this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2024
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No, it's not government funded. It's funded by the people from a yearly licence fee, so has no ads. This is how it stays politically impartial too (mostly).
Yes, a licence fee approved by government and given to the BBC. Its not optional. Its a tax by another name with some arms length from the government to try to prevent conflict of interest. It does OK at that but not great.
However the point is that you can mix profitable endeavors successfully into a non profit to improve the non profit and fund the non profit parts. The problem is when the tail wags the dog.
Like yea, it'a technically a levie, not a tax. This whole "it's different because it does not go through the budget" is such a learned talking point. We have it in Germany as well with our state funded public media houses. You say something about their bias, count to five and suddenly someone appears and tells you that same story of fictional independence through funding through levie.