Because Murdoch would rattle the cage and get the gov to make them sell it off similar to bbc3 getting ditched to digital only due to funding cut backs. The BBC charter is for varied output and keeping the channels as such helps demonstrate it is targeting mainstream. I agree though a separate BBC sports channel would make sense but they probably can't afford to pay for enough to fill it.The whole of sport should be in its own section. I cannot understand why BBC1, BBC are used for football, tennis, Olympics etc., when with digital the BBC could allocate a BBC Sport channel or two like SKY and let non sports fans have alternative viewing during these events. Frequently the two main BBC channels are fully taken up with grown men punting a bladder around a field. BORING.
TV Licence Super Thread
- Thread starter Ken
- Start date
you know - its revoked
#BBC Three will return to UK TVs on February 1, the embattled pubcaster has announced.
Fiona Campbell, BBC Three controller, said: “We know how popular sport is with younger audiences and it’s going to have a big part to play on BBC Three.”
Its first major hit looks likely to be Conversations with Friends, an adaptation of Normal People author Sally Rooney’s first novel co-produced by Hulu, which will broadcast later this year.
...
Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa's orbit,
Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil--and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh.
maybe I don't need to subscribe to Netflix after all, it's coming to freeview.
You're the one who made a statistical statement, I gave reasons as to why it doesn't hold up.Are you actually serious with that opening statement, then going on to make those claims.
Yea, NP mate.
Here's another counter narrative:
You've yet to make a good argument, some rubbish about Sky One... something wrong about infrastructure, how almost everyone with a TV watches BBC.
The TV licence has no purpose today other than propping up the BBC, something that has become more and more irrelevant and doesn't stand a chance on it's own.
What does Murdoch have to do with this?
Soldato
You're actually asking that?
Well considering Murdoch has nothing to do with Sky since 2018 or the same influence he once had on UK tv.
Soldato
The Murdoch reference isn't just literal, it's also metaphoric. It's a reference to the predominantly right wing media in the UK, the same media that fund the government in exchange for influence. Anyone that thinks the Tories are driving these reforms from beneath a consumer champion's cape really needs to wise up.
I think the main reasons I don't want or need a TV licence are..
I don't like cheap tat. Production value of the shows I like on netflix is high. Usually because its fantasy/Sci fi
I like niche shows like animation (dragon prince, she ra) which just doesn't get enough attention for bbc
I don't like reality tv
Of the few things I would watch in BBC (nature docs mainly) they are not worth paying 150 a year for.
BBC is just mainstream with news thrown in and radio. And it's losing appeal as time moves on.
Unfortunately got myself netflix (my absolute fav service) can pay big cash for production value and niche things. But as more players enter the market I feel this domination will slip and fragmenting will occur.
Personally I just don't fit in the demographic of what the BBC covers.
I don't like cheap tat. Production value of the shows I like on netflix is high. Usually because its fantasy/Sci fi
I like niche shows like animation (dragon prince, she ra) which just doesn't get enough attention for bbc
I don't like reality tv
Of the few things I would watch in BBC (nature docs mainly) they are not worth paying 150 a year for.
BBC is just mainstream with news thrown in and radio. And it's losing appeal as time moves on.
Unfortunately got myself netflix (my absolute fav service) can pay big cash for production value and niche things. But as more players enter the market I feel this domination will slip and fragmenting will occur.
Personally I just don't fit in the demographic of what the BBC covers.
Soldato
All well and good, but I note that pretty much everyone he talked about was on benefits. While the likelihood of getting the full £1,000 may not be high the fine can still be considerable depending on a person's current means, so you can guffaw all you like but any fine may be more than someone can afford, at which point it becomes a massive problem to that individual.
do people think you have to pay court fines in a one off payment or it's straight to a jail cell?
if your minimum wage/benefits your probably paying 2.50 a week/month or whatever
Well some of the current lot running the show are so Victorian in their views they probably wouldn't mind just that and a return of the workhouse if they couldn't cough up
Soldato
Surely the best course of action is to pay the licence fee and thus avoid the fine altogether.
Soldato
It's irrelevant to me at this moment in time as I'm not the person currently responsible for paying the licence fee but no, I don't agree. If I was the responsible person, I'd just unplug the aerial and tell the BBC where they can stick their licence fee as I almost never watch live TV. That's not really the point though; it should not be a legal requirement to pay a licence fee if you don't watch BBC content and, as I've mentioned previously in this thread, there's almost nothing on BBC worth watching (for me), and it would be far cheaper to just buy DVDs second hand for the very occasional program that is of interest.
If you're happy to pay it, good for you. I think it's a disgraceful tax that should have been abolished decades ago.
If you're happy to pay it, good for you. I think it's a disgraceful tax that should have been abolished decades ago.
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It's not a tax though. As you say you could remove your aerial and not pay it. Unlike income tax which you have no choice over.
You could just use streaming services and not pay it. You're basically saying "I don't want BBC so why must I pay for other free to view channels which I do want?" Because the kit that does those does BBC and most people do use the BBC over itv etc when it comes to things like football tournaments, Olympics and even the royal wedding etc. Unless you want kit that detects and logs which channels you're watching and actively blocks you from BBC which would seem a bit snoopy to me.
Bbc4 is worth the licence fee alone. Educational and in depth factual, OU etc. A commercial channel would not be able to justify that content on the ever increasing race to the bottom pandering to the lowest common denominator that gives vapid TV trash viewing with another show of brain dead morons placed in a big rich house and having nonsensical banal dealings as they try to negotiate some sort of popularity contest to win the public's hollow praise. But enough about the House of Commons live feed...
You could just use streaming services and not pay it. You're basically saying "I don't want BBC so why must I pay for other free to view channels which I do want?" Because the kit that does those does BBC and most people do use the BBC over itv etc when it comes to things like football tournaments, Olympics and even the royal wedding etc. Unless you want kit that detects and logs which channels you're watching and actively blocks you from BBC which would seem a bit snoopy to me.
Bbc4 is worth the licence fee alone. Educational and in depth factual, OU etc. A commercial channel would not be able to justify that content on the ever increasing race to the bottom pandering to the lowest common denominator that gives vapid TV trash viewing with another show of brain dead morons placed in a big rich house and having nonsensical banal dealings as they try to negotiate some sort of popularity contest to win the public's hollow praise. But enough about the House of Commons live feed...
Soldato
Remove the word "almost" and you're exempt, but that's the problem isn't it. You can convince yourself all day long that you're not interested in live TV... Until you realise there's something on that you want to watch.
Soldato
As I said, there's virtually nothing the BBC produces that I watch, and none of it live, so the licence fee would be an expensive waste of money if I was responsible for paying that particular bill. I don't watch sport and have no interest in royal weddings etc, nor reality TV or most documentaries. I can also count on one hand the amount of times I've watched BBC 4.
I'd rather watch channels with adverts where I can leave the room and go make a drink or I could choose just sit and watch them, or just skip through the adverts on my recorded TV (which is the bulk of my viewing). The point is it's my choice and I don't have to pay a hefty levy for commercial stations. None of this is possible with the current forced payment on 'Freeview' though because an aerial is connected and I can receive BBC broadcasts whether I watch them or not.
And as I've said, if there was a particular program I wanted to watch I'd much rather wait for it to be available to purchase and would get it second hand. I don't have any real need to watch things as they're airing and, much like the cinema these days, I wait for the film to be available to purchase or stream.
When it's down to me to choose whether to pay for the TV licence or not I will immediately be filling out their form, like an increasing amount of the population already seem to be doing.
I'd rather watch channels with adverts where I can leave the room and go make a drink or I could choose just sit and watch them, or just skip through the adverts on my recorded TV (which is the bulk of my viewing). The point is it's my choice and I don't have to pay a hefty levy for commercial stations. None of this is possible with the current forced payment on 'Freeview' though because an aerial is connected and I can receive BBC broadcasts whether I watch them or not.
Remove the word "almost" and you're exempt, but that's the problem isn't it. You can convince yourself all day long that you're not interested in live TV... Until you realise there's something on that you want to watch.
And as I've said, if there was a particular program I wanted to watch I'd much rather wait for it to be available to purchase and would get it second hand. I don't have any real need to watch things as they're airing and, much like the cinema these days, I wait for the film to be available to purchase or stream.
When it's down to me to choose whether to pay for the TV licence or not I will immediately be filling out their form, like an increasing amount of the population already seem to be doing.
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Soldato
@Infidelus the process isn't structured to your personal use case, it's structured for the population in general.
Soldato
It's not structured well at all. It's legalised theft for a lot of people who, like me, don't watch the BBC's drivel (my opinion - you're entitled to yours). As my housemate is the person that pays the bill though, it doesn't currently affect me. They pay the bill and I provide them a means of recording any Freeview content they may not watch live. Should my housing situation change and I become responsible, BBC will be kicked into the long grass where they belong.