[Stuart]

If the BBC ends up as just a duplicate of ITV, then why are we paying a licence fee? I have always thought it was intended to protect funding for the programmes that we may not necessarily want (in a popular sense) to see, but those that we need to or should see - such as David Attenborough documentaries - especially things that the commercial sector can’t or won’t fund.

The problem has now become that I don't think they're even providing anything 'special' now in return for the TVL. Watering things down to the extent that they become a poor imitation isn't providing anything.

Alternatives to everything they offer are now available on free catch-up services from elsewhere, which don't require a TVL. Their revenue is going to shrink as it is, so this sort of activity will simply speed up that process.

BBC News needs to just be the commercially funded global version, with national bulletins as we had in the past. The other TV channels need to be slashed to just one or two. I know it sounds drastic, but I think this is where we are now.