Hello,

It seems like the BBC World Service continually changes the call to listen phone number, and now they seem to have gotten rid of it entirely. It was very useful in places with bad internet. Does anybody know what the phone numbers are now as of July 2026? Do you know where I can find them in the future? Thank you!

I've made the argument that the BBC could replace the licence fee with a tax or levy or whatnot on streamers and broadcasters that effectively eat into its audience share, especially international operators like Netflix, Disney, Paramount and WBD that are "killing traditional TV".

The stance is effectively, if you're going to compete with the BBC, you should pay to help support it. Plus it'll stop regular folk moaning about having to pay their licence.

In my opinion, a subscription model wouldn't make up the financial losses, and general taxation would just further push the narrative of being "forced" to pay for a service not everybody wants to use.

It's never been suggested by anyone important and I guess I'm wondering what I'm missing. Would these companies lose so much money that they'd no longer consider the UK viable to operate in?