In fact, the licence fee subsidises the government:
Part of the fee also contributes towards Freeview and Freesat, and towards the UK broadband rollout, funding local TV channels and S4C, the Welsh language TV channel, as agreed with the government as part of the 2010 licence fee settlement.
And the World Service. And now free licences for (some) elderly.
Having said that, I'd be rather more impressed if their content management worked rather better so you didn't get glaring stupidities like articles about a photograph turning up on the Red Button service where you can't see the photo and articles that mention a place turning up in the regional news for that place even if the mention is irrelevant. Wrapping some HTML or MHEG around the content is rather less impressive.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
