The Case of BBC and TV Licensing Fee Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

The Case of BBC and TV Licensing Fee - Essay Example People when faced with various alternatives have to decide based on various choices or options. The same thing happened in the case of BBC. In modern times, the existence of other independent televisions and live cable and satellites for free made it to a point that TV licensing became a controversial issue in the UK. There was fragmentation of political communications and even the rise of globalisation aggravates the said situation (Curran and Gurevitch, 2000, p.1; Curran, 2002, p.6). Before, in the absence of these alternatives a license fee should not come to be a controversial issue, but in the case of modern time and highly globalised world when people have various options to enjoy the media even for free, TV licensing seems to be an issue that needs amendment and critical assessment. There are two opposing sides regarding TV licensing as the prevailing system for funding the BBC. Those who stand against licensing fee point out that it is an iniquitous tax. This means it does no t quite have a logical approach that would make somebody realise that it is a fair thing to do. While other nations are enjoying media broadcast without fee, the UK according to TV licensing fee critics does not need to experience paying something or contents that at some point are not consumed. TV licensing fee according to its critics is just a way of forcing somebody to pay a hundred pounds to contents shown by a broadcaster that at some point could not be substantially consumed. At this point, the opponents of TV licensing fee advocates have a remarkable point. However, on the part of the advocates, they believe that BBC is the only broadcaster in Great Britain that is way beyond the control of vested interest. This particularly... In this essay, the proponent tries to elaborately discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current system of funding the BBC and the reason why it is such a controversy today. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is one of the potential areas of concern in the United Kingdom because it includes the issue about significant funding that has to be shouldered by every household prior to sustaining its operation. A television license fee has to be charged to every British household, companies, or organizations prior to using equipment to record or receive live television broadcasts. This license allows somebody to have potential access to the BBC and its programs and to the current affairs that at some point may vary from those offered by commercial television and independent cable or satellites. The license fee is set by the British government and agreed by the parliament, which make everything about it controlled by the government, which could be determined as a form of cen sorship or capitalistic move. Today, the issue whether TV license that is associated with BBC’s funding is tenable or not is one of the potential concerns that require critical understanding. It is also concluded that the main reason why BBC remains a controversy nowadays is because of the presence of these highly commercialised pressures brought by independent and commercial broadcasting companies. This is actually the general essence of the whole point of the various advantages offered by TV licensing fee in funding BBC.