I agree with Nick, I don't think the BBC is anti this Government and you are right our Free Radio supporting credentials does make some posters fit their current view of the world.
My stance on public broadcasting has changed from my more youthful self. There is a debate to be had on the future of the BBC but completely destroying the independent State broadcaster will make this country much the poorer.
I don't think the BBC needs to be all things to all people. Plus I think the valuable broadcasting band that the BBC historically have taken and still hold on the legacy way of broadcasting is unfair and not healthy for balanced competition.
However I think the current situation can be helpful in moving the ordinary citizens to be able to listen to local and national services on a easily receivable device.
I also would like to see easier for foreign stations to be able to go on local muxes as was promised to broadcasters like RTE. This would help in the choice of hearing other voices on the airwaves.
If the choice for everyday listening is going to be DAB and I appreciate that 5G Broadcasting may take over. But then we can start the industry to supply devices that receive both (Apologies if this is technically naive on my part) then the BBC as the largest organisation, with the biggest audience it can help to create a reasonable new level playing field for all broadcasters both the big three commercial groups and the smaller independent operators.
There should also be a reform of ownership of the Mux ownership. I do not think it is healthy to have radio stations who also own there own muxes as this creates the opportunity of the Big 3 to flood these with pointless services. Therefore we should have a cap on how many services the company can have on a mux.
This way it may help to raise the bit rate of some of the services on DAB to improve the quality of transmissions.