Letter: BBC's digital fee

Sir: The proposed increase to the TV licence for digital services only serves to highlight the increasing redundancy of the BBC in its present form. With much of its current terrestrial output mediocre or worse, it is questionable whether every household in the country would pay for it anyway, if they were still allowed to receive the commercial channels.

New digital technology allows viewers to pay for what they want, and in this environment it is simply ridiculous to single out any one organisation and fund it by direct taxation from those who may or may not consider the fee justified. If the managers of the BBC were really confident that were offering good value then they should have no fears about modernising their primary source of revenue, rather than perpetuating a system that is unnecessary, unaccountable and plain unfair.

I trust that when the new "digital tax" is rubber-stamped by Parliament, the corporation will at least have the honesty to rename BBC Choice as "BBC Compulsory". Either way, I can be made to pay for it, but nothing on this earth is going to force me to watch it.

CHRIS DENTON

Redhill, Surrey