I agree with the Beeb being publicly funded too, though would prefer it being part of normal taxation rather than the license fee which is so controversial.

But I don't think attacking American providers is a strong counter at all, the days when the BBC led the world in quality are long gone, HBO set the standard for modern drama which no British service has come close to matching; Netflix and Prime provide plenty of quality programmes too.

The BBC/C4 still compete on non-fiction, comedy and radio, but not drama.