The BBC has found itself in something of a steep decline. With more and more good TV being made (and less and less of it on the Beeb), many people are cancelling their licence fees. This means the BBC is forced to go after the people who are least likely to have a Netflix account – the over-75s.
Ageism
The BBC has previously been accused of ageism. Against the young. Largely because it creates programmes that:
- Don’t really appeal to young people.
- Actively normalise and protect a model of society that makes young people’s lives worse.
By going after the elderly – many of whom have it tough enough already – it’s now being accused of ageism in the other direction. A BBC spokesperson explained:
It’s a shame, but no one else is willing to pay for this shit.
When asked why the BBC doesn’t just make programming that appeals to people who weren’t old enough to benefit from the Great 1980s Housing Sell-Off, the spokesperson explained:
Because we’re very, very bad at what we do.
Natural selection
The BBC is stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, it can’t make television that really challenges power structures in the UK – largely because it’s in bed with said power structures. On the other hand, its failure to move with the times is making a lot of young people ask:
Why am I paying £150 a year to listen to a bunch of publicly funded millionaires tell me that socialism doesn’t work?
Featured image via pixabay
