And yet you ignore the obvious complaint against it.

I don't care about value for money although I would disagree with your assessment. I simply don't want to be forced to pay for a channel I don't watch, I also don't watch ITV or C4 but I don't care as it costs me nothing.

Young people are increasingly not watching mainstream TV so the demographics mean that the BBC is losing audience year after year.

If the BBC is so wonderful so good value for money and so popular why do they need to force people to pay for it with the threat of criminal prosecution if they don't.

Scrap the compulsion and I will shut up about the BBC.

One more point

I take a daily statin.

Based on the stuff you routinely post I suspect you to be on something much stronger. Possibly the kind that induce an altered reality.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

Firstly, it’s good to read that you acknowledge I am entitled to an opinion, which is a welcome change to your diet of ad hominems.

Secondly, the current Chairman of the BBC has not “recognised”that it has any “political bias”. That’s just tabloid headline spin. Richard Sharp is a political appointee designed to placate the Mail reading Tory heartland. He has no media experience at all, is an ex investment banker who said in an interview that he believes in the BBC and the licence fee and then, without any evidence, made an off the cuff comment about some presenters having a liberal bias. Just another opinion! I expect some do have just as some don’t. How long will he be there? Will anything change? I very much doubt it and certainly hope not. All this does is to allow the Mail to make money by winding up the blue rinse brigade.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

The answer is obvious. We both know that if the BBC was voluntary subscription only it would be the end of the BBC. It'd never raise enough to fund itself. So well done, we agree that the BBC cannot expect to prosper in the free market in fact it'd probably die.

If that were to happen we'd be left with Sky, BT, Amazon and the all the other minor players. Is that what you'd like?

I think the BBC is more than just a TV provider. It's an institution and one worth preserving IMO.

I have now sufficient funds to last me the rest of my life. Provided I don't buy anything.

Other opinions are available.

I always prefer BBC output to other channels precisely because it isn’t “old toot”., even when it’s repeats.

I am glad they don’t have to chase ratings, so can concentrate on providing quality. Their job, like our MPs, is not to give us what we want, but to identify what we need and then convince us to watch it. Commercial broadcasters can provide the popular dross. The BBC is our public service broadcaster and our most potent sales tool in an ever shrinking world.

So everyone needs to be very careful about what you wish for. Brexit was bad enough. Dumping on the BBC is crazy.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

If their Christmas night offering of Call the Midwife, EastEnders, Mrs. Brown's Boys and a repeat of the Vicar of Dibley was high quality then I stand corrected.