TV Licence Super Thread
- Thread starter Ken
- Start date
I can't work out why some people have such disdain for the BBC. Honestly can't wrap my head around it. It's a British institution, respected and trusted, around the world. It has minimal partisan bias, provides fantastic, comprehensive news and sports coverage. And it produces content to cater for every demographic in the UK.
Yet some people absolutely detest it. Why? Do you want NBC instead? Russia Today? It's so weird.
EDIT - Oh, and this announcement is timed to get people frothing about the BBC in an attempt to distract from our lying PM. So he's willing to throw a national institution in the bin to try and save his own skin.
Yet some people absolutely detest it. Why? Do you want NBC instead? Russia Today? It's so weird.
EDIT - Oh, and this announcement is timed to get people frothing about the BBC in an attempt to distract from our lying PM. So he's willing to throw a national institution in the bin to try and save his own skin.
Soldato
If I was the person in the household that paid the TV licence it'd be binned immediately. I watch very few BBC programs and it'd actually be cheaper to buy the DVDs/Blu-rays for anything I did want to watch.
It used to be, but now it just airs poorly written "diversity" lectures. They dont bid for any of the good programs anymore, it all good to Netflix etc. They can keep airing rubbish which gets poor viewing figures because they get paid anyway.
Soldato
This Twitter take summed it up for me a bit. I haven't really watched anything on the Beeb for more than an hour or so a month for over a decade, but always supported it in principle.
The utter farce of both-sides-ing every issue, which clearly skews to the right, and failure to treat both parties even handedly during the past couple of GEs, has just left me shrugging about this latest news.
In principle, I still support the idea, but it's hard to care.
I don't want to be forced into paying 150 per year for something that is entertainment.
It had its place a decade or more ago at best. But not anymore. It should be funded privately. And people should be able to opt out and still receive other live broadcast TV.
Problem with BBC it's unsustainable. If it went to netflix style it would just die immediately. Everyone knows it. Which means it should die.
My fear is it will get bundled into general tax. Which will mean paying who knows what ecetra extra a year that you can't escape for a few junk channels.
Please let it die
Yep. And it would be easier to increase the fee by stealth too.
I love the BBC it makes a lot of programs (both TV and Radio) that just wouldn't get made in a commical setting.
the problem as i see it, is that it caught in no man land. the Government say it has to compete with the private sector , so we see a lot of **** realty TV, but it can't raise money from the private sector. so it tied to having to beg the government for money, always at the mercy that if the run the wrong story they have their funding cut
the problem as i see it, is that it caught in no man land. the Government say it has to compete with the private sector , so we see a lot of **** realty TV, but it can't raise money from the private sector. so it tied to having to beg the government for money, always at the mercy that if the run the wrong story they have their funding cut
Soldato
Therein lies the crux of your inability to work it out - you clearly hold the BBC in high regard, simply because of its "British Institution" status in your mind, whereas these days; it seems more like a mismanaged and overly woke organisation that simply cannot compete with modern services out there.
The way in which people consume media has changed, and the BBC always look to be many steps behind the other subscription services – I myself have not watched live TV for around 9 years, and when I tell people I don’t watch TV; I get the same response (and look) I used to get when I gave up drinking for a period. Some people just cannot fathom why you wouldn’t watch TV…. the fact is, with Netflix, Prime and a collection of blu rays; myself and Mrs Scort have all of the entertainment we need, so BBC etc are no use to us.
I honestly do not care about the future of the BBC, nor of ITV, Channel 4, 5 etc etc… but the rigorously enforced TV license I do take issue with. I don’t see why I should have to tell Capita what I do, and do not do in my home, and why I should accept a torrent of unsolicited threatening letters from them either.
The old fuddy-duddy view of the BBC being an ‘Institution’ needs to change, and it should be made to stand on its own two feet with either advertising, or a subscription service.
And you cant just opt out.
I don't hate the BBC. I do hate the fact that i am essentially forced to pay for something which i may not want.
I hardly watch anything on the BBC, but because I have a Skybox I have to pay the exbortiant license fee. £160 to maybe watch a wildlife series once is silly.
Once the skybox goes when my offer ends, so will me paying the license fee. I have access to more than i will ever have time to watch with Netflix and Amazon anyway.
I wouldn't mind if they still had things im interested in like the real Top Gear and Formula 1 etc. Their content has got worse and worse over the years though.
I would prefer to just pay a monthly rolling subscription so i can just watch what i want to watch.
where do you watch any News ? accessing diverse news feeds like the BBC gives you high density/bandwidth input, poitician interviews etc, that you don't get reading internet stuff, for example.
yes - I'd welcome a licensing by genre option - where I could discard bbc reality tv output, or football+pundits, both of which are what many households watch and not availible on netflix etc.
Permabanned
Mostly just misguided conspiracy theories about being woke and biased. Its neither woke nor biased to any reasonable viewer just the fringe loons.
I dont mind the BBC but I dont really watch it, the occasional show at most/maybe a few hours a month. The consumer has changed and shouldn't be forced to pay for something they dont want.
Yes the timing looks like part of Project Save Big Dog (saving Boris).
But regardless, no-one in my family watches the BBC. We occasionally watch BBC News but that's just habit and I get most of my news from various radio stations now. If I could save £159 a year I would drop BBC News completely. There is simply nothing else on the BBC which my family are interested in but I am being forced to pay £159 a year to subsidise ~£1.5m salaries for people like Gary Lineker. I used to see the value of the BBC but things have changed, the sort of content only they produced can be found everywhere now and in better quality. It's an inefficient dinosaur. Moreover, why do I have to take out a subscription to watch boxsets of old BBC programmes that my previous license fees have already help to pay for?
If true, the BBC will be finished before the 5 years is out. More people will see it for what it is - an 'enforced' subscription for increasingly irrelevant content. People will surrender their licences even quicker now. I should can the licence now and save the £800 between now and then.
Even their news isnt great. They seem to crop things to fit the story they want. If you watch some of the other, forign news channels it sometimes paints a different picture and you see more footage.
Soldato
I find it quite galling that people can defend the TV license meanwhile in the same News home page you have article after article about individuals/families barely struggling to keep the heating on.
If the BBC is such a good service then make it sub only. Surely if its so good millions would sign up to sub? Or is the reality a simple case of actually most of the BBC is trash and very little will actually be missed.
Caporegime
Excellent news, all hail King Boris.
Yes, this too. I often find news stories reported elsewhere are strangely missing from the BBC or buried so deep in their website you actually have to go searching for them rather than them being readily presented to you. I don't trust the BBC News anymore, which is a sad state of affairs for a national broadcaster.