[SomeRandomStuff]

I think the following stats explain how we got to the current situation fairly well.
- (Colour) Licence fee in 2010: £145.50
- Inflation adjusted 2010 fee today: £207.38 (according to Bank of England calculator, rounded down to £145.)
- Current (colour) licence fee: £159
- Difference: 26% (rounded to nearest whole number)

So whilst the license fee has only risen by £13.50 in 13 years, not only are the BBC's budgets impacted by the massive real terms cuts of that tiny rise, the BBC must also now fund:
Free TV licenses for over 75s, and funding of the BBC World Service, that it was not responsible for funding from the license fee in 2010. Money from the license fee has also been taken to support the digital TV switchover and broadband rollout since 2010.
So the BBC has had its funding cut whilst at the same time it has been made responsible for funding more services from a smaller funding pot. These are government decisions.

So it's easy to bash the BBC management for the closure of the UK News Channel, but it would not have happened if the BBC had not been cut to the bone for 13 years by consecutive Conservative governments.

Anyone who is upset and angry by what the BBC has become needs to seriously consider which political party they vote for next year, as the party currently in charge has made no attempt to hide the fact that if it wins the next election, the license fee will be abolished altogether.
(It's no coincidence that BBC News 24 / News Channel and the BBC in general, was at its best and most well resourced between 1997 - 2010)

The license fee should be abolished and not - before someone jumps in - for political reasons, but because it is the only way the BBC will survive.

The license fee is the sole route of all the BBC’s problems. The constant supply of money has made the corporation lazy and bloated. Weak management and employees with seemingly more interest in politics than delivering the public service they are paid for. They are completely incapable of operating on a tight budget as has been shown with News channel merger omnishambles this last week.

The License gives the fee payer a proprietary right to criticise everything the BBC do and the government (blue or red) the right to bully the corporation whenever they want. The BBC can scream ‘we’re free and impartial’ until the sun grows cold but very few actually believe them. …and just because all quarters of the political spectrum complain about apparent bias does not mean the BBC is ‘fair and balanced’.

You never hear the government or the fee payer complaining about any of the other commercial channels with the same hyperbole. Ant and Dec get paid significantly more than Anyone at the BBC and nobody cares.

Free the BBC from the license fee. Free it from government interference. Free i from fee paying complainers. Sure it might collapse but it will definitely collapse if it keeps the same funding model.

Audiences are dwindling. Younger people are not watching the TV nearly as much as their parents do. There are better alternatives than the dusty old terrestrial channels.

The license fee cannot be sustained indefinitely as number of fee payers declines the service will get worse and worse. More services will be combined to serve neither of the audiences that watched them and people who don’t watch the BBC cannot be expected to pay for these things to stay on air. And no the BBC is not necessary to society like the health service. There are an abundance of alternatives.

Apologies for the rant… I am someone who was very much a BBC fan, as many from TVF will remember. Now I despair the depths this once great broadcaster has sunk and there is seemingly no end to its destruction in sight.