A trimmer BBC

sir – There is a case for a slimmeddown BBC (Letters, January 22).

Services that the corporation does uniquely well include news, nature and science, political investigations and serious music. Surely this output could be provided on just two television channels, BBC One and BBC Two.

Special offerings from its radio stations include serious music, light music, literature, witty comedy and news. Popular music is covered by a host of others. Couldn’t this content be contained within two or possibly three channels?

The sticky question is funding. Taxation pretty well guarantees political interference. Perhaps a subscription service is the way forward, and it might be a lot cheaper than the present licence fee. That would rather depend on the readiness of management to address the problem of unequal pay as well as the grotesque size of the salaries it pays some staff.

The BBC clearly needs to change – but, above all, it must preserve its independence. Trevor Rigg

Edinburgh

sir – Why do Lord Hall, the BBC’S outgoing director-general, and the BBC think it justifiable to start charging the over-75s the full licence fee while paying Gary Lineker nearly £2million a year to ask Alan Shearer how he thought the match went? Mark Sibthorp

Taplow, Buckinghamshire

sir – The TV licence costs less than £3 a week. That’s about the cost of one cup of coffee. What’s all the fuss about? Gwyneth Dear

Sevenoaks, Kent