I’ve never really understood the rage the licence fee provokes in a certain type of voter and I have little faith that any replacement proposed by this government will be an improvement.
A large contingent of the UK population can be reliably provoked into outrage when the necessity arises. This is largrly how unchecked power is wielded in British politics. Splitting the country down the middle in a fit of fury over Brexit and then sewing it back up was similarly provoked.
Places like the BBC Television Centre were engrained in the public zeitgest, and thus newsworthy.
This clearly isn't the case any more, there's far more choice, and the generations that grew up with "Auntie" are getting older and older.
Pretty sure people had books, radio, theatre, cinema, etc, in the 70s and 80s.
Those still exist and presumably attract similar numbers, but there are far more options in the 'sitting on couch' area, hence TV viewership is massively down, and what remains is split amongst far more options
You missed a step. The story has to be about "TV Licencing", with the Beeb saying something to the effect of 'we asked TV Licensing to comment'.
The point being that "TV Licensing' is a brand of the BBC. So in effect 'we asked ourselves'.