The BBC is a fabulous organisation offering a fantastic range of programmesto cover ALL tastes. You are flogging a dead horse if you want to start a debate about opting out etc so quit before you can't climb out of that hole you are digging.....

I'd willingly pay for it.

For a corporation that produces so much output, it's natural that the'll get things wrong.

If you don't watch soaps, how many ITV programmes do choose to watch instead of the BBC option? I wouldn't dream of paying £40 a month/£480 a year for Sky. Yes some wages should be re-aligned but if it is the going rate to get people in then perhaps they have to be paid in some circumstances.

Three cheers for Daniel, the coverage of the Jubilee is not what we older people have come to expect from the BBC.

With so many other channels to choose it is time the BBC found other ways of funding their jollies.

Seeing their reporters from events in BBC corporate coats and with umbrellas with logos is unnecessary.

Go Daniel, go.

I'd prefer not to pay the licence feebut choose which programmes to watch.

Pay as you view?

I won't let my children watch the BBC. I insist they watch commercial TV particularly for the adverts. If they don't take on the whole 'buy things to be momentarily satisfied' ethos, the future economy will tank ! The BBC is like the anti-christ to the church of commerce even if its output is vastly superior and isn't interrupted by gaudy sermons. Down with the BBC!

This article appears to be little more than a cut and paste of Daniel Kawczynski's comments.

We need look no further than what the Leveson Inquiry to see what the possible alternative to it is (or, hopefully, was) - a media controlled by a bunch of foreign phone-hackers.

Two more things to consider :

1. Lefties think the BBC has a Tory bias. Tories (and the Star) think it has a leftist bias. Monarchists think it disrespects the Queen. Republicans find it fawning and sycophantic. Doesn't all that just suggest it's actually fairly neutral and hence getting most things right?

2. Last I heard, the most-watched channels on Sky packages were BBC ones. Suggests it's still the BBC people turn to for the big events, or when they want quality, reliable programming.

Do agree that football on TV could do without the pundits, mind.

"Covers ALL Tastes"?? I don't think so. BBC One used to be the in the first division of television with good news coverage and a variety of quality programmes, drama, etc. In recent years it has gone downhill rapidly. Starting with BBC Breakfast - an utterly pathetic mix of complete non-stories and cringe-making interviews with children who have nothing to say. In the evening we are mostly offered little else but reality shows and "sport", which the BBC have redefined as continuous football. I object to paying £145 for this drivel. I'm happy to watch the sort of output the BBC used to put on via ITV3, Yesterday, etc , and I don't mind the ads I know where the MUTE button is on the remote!

Let us all be thankful that we have BBC TV and radio which is world class leading in both quality and output.

Do we really want the same lower standards as the USA and most European countries?

As to the cost......40p per day. Excessive? I don't think so.

BBC bashing seems to be currently fashionable amongst journalists who have nothing else to write about and politicians who want to get their name in the paper.

My advice to them is be careful what you wish for.

Having just read Daniel Kawczynski report

on the BBC I totally agree 100%

It sums up most people's view and experience

that the BBC have lost the Plot and we have

no option to not pay our licence fee.

Oswestrian

But without the BBC a lot of sattelite programes would not exist as most of them show BBC programes from years gone by.

The licence fee pays for radio as well TV, just listen to a commercial staion song/advert/song/advert.

Would everyone against the licence fee rather pay a Aussie £20.00 per month for basic TV?

BBC may have a lot of sport this summer but that is no longer the norm, The Euros are once every four years as with the Olympics so no one can say BBC has to much sport in the evenings! The programmes won't always satisfy everybody but as a whole they try and cater for all tastes. I repeat again that in my opinion it is very good value for money.

Leader in dailymail headline type shocker bashing the BBC as leftie what utter drivel, i am glad i no longer purchase the Shropshire Star comments left or right from such "leaders" have no place in a local paper.

Really ? Tell you what , try coming here to the states and watching the banal drivel that occupies 500 channels of c*** that pretends to be some sort of entertainment , or vaguely informative about tow truck drivers and repo men ! Where else would you get a series like "Frozen Planet" if it wasn't sponsored by McTurgid burger ?

While I agree that the BBC does need to get itself sorted out in many ways, I have to say that the Jubilee coverage was very good all things considered.

As for the licence fee? Well they charge a fraction of what some people quite willingly pay to watch the rubbish on Sky TV.

I wonder how much the BBC spent on a totally unnecessary revamp of the Midlands Today studio recently? (which looks dreadful!)

It's over-spending on things like that which the BBC is guilty of, while making cuts to local programmes on BBC Radio Shropshire.

Well, I read this with amazement. In a week where we have seen politician after politician forced to explain how they have got to cosy up to neoliberal organizations such as Murdock's empire, the Shropshire Star sees fit to comment on 5 hours of the BBC's output in the whole year, then proceeds to complain about pro-left bias.

Whoever wrote this leader should get a grip.

We live in a society where institutions such as the NHS and the Welfare state are under sustained attack from right wing forces which will do society a lot more damage than the license fee.

I had sky for a while in a location where the TV signal was poor, and let me tell you, I can count on one hand the amount of times I specifically chose to watch Sky 1. It was terrible, I am very, VERY happy to pay a little for a service which to my mind, shows little bias. I'd love to see the evidence of overt left wing bias. It's a scare story put about by it's opponents who do not like to see level headed coverage of issues it would want to see given a neoliberal slant.

If you want to complain about the BBC, then look to the 'race to the bottom' American TV has become. What the BBC does is that it makes sure there is a benchmark and standard which stops the rest of our TV service descends into the utter dross/overt political bias which is characteristic of American TV.

How is it nasty comments to other commentators get through on other pages like this, but a tiny derogatory remark towards Mr K doesn't get through?

It's full of worn out celebrities who should have been pensioned off years ago,wannabee chefs,mouthy 'micks',failed presenters and past it politicians travelling the globe filming rubbish. All enjoying themselves and costing the licence payer big bucks. Bruce Forsyth,Jamie Oliver,Graham Norton to name but 3 of the many.

The Shrewsbury Chronicle is certainly calling the pot black. I wonder if any of it's staff could get shortlisted for a job with the BBC. TV I snt what it wa but radio 4 and the World Service are impressive.

The reduction in quality levelled at the BBC could also be applied to the Shropshire Star. What has happened to this paper? It now appears to be a poor mans Daily Mail with a strong Tory bias. Subscription cancelled.

the bbc is a wonderful overblown, over paid institution that provides excellent programmes. that said it has some very ordinary commentators, and multi skilling of their talents hardly improves things.

for example claire balding knows a thing or 2 about horse racing, which the bbc are about to lose, but is no great shakes on a jubilee barge.

the murdoch press are behind so many cutbacks at the bbc, who have been forced to sell many of their magazines etc.

i believe the answer to the bbc's woes is selective advertising. on tv bbc 1,3 and 4 should carry advertising. and on radio 1,2, 6 and seven should have advertising.

i would like to see less duplication of interviewers between radio and tv. and finally i do not expect to see a commentater dressed in waders commentating in 1 foot of water. waste of our money. so come on bbc more cutbacks please and on the sport front i assume we shall soon be down to the marathon, great north run and highlights of the olympic torch run, or are sky bidding for these as well!

The reduction in quality levelled at the BBC could also be applied to the Shropshire Star. What has happened to this paper? It now appears to be a poor mans Daily Mail with a strong Tory bias.

Have to agree with this comment and find Nigel Hastilow and Peter Rhodes particularly tedious.

One thing regarding the BBC that is positive is the move to Salford.

We have a country that appears to be presently made up of Wales, Scotland, N Ireland and London.

I quite enjoy the BBC offerings, radio, TV, watched football in HD last night for the first time last night too. Local radio stations are excellent, and a lifeline for many people, and often more entertaining than their national/ commercial counterparts. I wouldn't do without Radio 4 or Radio 5, personally.

Eva, I disagree. England is central to national identity though, of course,London dominates.

Wife and I packed in watching standard TV. It was a bit like emerging from the matrix, painful to begin with but a growing recognition of an alternative reality.We have far more time for family, people in general and other interests. We still watch dvds and Iplayer etc when the mood takes but the compulsion to sit google eyed watching total dross is gradually receding.(Mind you having real conversations rather than the grunting that used to pass as communication during the ads has proved difficult!).

Basically if you don't like the meal don't eat it! TV is not compulsory.

ps The £145 saved on the licence fee is paying for our internet

I too object to be compelled to, in effect, pay for the BBC just so I can receive TV signals (which we get via cable anyway).

If the BBC were to be funded directly by a smart card type service, I'd probably buy a smart card. BUT I'D LIKE THE CHOICE and I'm guessing that a lot of people would opt out and stick with the over-advertised cable and freeview channels. That would make the BBC sit up and take notice, scrap a lot of its fringe channels and concentrate on mainstream BBC1/2 and Radio 1/2/3/4.

However it's fair comment to say that the cable and freeview channels are click after click of total (mostly American) garbage, massively over-populated with mindless adverts for stuff I am not the least bit interested in, and worst of all, synchronised so that to escape the dirge of adverts you have to switch to BBC. Maybe the Beeb does have its uses.

ITV has just as many football pundits so that argument's a non starter.The argument that the BBCis left-biased is a myth.Since we have a Coalition made up of a Tory majority,the BBC always question the Govt. that is in power.It just happens to be a govt. with a Tory majority therefore any BBC questioning is seen as left-biased.This happens when Labour is in power it's mistaken for right-wing bias.

The BBC employ as major political editor Nick Robinson ,who's as Tory as Cameron.

Don't forget all the radio stations on the BBC.

So Daniel wants the BBC to be a commercial station like say ITV ?ITV 's programmes are the lowest common denominator in tv programmes.

Stop whinging and be grateful for the BBC

Non-readers of the Shropshire Star make an involuntary payment towards it when they buy the products of companies whose advertising keeps it going.

I am currently working in Ireland, my laptop recognises I am out of the UK and will not let me log on to BBC i-player - due to it being outside the area of licence fee payments.

So how come my hotel has BBC 1, 2, 3 and 4?

I was in Belgium last month and my B&B had BBC 1 and 2!

I used to pay for SKY - The sports package and the movie package. I also got SKY 1 and a few other channels.

It was massively expensive so I packed it in.

Pretty poor value, too, I found I still mainly watched terrestrial tv

I'm much happier with terrestrial TV, although the Beeb have been too timid when dealing with the coalition which has them by the purse-strings.

Andrew Marr should hang his head in shame the assertions he lets go unchallenged on his show.

And don't forget we also receive radio through the BBC.

What other medium than Radio Shropshire covers our local area in such depth?

The Tories just want to hand the Beeb over to a right wing propaganda machine a'la Fox News.

Is it just me, that when I see a satellite dish on a house, I think what a waste of a life?