NJ
I have a horrible, HORRIBLE feeling that you're one hundred percent correct there, Chris.
Indeed, its known that reducing the fees that ITV pays for the licences is towards the top of Charles Allen's list and has been for quite some time.
I reckon he'd love to see them scrapped altogether and argue along the lines of "it's so out of date that we pay £200m a year to broadcast across the UK, whereby the BBC (which now broadcasts to a good chunk of Europe as well), Channel 4 and 300 odd channels on the digital platform don't pay anything".
Personally speaking, I see no real need for the cash value licenses after the digital transition. But having said that, it's a nice money earner for government coffers as well.
I can see the regional news disappearing from ITV at some point in the future. The way things are going on, it really will be BBC One with adverts and no regionality as opposed to a BBC One with adverts and the odd regional news service dropped in on occasion. I wouldn't be surprised if the burden for regional material ends up "exclusively" on the BBC because its quite obvious now that ITV don't want it.
Neil Jones
Founding member
Nick Harvey posted:
cwathen posted:
Or to summarise all of that, 'OFCOM are reducing ITV's licence fees, and even more of ITV's public service requirements will be relaxed'.
I have a horrible, HORRIBLE feeling that you're one hundred percent correct there, Chris.
Indeed, its known that reducing the fees that ITV pays for the licences is towards the top of Charles Allen's list and has been for quite some time.
I reckon he'd love to see them scrapped altogether and argue along the lines of "it's so out of date that we pay £200m a year to broadcast across the UK, whereby the BBC (which now broadcasts to a good chunk of Europe as well), Channel 4 and 300 odd channels on the digital platform don't pay anything".
Personally speaking, I see no real need for the cash value licenses after the digital transition. But having said that, it's a nice money earner for government coffers as well.
Quote:
All licence fees will now be half-a-crown a year, and if you've got a few pence spare, could you possibly pop a five minute local news programme in each day from Monday (excluding public holidays) to Friday? Please don't worry if you haven't got the time, as the Beeb will be doing sixty of the blighters, so you don't REALLY need to worry.
I can see the regional news disappearing from ITV at some point in the future. The way things are going on, it really will be BBC One with adverts and no regionality as opposed to a BBC One with adverts and the odd regional news service dropped in on occasion. I wouldn't be surprised if the burden for regional material ends up "exclusively" on the BBC because its quite obvious now that ITV don't want it.