[Tomalak]

As a Brit who is so sick of the BBC, I hope and believe that the chances are good. When the license fee was first introduced, it made a sort of sense with only a few channels on TV. Now, with hundreds available, it is anachronistic in the extreme to have to pay £116 a year to the producers of a handful of them to watch TV at all.

Imagine if you had to pay $175 a year to watch your TV, and all to fund a TV company that took the same line on all the major issues as the New York Times. That's roughly what Brits face.

I think as the funding system becomes more and more out of date, things will change, so it's a question of if rather than when. I wouldn't be surprised if the license fee still existed in ten years. But I would definitely be surprised if it still existed in twenty-five years.

[Teetop]

That's what I heard, Tomalak. That HAS to suck badly! Hopefully, things will change after the Iraqi war is over. I believe many "media" outlets will falter, due to out-right lies being told.

I laugh at the BBC when I get up earlier & watch them on C-Span. It's like watching Baghdad Bob again!

[bourbon]

Imagine if you had to pay $175 a year to watch your TV, and all to fund a TV company that took the same line on all the major issues as the New York Times. That's roughly what Brits face.

Yikes! What a nightmare! I didn't realize it was this bad.

Thanks, now I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight!

[Drammach]

I pay approx. $80.00 a MONTH for cable access.
Most of those "news" stations are anywhere from moderate left to extreme left...
Same for those "free broadcast stations" that are available in the local market.
They are actually the most leftist of them all. (ABC, NBC, CBS broadcast networks.)
They don't cost anything, but your access to unbiased news is quite limited.. (generally left wing, 4 channels max.)

If it weren't for FOX cable News I would probably be listening to conservative talk radio..
Quite honestly, $175.00 a year license fee doesn't sound that bad.
I'd save $65.00 a month on cable.
Hell, I could afford broadband at that rate!

[goody2shooz]

I think as the funding system becomes more and more out of date, things will change...I wouldn't be surprised if the license fee still existed in ten years...

Gee, Tom! We know how you Brits are so very fond of tradition and all that, but it couldn't really be that difficult to get rid of an unpopular license fee, could it? I mean, ten years!!