We must defend the Beeb

It is the long-term goal of the Tory party and right wing newspapers to abolish the TV licence so they can pocket the cash for their outside interests.

House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee have published a report suggest the licence could be replaced within 15 years and that it is "becoming harder and harder to justify" the fee. The committee is made up of 11MPs, five Tories one pet Liberal Democrat, and five Labour members.

For what the BBC give you for your licence fee is fantastic for a cost of around 39p a day. Just think How much the pay-to-view stuff would cost you per day, triple or much more depending on the package you subscribe to small or large.

My Virgin TV package costs £117.58 with Sky Sports and Sky Movies per month and £1.408.96 per year.

My TV licence costs me £12.41 per month and £145.50 per year.

A big difference in cost but one I am willing to pay for access to premier TV supplied via pay-for-view TV but their needs to be something like the BBC to counter Sky and others. If we want to preserve quality public service broadcasting in Britain, we must defend the Beeb.

One option they are considering to replace the licence fee would be to make some BBC services available by subscription and I bet it will cost more than £12.41 per month. The BBC has long tried to offer "something for everyone" but in recent years of lost out to Sky and now BT both making inroads into their sports coverage, and in the case of Sky, news coverage. On sport the BBC have recently been striking up partnership deals like the one with F1 motor racing in a bid to keep some sport on the channel.

Both the BBC and Sky are the only channels with 24 hours news, which is a bone of contention with Rupert Murdoch who doesn’t like seeing anyone but him making money out of the media. In the past he as attack the BBC over their news on the net. If like the committee suggest the BBC should no longer stray into areas that are well catered for by commercial broadcasters what is left. BBC is the only ad free channel and I for one would like to see it stay that way.