You never had it so good with the BBC

Dear British Whingers,

I want to address your whinging about paying £130-odd a year for a colour TV licence to receive TV signals in the UK.

You can’t afford it? Well you managed to buy a TV, I’m sure you can. I trust that you did, if you nicked one, you aren’t in a position to whinge.

You’re whinging because the BBC has crap output? Well, you’ve obviously never visited or lived in another country long enough to see just how much worse it is. You probably pay for cable/satellite TV too, and you’ll notice that 100 extra channels doesn’t quite match the quality of the terrestial channels. You also get extra BBC channels to cater for different interests on those subscription services and on Freeview.

You’re whinging because the BBC doesn’t concentrate all its funding into BBC1 and BBC2 channels? Well, what about BBC Radio 1, etc, etc? And don’t tell me you never use BBC News Online. A lovely free website without ANY adverts, well updated, and covers a huge arrange of subjects. And that’s not counting the BBC website.

You’re whinging that the BBC Worldwide caters to an international audience, and getting free TV? I wouldn’t be so sure about that, for one, it has adverts to pay for it. And for millions of Britons visiting/living abroad, it’s a great repreive from trashy news channels.

You’re whinging cos the BBC is senstationalist, or biased, or anything else you think? Well, so is every other TV station in the world. Why should the BBC be any different? It caters to the mass market, so it has to stay “interesting” – even if Casualty never seem realistic or the subtitles on Trawlermen offends Scots because it was still an English language being spoken.

And if you still disagree with everything so far, then consider this… the BBC seems, in my view, has the most subtitled airtime of any TV station I’ve come across. My only wish is they do that for BBC World News. It engages with the public via many means, especially its website. Give me a TV station that does all this – answers on a postcard please.

What is the alternative? A subscription service to the BBC in a cable/sky package which will probably be included as standard anyway and bump up the basis commercial subscription prices? Adverts every 2 minutes? Get rid of it altogether?

The BBC is popular for a reason. It has broad international appeal that is not matched by anyone else. Does that not make you proud? The BBC is probably a great advert about Britain and probably influence a lot of visitors to come and visit (much like Hollywood is a great advert for the USA). Don’t underestimate this…

If that doesn’t stop your whinging, then emigrate!

Yours faithfully,
Kyle Sterry