BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

[telebox2001]

My father (a self-made pretty affluent chap in his late 60's) is hugely anti-BBC, and believes it's heavily biased (to the left, and Remain; fwiw he's a Conservative & Leave voter.)  He sees the license fee as poor value for money and claims he wouldn't miss it if it were not there.

But in the same breath he then moans about how poor he finds the overall UX on ITV Hub and how "much nicer the iPlayer is."

Methinks Joni Mitchell once wrote a song about my old man.  Auntie isn't perfect and she does need reform but I wouldn't certainly not want to see her gone, or become a commercial service.

As for advertising - why when a football match is on both networks do 4 in 5, or more, choose the BBC?

He doesn't realise that the BBC is the National Broadcaster of the United Kimgdom, it was always going to be whether he likes it or not, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and satellite channels such as SKY are just alternatives to the BBC.

I suppose that's by virtue of being first.

The regulatory straitjackets independent television and radio in particular were placed into did more harm than good, blocking the sort of things any other business would be allowed to do - ie. takeovers, mergers etc. in the name of protectionism.  Not to mention the exceptionally high technical standards, notably for radio.

All this said, some technical standards legislation wouldn't go amiss these days when I see the appalling picture quality of some TV stations and hear the awful sound quality on many a DAB radio station.