I'd rather not have the government deciding on a whim to cut BBC funding from general taxation, perhaps to punish it for attacking the government (see Hutton inquiry). The present system, where funding levels are decided 5 or 10 years in advance and cannot be changed by the government, works very well. Though I accept that in about four years' time when the Royal Charter is up for renewal again - and the funding for future years will be set - the chance of the licence fee continuing are very slim.
I often hear that British TV is the best in the world and if that's the case it's entirely down to the BBC's system of funding which relieves it from commercial and political pressures and allows them to experiment with programmes that might not be a success. Also the BBC's creative freedom has forced the commercial operators to up their game and consider similar risks. Non-Brits might find the licence fee a crazy system but it works. For British TV to fall into the commercial profit-driven LCD style of other countries would be the biggest cultural disaster to hit this country.
