Switching off the BBC

Echoes of American late night television here: "The BBC’s Christmas collapse is nothing short of catastrophic."

What makes this failure more serious is that it comes after years in which the BBC has insulated itself from almost every form of accountability. Complaints about bias are filtered through systems designed to reject them. Regulators defer to process rather than outcome. Governments hesitate to frame vital reform. Critics are marginalised. The one judgement that cannot be procedurally neutralised is audience behaviour.

And that judgement is now devastating. People are not marching in protest, though millions are refusing to pay the licence fee. They are doing something far more damaging. They are ignoring the BBC, even at the moment when it is trying hardest to matter.

We had the same problem in America with NPR and PBS, paying for something we didn't want.  Had.