After nine years of working as a freelancer across various departments at the BBC, I quit working there in June last year when I realised that – much like a bad boyfriend – this place was never going to love me back. 

Due to the nature of freelance work in the industry, I was constantly interviewing for shorter and shorter contracts, freelance pay became worse so I couldn’t take any holiday leave and took the extra cash instead.

This meant I had to work all the time while I was pregnant and due to tiny breaks, I wasn’t eligible for statutory maternity pay either.

But when I saw earlier this week that the Government confirmed it’ll be freezing the licence fee for two years, it made me feel sad for all kinds of reasons.

I think well-funded public service broadcasting is essential for democracy, I have a baby who is coming to the CBeebies age, and I worry for my friends who will lose their jobs. I’ve sat through endless meetings about cuts so I know how much a freeze can take away. 

The Director General Tim Davie has confirmed that it will leave a £285million gap due to inflation, so it means that some shows and content will be axed, which will likely include output from MediaCity in Salford where I worked. 

I had fun working at the BBC and enjoyed a random assortment of opportunities that I never would’ve had elsewhere. I’ve filmed everything as a researcher and then assistant producer from skunks to Olympians. 

After the announcement, I read a lot of rhetoric about the BBC, mostly from high-profile commentators or presenters who are used to being heard. 

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They were split into two camps – those arguing it was great value for money, and those claiming it was unfair to pay as they had no interest in the BBC’s output, as well as the usual comments about bias from all sides of the political spectrum.

However, if you flip those cameras around, you’ll find there are a lot more of us out there who feel underpaid and undervalued, just like in any other public service industry.

The glamorous days of big BBC budgets like when Blue Peter had a giant studio that was big enough bring a baby elephant into are over and (the current one is more of a generously sized living room) have been over for a long while. 

Contrary to the popular belief about the demographic of the BBC being staffed by well-connected upper middle-class people, I’m from a rural working-class background and I didn’t know anyone in the industry before I started my media career in low-paying runner and assistant jobs.

But my experience hasn’t turned me off the concept of public service broadcasting funded by the licence fee at all – the opposite in fact. It has shown me how dedicated staff are, how important proper funding is and how much audiences genuinely do need and appreciate it.  

It’s easy to see why people complain about the BBC. Much like the NHS and councils, we pay for it so we may as well get our money’s worth by slagging it off. 

Some recent criticism I’ve noticed have been on presenter pay, an accusation of fake news (due to their Covid reporting) and that it is staffed by people pushing their agendas. 

It’s not all unjustified either. The BBC has made some horrible mistakes – both historically and up until the present day.

I’ve felt embarrassed at many of them, from hearing a white presenter saying the N-word in a news report, to discovering that men working for the BBC earn an average of 9.3% more than women, according to a 2017 report. I’m aware that there are so many more but there’s only so much room in one article.

According to some, it’s a lefty-liberal, Government-hating monstrosity. To others, it’s the opposite. 

So why should we keep it?

A standard TV licence is £159 per year, so it costs only 43p a day to have access to all services – from BBC News, CBeebies, online GCSE revision guides and all of its radio stations.

There are nine TV channels, radio stations – including 10 UK-wide, six national and 40 local – thousands of shows on iPlayer, the BBC World Service, podcasts, apps and countless online services.

Interestingly though, it’s actually a net benefit for the economy, with every £1 of the BBC’s economic activity generating a total of £2.63 in the economy, according to an independent report from KPMG.

This extra monetary value is created by the training it provides, local investment, supporting businesses, the implementation of research and development as well as the benefits produced by creative innovation.

This makes sense when you consider all the people it employs – everyone from caterers to carpenters, cleaners to children’s writers.

I was by no means the only one going above and beyond for no extra pay or benefits, as the buildings are constantly buzzing with hard-working staff

I’ve had the privilege of working for both children’s channels, local news, the BBC homepage and BBC Bitesize, among several other smaller jobs. I’ve cleaned toilets on location and been in the office or studio at every time of the day.

I was by no means the only one going above and beyond for no extra pay or benefits, as the buildings are constantly buzzing with hard-working staff.

So while you may have no idea what your local council are doing with your money, with the BBC you can watch, listen to or read everything that your money pays for – all thousands of hours of it. The BBC can’t hide when its content is there for everyone to see and critique.

Who else would have created thousands of home-learning guides for school-aged children during the 2020 lockdowns? Along with some equally hard-working teachers and colleagues, I created over 100 myself and missed going outside for almost the entire spring heatwave in the process.

Much like hidden vegetables in a spaghetti bolognese, many of the CBeebies shows contain covert learning. They also represent children who are unjustifiably ignored by the mainstream – Tree Fu Tom helps those with dyspraxia by encouraging them to copy movement exercises and Mr Tumble signs Makaton to help kids who may be non-verbal to communicate.

Kids love it, with 67million requests for Hey Duggee – one of the most popular children’s shows – alone on iPlayer during the initial lockdown in 2020.

It’s oft-cited but as true as ever that the BBC’s Natural History Unit is unmatched. I visited it in Bristol once and their filmmakers are geniuses in gilets. The success of all these departments? Staff who care deeply and tirelessly about making their audiences happy.

As Davie has said this week, all shows are in jeopardy and people face losing their jobs – depending on factors such as how niche the show is and how much it costs. When working there I never knew what was going next and I fear that only the most worthy content – such as Bitesize for example – will remain.

There are also the benefits you may not consider and they are the ones with a value that can’t easily be measured in pounds and pence.

A programme like Bake Off, which was developed by the BBC before moving to Channel 4, has inspired so many people to get in their kitchens – driving up sales of cooking supplies and inspiring entrepreneurs to start cake businesses.

Environmental awareness from the Blue Planet documentaries is essential, yet hard to quantify. The BBC has also run campaigns on everything from child literacy to growing plants. It’s simply impossible to live in the UK and not have your life touched by it – whether you know it or not.

Perhaps the most serious reason of all is that a public service broadcaster is an important tenet of upholding democracy by holding governments to account and reporting on the things that others avoid, like climate change.

Yes, it has platformed climate change deniers due to a problematic interpretation of impartiality – something it previously accepted it gets ‘wrong too often’ – but this doesn’t mean that it can’t evolve and be better.

As we try to improve the world to take on racism, misogyny, ableism, transphobia and other societal ills, I like to think that the BBC will get better too.

I watch BBC content – including CBeebies now that I have a child – and ultimately, I like that it’s there and I find it comforting.

I may be a jaded ex-employee but I think it’s better to stand by the BBC and not let it die a slow death from various cuts. It will likely never be revived once we realise the big mistake we’ve made.

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