bolstered by more than £1bn from commercial operations such as international licensing of BBC programmes.
Unless it becomes a fully commercial operation, with no reliance on the state, the BBC should not be allowed to expand its scope/reach.Even any profits from its current commercial operations should go back to the treasury and be of no benefit to the BBC.
We now have a ludicrous position where the state funded broadcaster is being snubbed by the Royal Family for very good reasons. If the BBC cannot be trusted with state occasions and national celebrations, what is it for! Why should we pay for a service that isn’t considered worthy of being given the responsibility to portray national events?
The BBC demonstrates constantly its incompetence at anything commercial: The recent closure of Global iplayer, lack of cash generated from its back catalogue, Top Gear fiasco, etc.
It should either be a slimmed down state funded broadcaster or floated and left to fend for itself.
I am thinking of starting a petition to reinstate Atlantis which, as is well known, is vital.
Well they can’t bring it back because after the show ended the sawed leading alleged actor Jack Donnelly in half, and found that he really was made of wood all the way through !
It sounds like a spoiler for any ‘new’ Top Gear remake. There was speculation (in the Mail) that NetFlix was interested in running a new series from the recently ex BBC Top Gear team. The fact that the BBC uses ‘public money’ to sell itself as an (cough) ‘independent TV producer’ is laughable. Its no more independent than a drug addict on the teats of the NHS. The BBC may ‘sell’ old programming but the truth is that all its traditional audience is shrinking due to old age and competition from other internet broadcasters including NetFlix and Amazon. It is a desperate measure, they have a sky high cost base and cannot compete at any level with private broadcasters without making a large number of BBC staff redundant.