来源：《每日电讯报》
日期：2021年1月21日
The Government has decided that the BBC license fee will not be decriminalised, but that does not let the Corporation off the hook. It still needs reform. The media market has changed radically and Netflix’s parallel decision to raise its subscription price, though welcomed by BBC insiders who insist that this makes their product better value for money, is in fact a very worrying sign for the Corporation.
政府已经决定，欠缴BBC电视授权费不会被去罪化，但这并不能让公司摆脱困境。它仍然需要改革。媒体市场发生了根本性的变化，与此同时，Netflix决定提高订阅价格，尽管受到了BBC内部人士的欢迎，他们坚持认为这会使他们的产品更物有所值，但事实上，这对公司来说是一个非常令人担忧的信号。
Many consumers clearly consider the streaming service worth paying more for, solidifying its position as a long-term rival to the BBC. Netflix now has around 200 million paid members globally, up more than 30 per cent since 2019, adding 8.5 million in the last year alone – and an announcement, this week, that it can stop relying on debt to finance operations saw its share price jump.
许多消费者显然认为流媒体服务值得花更多的钱，这巩固了Netflix作为BBC长期竞争对手的地位。Netflix目前在全球拥有约2亿付费用户，自2019年以来增长了30%以上，仅去年一年就增加了850万。本周，该公司宣布可以不再依赖债务来为运营提供资金，其股价随之飙升。
A great deal of content now available online – including foreign language drama and documentaries – is better than the BBC’s, and while it is true that the Corporation continues to offer news and current affairs, its coverage is full of bias, there are plenty of alternatives in print or online.
现在网上有大量内容，包括外语片和纪录片，都比BBC的要好，尽管BBC一直提供新闻和时事报道，但充满了偏见，纸媒或网上有很多它的替代品。
Every time the BBC escapes on the license fee, its employees sigh with relief – yet the tension between trying to keep up with the competition while its revenue is dictated by politics only becomes more unsustainable. The BBC should be flourishing in lockdown, yet even with viewers trapped indoors, isolated from their families, TV viewing figures on Christmas Day were disappointing. The BBC needs both to raise its game and find a sustainable way of financing itself.
每当BBC在电视授权费上逃过一劫时，员工们都松了一口气——然而，在其收入由政治决定的情况下，仍要努力跟上竞争的节奏，这种矛盾变得越来越不可维系。英国广播公司本应在新冠封锁中蓬勃发展，然而，即使观众被困在室内，与家人隔绝，圣诞节的收视数据依然令人失望。英国广播公司既需要提高自己的水平，也需要找到一种可持续的融资方式。