[ceebee23]

The BBC rates its head off in the UK... which is why the private media snipe and demand that it be limited to protect "competition".

Governments of both flavours in the UK would dearly love to end the licence fee system which gives the BBC a degree of independence.

Here in Australia the ABC (modelled on the BBC) used to receive a licence fee but in the 70s that was abandoned and now is just given a budget by the government like any other government department.

Over the past decade the ABC has been deliberately starved of funds to punish it for being seen too critical of the government and also to prevent is competing with the private media.

Neither the US model and the British model are perfect but looking at the product of the two systems ..I think i will take the Brit model.