You're clutching at straws if you think women will watch those is kind of what I was getting at

Oh come on, I'm sure women would love to watch more topless darts and mud wrestling too

Suddenly women everywhere are being confronted with lines like 'If I can be open-minded, why can't you?'

The current "attack" on the licence fee is a transparent move by the "anti-BBC" faction (i.e Murdoch, the Far Right, and assorted vested interests like Newspapers) to cripple, bring down, then destroy the BBC. Their objectives are loosely :

1. To reduce the BBC's output, so driving people to their (much inferior) alternative
2. To silence the BBC's "neutral" voice (though if Evan Davis gets any further up Cameroon's arse...) and replace it with a "Fox News" approach.
3. Further to increase their "political" importance.

You don't have to be a genius to figure any of this out, but it appears beyond the wit of any of our politicians to do so. Their constant whingeing about "competition" in support of Murdoch's anti BBC campaign suggests that various "offers" have been made to bring them onside.

This is actually a very simple matter, and rather like the NHS: do we want "free enterprise" model a la USA, or a socialised (not "socialist") system like we have now?
We can either have the BBC - admired worldwide for the range, quality and integrity of much of its output (pointless Dancing and adverts for Lloyd-Webber notwithstanding).
Or we can have the likes of "Fox TV" whose News broadcasts are derided as propaganda (everywhere except the Bible Belt), and whose contribution to "culture" is the (excellent, but limited) "Simpsons".
At present the only thing that keeps Murdoch "honest" in the UK is that people can choose the BBC instead of his appalling "Sky" rubbish, which most people only buy for Football. BBC also "pulls-up" the output of ITV and C4. Take away the BBC and British TV will sink to lows that will make Eastenders look like Shakespeare.

The oft-quoted quality of a few US shows does not hide the paucity of talent or investment in the bulk of their Networks' output. "House", "CSI", "The Wire" and a few others are great TV, but a minute proportion of the tons of dross showing on all the hundreds of channels on US TV.

Well said!

+1

Why does the removal of the licence fee automatically mean we end up with a Fox-a-like channel?
The BBC are not an efficiently run organisation. Yes, they have moments of brilliance, but then I'd think that is to be expected given the vast sums of money they can throw at production and people.
They already exploit the market in many ways, from DVDs to magazines. I don't believe that making them sing for their supper would significantly change the output, to be honest. I feel they've been adrift for many years.

I can't predict that it would be a certain consequence, this isn't Physics, but human society, however if you look over the pond or even at Italy, you'll see what tends to happen when "free enterprise" holds sway....

they ought to make a program about this and name it 'fact stranger then fiction' …

I love Aunty. Long live the BBC!