Why must we all pay for BBC in stream era?

BBC BIGWIG Tim Davie says the licence fee “needs reform to end decades of cuts”.

- with GARRY BUSHELL

Isn't it more the case that the licence fee needs to be cut to end decades of unmerited taxation?

This annual £174.50 tax on watching telly might have made sense when the BBC had a monopoly. But how on earth can this archaic imposition on viewers be justified in an age of fierce streaming competition? Even if you only watch Netflix or Prime on TV, you still have to pay for the BBC. Why is that fair?

Worse, Davie - allegedly a Conservative - seems open to the quasi-socialist idea of richer households paying more than poorer ones.

So you'd pay more for the privilege of NOT watching BBC channels...hurrah!

I called for the abolition of the licence fee 25 years ago and was blacklisted by the BBC thereafter.

I'm not anti-Auntie though.

From classic sitcoms to Blue Planet, the Corporation has made some of the most cherished TV shows of all time.

But what have they done for us lately?

The “water-cooler” programmes of recent times have been on streaming platforms - except ITV's Mr Bates Vs The Post Office and arguably BBC1's The Traitors.

Yet money alone won't save them.