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Comment by mattmanser | Hacker News Reader

Because they are funded by taxes, they have very specific things they are allowed to sell because they have an unfair advantage in internal UK markets. However, to reduce the burden on the tax payers, they are allowed to sell things internationally.

So you suddenly have this dilemma, and this site is a direct consequence of that dilemma. They want to act in a commercial way to worldwide audiences to reduce the tax burden, but are prohibited from showing certain things to UK tax payers because they would have an unfair advantage against commercial UK competitors.

Your choice is get rid of the BBC or put up with this and a few other legal quirks.

I prefer keeping the BBC.

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Why wouldn't they put more and more resources towards the paying market and short as much as possible the market required to pay by statute?

Because their mission isn't to return a profit

This hasn't really been a problem. Not as far as I can see from my life time.

The TV shows have never been any worse than private competition, especially considering the 'original 5'. In my opinion, BBC shows tend to be better overall (except Eastenders vs Coronation St).

That plus no adverts every 15 mins makes for a good experience.

Wrt to news, I read BBC News quite a lot. Again, no adverts to slow scrolling down and reporting that, although may face vehement accusations of bias, isn't all that biased.

I would prefer to keep the BBC too.

To state this more precisely than the others did:

Most companies are motivated to return a profit because that's what their shareholders want, and the continued employment of their directors depends on keeping the shareholders happy. The BBC doesn't have shareholders, it has a government oversight committee. The continued employment of their directors depends on keeping that committee happy, which a move like you propose would certainly not achieve.

They have an ordained purpose of providing quality content to UK citizens. Selling content internationally is only done insofar as it furthers this purpose (by generating extra funding for it). Their performance is measured based on how well they satisfy the UK market.

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