We've seen that American television is more than capable of surpassing the BBC's output, so the one defence the BBC could continue to offer was their independence and the assurance that they weren't shills for the university chums of their board. Now they've lost that, they can't die soon enough for my liking.
Arh, a line that can almost be simplified to the 'Let Murdoch Win Gambit'. There is little doubt that when it comes to long form drama, American TV networks have the resources and skilled creators, to produce stuff that surpasses the BBC. I've not watched much if any of SKYs original drama, but I suspect its not far behind either. The thing is the BBC is about far, far more than that, and to be fair still churns out its fair share of astonishingly good drama, comedy etc. Normally in a slightly shorter format. The Beeb is about the other shows as well, diversity, that otherwise wouldn't be served at all. Arts and culture, events and happening, original children's telly, things that wouldn't last on a commercial platform, or at the very least would be relegated to some cheap tat to fill time. Its about radio. Its about its still quite superb website. Its about generating British talent and so much more.
Its news is still pretty damned fine and while it stands accused of bias at times, the vast majority of the time its doing all right. The most telling for me, you get shrill cries of BBC bias from both left and right - center ground no doubt too, feeling ignored - that tells me its almost certainly doing okay.
Its not perfect and you get the impression there is still a lot of the old school network about the place. That seems to be changing over time, which needs to continue.
Even a BBC that makes mistakes is a damned powerful thing to have and needs to be there to keep Murdoch (an easy shorthand I accept) and the like in check. Get rid of the BBC what fills the void? Where its needed probably nothing, where its not maybe more big corporate media empires. Maybe FOX TV wants a bigger share of our market?
