LONDON: As an American in Britain, I can tell you, I am astonished when I read debates over here about the future (or even, God forbid! the 'value') of the BBC.
What is the matter with you Brits??
The BBC, for Americans who only know the BBC by way of Downton Abbey (which was actually produced by ITV), is The British Broadcasting Corporation - perhaps the best producer of television and radio journalism and entertainment in the world.
Unlike commercial networks like NBC or CBS, the BBC is funded by the rather archaic television license fee. When broadcasting was first invented, the British government set up a license fee for anyone who wanted to 'experiment' with radio (this was in 1904). That license fee was later extended to television. If you had a television set, you had to pay a license fee. The BBC (founded in 1922), was the recipient of the revenues of those license fees - giving them funding for their outstanding programming.
This stands in stark contrast to our own vastly underfunded PBS - which receives almost no guaranteed money from anyone and must resort to endless begathons and 'corporate sponsorship'. This is why PBS ends up buying so much programming from the BBC.
The license fee model of funding is still in place today - although the 'Charter' gets renewed every 10 years. It is coming up for renewal in 2016, and there is a lot of pressure now to 'rethink' the BBC. Many people want to cut the funding. Some already have.
This would be a tragedy.
I say to my British friends, if you want a sense of what the BBC is 'worth', come and spend a few months in the United States watching American television. You'll come running back to Britain, happy to pay twice your license fees. The BBC produces some of the very best television in the world. The much vaunted network 'commercial model' in the U.S. produces such captivating fare as Duck Dynasty, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, My Mother The Car and The New Leave It To Beaver - among many others. Is this really what you want?
Really?
And let's not even begin to get into American television 'news' and 'journalism'. (I put these in quotes for a reason).
Fortunately, living in New York, I am able to watch a good deal of BBC television, albeit on Channel 21 or 13, our local PBS affiliates. And thank God for that, because otherwise I would have my brains leaking out of my ear. I am even able to watch BBC News, Poldark, Broadchurch, Midsomer Murders, DCI Banks... and so on. And, old shows like Keeping Up Appearances, All Creatures Great and Small, etc... (How does such a small country produce so much quality programming?)
It is more BBC than BBC America - the BBC's commercial channel on American cable systems.
A lot more. Because these days BBC America runs mostly Star Trek reruns. That's it. They even killed their (in my opinion) best nightly news show on American television - World News America with Katy Kay. The replaced it with - Top Gear. That's what happens when you replace Public Service with a commercial network. I am sure BBC America makes more money with Star Trek reruns and Top Gear than it ever did with news and journalism, but news and journalism don't make money - and you can't rerun them.
Now, it's not like I am getting this stuff for free. I also own a home in the UK, and as such, I also pay my BBC license fee. £12.13 a month. (about $18) That's it. My cable bill in New York, by the way, runs about $250 a month. And look at the crap it buys me. £12.13 a month comes to the titanic expense of 40p a day. (60 cents!)
40p a day, and you're complaining in the UK.
If you really think that the BBC would be better off as a commercial enterprise, here is what I would suggest. Why don't you come over to my place in New York, and we can have a marathon session of American commercial TV?
I will strap you to a chair and turn on Real Housewives of Atlanta. On one of those days where they play it back to back all day long. We'll break away occasionally for The News. (They used this technique at Guantanamo, I understand). We'll keep you watching until you fork over 40p to get released.
Let's see how long it takes.
My guess is, minutes.
Meanwhile, if we in the U.S. were to charge everyone with a TV set 60 cents a day and put it into a trust for PBS, that would give PBS an astonishing $21.8 billion a year for programming. Just imagine what kind of quality programming could be produced (and sold around the world).
Television does not have to be an 'idiot box'. The BBC has proven that - at least until now.