TV Licence Super Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken
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In before the gloating over a potential 2,000 job loses.. by people who don't even pay the damn licence fee.
I watch BBC material and pay for it .. well just a combined 2 hours of radio4 per day, but if they are going to preserve that and cut back the dross
eg. Traitors, strictly, masterchef, dragns den, apprentice. doctor who. I won't loose any sleep.
 
That’s factually incorrect.. You’re not paying the BBC, you’re paying for the legal right to watch live TV broadcasts. The licence fee simply gets put to use by funding the BBC. A good use if you ask me.

Systems like this aren’t unique to the UK either, the same broadcast fees exists in many other countries eg Germany, France, Japan etc where public broadcasters are funded through mandatory fees. I believe countries like Spain and the Netherlands use taxes.
It's not factually incorrect. The majority of the money from the TV Licence goes to the BBC.

Also, "but others do it" isn't a good reason.
 
That’s factually incorrect.. You’re not paying the BBC, you’re paying for the legal right to watch live TV broadcasts. The licence fee simply gets put to use by funding the BBC. A good use if you ask me.

Systems like this aren’t unique to the UK either, the same broadcast fees exists in many other countries eg Germany, France, Japan etc where public broadcasters are funded through mandatory fees. I believe countries like Spain and the Netherlands use taxes.

The BBC aren’t out to get you.

Its the same result.

The BBC aren’t out to get you.

That's a matter for opinion. Not paying for a TV Licence ends in a prosecution at a magistrates court, whatever your opinion is on watching broadcast TV without a licence they have the option of weaponizing the legal system against you, they knowing and willingly use that option as a matter of course.

74% are Woman, why is that? Because they are more likely to be at home during the day, they are also more vulnerable in the sense they are more likely to open the door to official looking people and then corporate with what ever their requests are. And the BBC use that to great effect.

If an information and entertainment service provider, which is what the BBC are cannot operate without a mandatory fee then it has no right to exist, just as every other service provider must win its fees from people who actually wish to use its service the BBC must do the same, in my opinion, if it can provide a service people wish to use by their own free will without coarctation or veiled threats then it will succeed, if not then it dies in the free market.

If the BBC didn't need its mandatory fees structure with legal process as its teeth there would be no need to do it.

If it does not provide the value of paying for it and you cannot access it without paying i think many many people simply will not, just as they may not wish to pay for Netflix and then simply not use it.
 
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I wonder what departments the redundancies affect; perhaps not the best way to fix an ailing system.

If the rumours are true about the next Charter in 2028 you'll need a license to watch any and all streaming services including youtube, live or not.

I still grudgingly pay the license fee (because family) but I don't watch/listen to any of it and see it as very poor value for money. I'm tempted to block access to the BBC at router level and if nobody in the house complains after a month then just cancel it :D.

If they did that, I think many will still just not pay it and they'll go bankrupt trying to enforce it. How do you proove X person used a streaming service. There is so many corporate hoops to jump though (and it's in Netflix's etc interest to be difficult) and court orders they would need just to find out who is subscribing and that still isn't enough evidence to pin it on someone.
 
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As I've said before. I can foresee TV licensing being bolted on to council tax as a flat percent point; higher bands pay more and presumably the lower bands pay less, potentially significantly lower than the current cost for a license considering all residential homes would be in-scope.
 
As I've said before. I can foresee TV licensing being bolted on to council tax as a flat percent point; higher bands pay more and presumably the lower bands pay less, potentially significantly lower than the current cost for a license considering all residential homes would be in-scope.
That's my long held view too.
Would be a nasty 200+ bill every year for a non essential service don't use.

The only other option is for it to fail

Think of how many band A houses there are. The fee would probably be quite high fir band E+

And it would take all accountability away from the BBC if they had a captive audience
 
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As I've said before. I can foresee TV licensing being bolted on to council tax as a flat percent point; higher bands pay more and presumably the lower bands pay less, potentially significantly lower than the current cost for a license considering all residential homes would be in-scope.
If it were to happen I would either withhold my council tax or pay an amount minus the TV tax.
 
I can't see that happening. The backlash of forcing people to pay for something they don't/won't use would be enormous.
I suspect it would be rebranded from a TV license to some form of Digital media license, to cover all forms of transmissible media in this modern digital age. It would also serve as a nice little blag to siphon off intake from it in to general taxation.
 
I suspect it would be rebranded from a TV license to some form of Digital media license, to cover all forms of transmissible media in this modern digital age. It would also serve as a nice little blag to siphon off intake from it in to general taxation.

Well if we are then paying for the digital media, they can stop putting adverts on all other other channels this applies to then.

Same for podcasts etc. Anything.
 
Well if we are then paying for the digital media, they can stop putting adverts on all other other channels this applies to then.

Same for podcasts etc. Anything.
Heh, well no. No escaping adverts on commercial streaming services. You opted to pay for those or not depending which tiers are offered.
 
What's the purpose of this tax then? If not to pay for and maintain the product?
It's repurposing the TV license in to something, which might appear more palatable for the masses. It retains the national broadcaster and its soft power outlets like World services etc and its cost should be significantly less as all council taxed properties would be in-scope for paying.

Do not get me wrong, I'm not a fan of this idea but it would be the least bad option outside of letting the BBC die (which I'm entirely ambivalent about).
 
It's repurposing the TV license in to something, which might appear more palatable for the masses. It retains the national broadcaster and its soft power outlets like World services etc and its cost should be significantly less as all council taxed properties would be in-scope for paying.

Do not get me wrong, I'm not a fan of this idea but it would be the least bad option outside of letting the BBC die (which I'm entirely ambivalent about).

For me it would be the worst option.
As I don't use BBC it would be annoying to have a 200+ bill (band E house) for something you don't use that's going to rise every damn year
 
For me it would be the worst option.
As I don't use BBC it would be annoying to have a 200+ bill (band E house) for something you don't use that's going to rise every damn year
As I say. I do not have a TV license and do not watch live broadcasts but I do listen to radio, primarily LBC, but occasionally I may dip in to and out of BBC Radio. The infrastructure to support DAB broadcasting must cost something.

When it comes to the costs across council tax bands, I'll pass on what that calculation should be but yes I can see it potentially being a nice littler earner as the years tick by (: then again, no different to everything else.
 
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