Midsmartin wrote:I think the BBC is good value for radio 4 alone. The TV is all an extra bonus. The government is pushing the BBC into a death spiral: funding cuts mean worse quality. Fewer people watch, and it's worse, so let's cut their funding some more.
What they are good at and should do more of is programming that doesn't assume you're an idiot. Anything sciency on TV is dumbed down in a way that, so far, it is not on the radio. In fact most TV science coverage has disappeared. The news coverage is getting worse. They no longer have staff to do quality investigative journalism, and dare not offend the government.
But as I read today that the owner of GB news wants to buy more media outlets, it's more important than ever to retain an island of attempted impartiality and sanity.
Isn't it about competition? The BBC was great when there was no competition. As a kid our first TV was the size of a fridge, black and white, and only got one channel - BBC. (Not BBC1 because there was no BBC2 then; ITV came along the next year).
Now there are a million channels and streaming. My kids have TVs but no terrestrial TV - they do not need it. And for news you have ITV. C4, CNN, Fox, Al Jezeera and so on.
Radio? My wife likes The Archers but that is about it.