BBC should take a lead from Netflix
WITH the debate about the BBC and the TV licence fee, it’s got me thinking about the entire entertainment sector and the way each is funded. I watch very little television, but the programmes I do look at on commercial channels such as Coronation Street are interrupted by commercial advertising every 15 minutes. To be frank, I immediately mute the broadcast and if I have recorded it I simply fast forward through the adverts. I’m sure almost everybody does the same, so the money is just wasted. When I’m driving with the radio on, as soon as an ad comes on I change stations for a few minutes and then switch back. I honestly cannot see the point in companies spending fortunes of money advertising their products and services on air in the world we live in today. If I want a new sofa or something, I will visit local showrooms or stores and pick the best or most suitable item I can find, or I can go on to the internet and search there for anything I want. I can find everything I want or need simply by using my common sense. To have loud voices shouting at me about massive sales and discounts in no way triggers me to listen but just makes me mute or change channels. So it must be time for a total ground shift where, like Netflix, the BBC and other services should start charging customers a monthly subscription. The public can select the channels they want or like and pay, rather than have these wretched, useless adverts interrupting their pleasure. All the major companies can advertise their current deals in the national newspapers. I’d willingly pay Global £10 a month to listen to Smooth Radio with no commercial breaks — I mean, it’s so upsetting when one is listening to a great song to then be blasted by something that totally destroys the mood for five minutes and I’m sure many will agree.
ROBIN MAYHEW, singer/songwriter/composer/ producer, Barnham, W. Sussex.