Intriguingly, the reputation the BBC enjoys overseas is not so fondly felt on these shores. And right now, Auntie is feeling especially beleaguered. After identifying a £2bn funding shortfall over the next six years, forcing a serious bout of cost-cutting, it now sees its budgets being further eroded by inflation, while having to fight off attempts at "top-slicing" its licence fee to fund Channel 4, digital switchover, online PSB and any other Ofcom/DCMS good cause.
As commercial broadcasters flounder in the current climate, the BBC is increasingly becoming an easy punch bag for those who blame their ills on "unfair" competition - RadioCentre boss Andrew Harrison railed last week about a "line in the sand" needing to be drawn to rein in the BBC's local online video services, Peter Bazalgette has called for the privatisation of Radios 1 and 2, and Sky wants the BBC to be banned from bidding for foreign content.
Such is Auntie's anguish, it rushed out a report last week from PricewaterhouseCoopers that claimed the BBC adds £6.5bn to the UK economy. It also analysed alternative funding models and concluded that a commercially funded BBC would only damage other broadcasters.
Meanwhile, there is a body of opinion that believes the BBC arm that already competes in the commercial market, BBC Worldwide, should be privatised - a 17% growth in profits in the last 12 months to £118m rankles with rivals struggling to see any growth.
Compared with most commercial media companies, of course the BBC enjoys a well-funded and privileged position, but that's largely why British broadcasting has the highest quality thresholds in the world. Without the BBC, would ITV and Channel 4 be as good as they are?
Now, as ITV bids to be freed from any PSB obligations and Channel 4 pleads that it can't afford them, while foreign content and culture distends across cable, satellite and IPTV, a strong BBC is needed more than ever.
We should not confuse the BBC's small successes in the commercial world, which may be enhanced through selling ads around its content on Project Kangaroo, with an ability to fund its entire being commercially.
The BBC should be encouraged to be more aggressively commercial in exploiting its public bounty, particularly in extracting money from its 40 million foreign freeloading customers. But the licence fee is the most beneficent of culture taxes and should be sacrosanct.
Colin Grimshaw is deputy editor of Media Week