- ‘What did the Romans ever do for me..?’ - 28th July 2026
- It’s all Greek to me - 27th July 2026
- Counting the cost… - 24th July 2026
As our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, spent 23 years with the BBC, and 42 years in journalism (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), he looks on with interest at the recent attempts to justify the giant corporation’s licence fee, stressing all that it does, ahead of the UK Government’s review of its Royal Charter.
Many of us have seen it.
In a very expensive trail (ironically funded by US!) Romesh Ranganathan asks sarcastically “What has the BBC ever done for me?”, which is a direct take-off of a famous line in Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’.
We are then given an answer, as Mr Ranganathan moves through the EastEnders pub, accompanied by jaunty, theatrical singing and flanked by celebrities as well as actors who feature on flagship BBC shows, while he lists the corporation’s top programmes and other achievements.
There is even a nod to BBC Radio Cymru (BBC RC) in there.
This comes as how after almost every programme, we are treated to the continuity announcer declaring: “Everything across the BBC is funded by YOU. Thank you/Diolch”.
The Express described it as ‘next level begging’, and published: “The BBC has come under scrutiny recently for its licence fee, which more than half a million people have stopped paying. Discussions were held by rival television broadcasters, suggesting that the BBC should turn into a Netflix-type subscription service instead of people paying £180 a year.
“The TV licence is unheard of in many countries in the world, and yet, the BBC is asking viewers to pay a substantial flat charge to watch live programmes and dramas. Now the broadcasting company has released an excruciating, cringe-worthy TV advert to encourage viewers to get a TV licence, and the four-minute clip asks “what has the BBC ever done for me?”.
Despite what the Express says, this trail is part of a correct (although possibly rather desperate) attempt to justify the licence fee, which is basically a tax virtually every household must pay, and funds the entire organisation.
The plain fact is that the BBC NEEDS to do popular programmes like EastEnders which pull in massive audiences, because they effectively subsidise less well liked output, including Current Affairs (such as it exists!), and the credibility of the entire system will be undermined otherwise.
All of this is set against the backdrop of the UK Government conducting a once-in-a-decade review of the BBC’s Royal Charter ahead of its expiration on December 31, 2027, and the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee is holding inquiries following the launch of the UK Government’s Green Paper, which proposes options for sustainable funding, editorial transparency, and modernised regulation to ‘future-proof’ the broadcaster.
It is correct because the BBC does do an enormous amount of things, so the licence fee is extremely good value.
However the principle behind it is problematic, with the corporation seen as rather arrogant, and run by a liberal elite which TAKES rather than GIVES money, and it has faced a LOT of criticism.
For example, a post on Facebook (FB) urged us to watch as a video was aired of Patrick Christys Tonight on GB News, with the announcement that “The BBC are bricking it!”, after it lost nearly 540,000 TV licence payers over the past year.
Right-of-centre newspapers like the Daily Mail, The Express, and Daily Telegraph have been particularly critical of the licence fee system for funding the BBC.
The Express has proclaimed recently: “The BBC is probably missing a point…it’s not the ads that people are hating for – it’s the £180 they have to fork out for what could have been free to watch. According to BBC’s annual report, over 500,000 people stopped paying the licence fee in the past year. There are now 23.3million TV licences in force, a fall of 539,000 from a year earlier”.
However papers like these should NOT be dismissed, as we are talking here about THOUSANDS of people.
So it is good that the corporation is now a bit defensive, and being forced to make its audience aware of what is being made in their name.
A company (if that analogy can be used) should NEVER take its customers for granted.
I try not to do so on The Eye, and the BBC is doing so too.
Otherwise people might say: “What has the BBC ever done for me?”
The memories of Phil’s extraordinary decades long award-winning career in journalism (including his many years at the BBC), during which he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
Tomorrow – why during that career, he has always tried to de-bunk nonsensical conspiracy theories, but information today is showing how this determination may be needed more than ever now, as the rise of new technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) allows an even greater spread of falsehoods, rather than evidence-based argument.
