Alex Richards
Donor
Just a couple of question about Dan1988's idea: Do you think that at some point there might be worries about the government interference in the media? i.e. people complaining that the government is promoting a liberal (or conservative, depending on your POV) viewpoint, or that the government is using it for propaganda, or the government is censoring news that it doesn't want people to hear.
I mean, we've already got things like that happening around NPR and PBS, if this is coming directly out of fees the people are required to pay in order to buy television sets, or whatever (I'm not quite clear on how the "license fees" work with BBC), the voices might be stronger?
Would there be a move towards privatization of the company?
This isn't really a problem in the UK as the original situation basically went along the lines of a group of individuals founded a private company that was then granted a Royal Charter to be the official Broadcaster of the United Kingdom on the condition that funding for the company shift from shares and sponsorship (with the shareholders being paid off) to a government stipend. Among the terms of the agreement was an impartiality clause.
Now this is probably the best way to go about it in America as well, though the different political structure might preclude quite the same situation.