Ratings are not unimportant to the BBC. The argument that popular shows with big-name stars can and should be left to commercial stations, apart from being patronising - "such people can put up with adverts" - undermines the justification for the licence fee. Commercial broadcasters will say that the licence fee should not be used to pay for popular programmes that they can make 'free'. It's a beguiling argument but they know that it would be the beginning of the end for the BBC. The BBC must make programmes for everyone if everyone must pay the licence fee.

Personally I think the licence fee is an anachonism, and is hard to justify. I doubt whether it'll last more than another 10 years. Whether the BBC itself would survive, and in what form, who knows.

I noticed at the top of this thread that the emergence of evidence that women were being paid far less than men, for example newsreaders who sit side-by-side, was an attempt to 'deflect' the public's concerns, or 'cloud' the issue. This is presumably the Tory press's attempt to keep their readers on the government's songsheet rather than discuss a real issue.