TV Licence Super Thread

[shifty_uk]

Its more because it will soon likely not be a choice. Once they bundle it into tax on some form or another

Like other countries aye and probably the way it should be.

I'm repeating what I've said previously but public broadcasters exist to serve a wider public interest(not a selfish few who moan on the internet) ie impartial news, educational content, arts, documentaries, kids stuff and national events that aren’t purely driven by ads or political donors.

Some people are perfectly happy consuming Farage TV with their cornflakes.. But the rest of us see the value in having at least one nationally funded broadcaster that isn’t commercially or politically driven.

No system is perfect but the alternative is having media shaped entirely by ratings, the Murdochs or political influence.

 

[Cromulent]

The BBC World Service was the best thing to come out of the British Empire.

 

[Smeghead]

If only you had the choice not to pay for something that didn’t interest you..

You say that as if they don't give you the ability to inform them that you don't use their services or watch their content and thus don't require a license, and they still send "threatening" letters every other month saying you MUST buy a license. And the fact that there have been multiple proposals in recent months, from making it part of council tax, to trying to finagle their way to somehow make Youtube/Netflix/Amazon Prime relevant to needing a license fee (which is just utterly laughable), just shows how predatory they are.

Can you imagine if any other company did anything remotely similar to that? Imagine you made it a point not to shop with Amazon for whatever reason, but because you bought something on there 10 years ago, you get letters every other month demanding you must buy Amazon Prime? It's absolutely asinine.

 

[shifty_uk]

You do realise the BBC aren't the ones chasing you for a licence fee, right?

 

[413x]

Like other countries aye and probably the way it should be.

I'm repeating what I've said previously but public broadcasters exist to serve a wider public interest(not a selfish few who moan on the internet) ie impartial news, educational content, arts, documentaries, kids stuff and national events that aren’t purely driven by ads or political donors.

Some people are perfectly happy consuming Farage TV with their cornflakes.. But the rest of us see the value in having at least one nationally funded broadcaster that isn’t commercially or politically driven.

No system is perfect but the alternative is having media shaped entirely by ratings, the Murdochs or political influence.

If they cut all the fluff, the expensive sport, soaps, game shows, it wouldn't be so bad.
Education, news, world service, radio. That's all that's needed.

 

[413x]

You do realise the BBC aren't the ones chasing you for a licence fee, right?

It kind of is the BBC. Sure it's via a separate body. But the end of the chain is the BBC.

 

[GIBURROWS]

Like other countries aye and probably the way it should be.

I'm repeating what I've said previously but public broadcasters exist to serve a wider public interest(not a selfish few who moan on the internet) ie impartial news, educational content, arts, documentaries, kids stuff and national events that aren’t purely driven by ads or political donors.

Some people are perfectly happy consuming Farage TV with their cornflakes.. But the rest of us see the value in having at least one nationally funded broadcaster that isn’t commercially or politically driven.

No system is perfect but the alternative is having media shaped entirely by ratings, the Murdochs or political influence.

Isn't commercially or politically driven.... that's satire the BBC would have come up with in the 90s

 

[GIBURROWS]

The BBC World Service was the best thing to come out of the British Empire.

Abolishing slavery might just nick it....

 

[shifty_uk]

If they cut all the fluff, the expensive sport, soaps, game shows, it wouldn't be so bad.

but that's what people watch, right? Maybe not people on this forum but a large group of society are tuning in for Sport, The Traitors, Peaky Blinders, Space stuff, whatever

 

[413x]

but that's what people watch, right? Maybe not people on this forum but a large group of society are tuning in for Sport, The Traitors, Peaky Blinders, Space stuff, whatever

That is all available by choice and can be paid for.

I'd love to have free gym access, or free swimming, you could argue that's much better use of public funds due to promoting health. But you have to draw the line somewhere. For me that's entertainment vs information.

 

[silversurfer]

They've also added paywalls to view BBC news online in the states as few months ago too. I think it's 50 bucks a year, you can view the paywall if you happen to have a VPN.

Sad because world service for news is important freedom wise but thats radio and tv is premium i guess. Russia tv is free to all of course

 

[NetMan]

I mean you can watch without one but you really shouldn't. Aside from the legality matter. There is literally nothing to stop you watching them or the bbc.

That is the actual main issue. So put all of them behind pay walls or encryption services.

Yes to putting the BBC behind a paywall but the likes of channel4 get their funding via advertising so once bbc is pay walled you should be able to watch the others without a licence.

 

[Pottsey]

Man, some of you sound so hard done by, it beggars belief..

No one is forcing you to pay anything, close the internet, go outside or do something more productive with your time.. There’s more to life than getting yourself worked up about the BBC everyday.

That's because some of us are hard done by when they target us with the harassment campaigns they are well known for. Telling us to close the internet and go outside is just insulting and shows a complete lack of understanding on your part.

 

[humbug]

Right so because the free market has provided the BBC with competition the BBC thinks you should have to pay them for using their competitors service and not theirs.

This is the sort of thing the mind of a sociopath comes up with. Its unironically cartel behaviour.

At this point i'm voting for the first person who says they will end the BBC.

 

[humbug]

In order for them to achieve this one of two things must happen.

Either the are given the power to snoop our bank accounts to see if we pay for a Netflix subscription, i can see the Labour government loving that as a vehicle to do the same.

Or Nextflix would be obliged to pass on your details to the BBC whenever you subscribe to them, Netflix may not like that as it will affect their bottom line when people realise that subscription to their service will cost you an extra £200 to fund an organisation the whole country increasingly despise.
Lawsuits may ensue and the BBC operate in the US, so they are subject to competition laws and accountable. No US court will sanction a foreign cartel on a US company. Beautiful.

This is such a bad idea these sociopathic idiots will go for it.

In a global free market the BBC are desperate to cling on to public funding without accountability like its 1926 and all there is available is the BBC, They are deluded.

 

[JonRGV250]

The BBC are unimaginative and lazy, and dare I say it, a bit like a certain posters in this thread.
Neither can give a persuasive reason why one should pay, but they just damn well should pay because.
Too many noses in the trough of public money with little reason to make any sort of effort at all, and now their failure is becoming glaringly apparent, they are bleating like spoilt children that their golden egg is about to be removed when the goose is culled.
It simply cannot come soon enough.

 

[humbug]

The BBC are unimaginative and lazy, and dare I say it, a bit like a certain posters in this thread.
Neither can give a persuasive reason why one should pay, but they just damn well should pay because.
Too many noses in the trough of public money with little reason to make any sort of effort at all, and now their failure is becoming glaringly apparent, they are bleating like spoilt children that their golden egg is about to be removed when the goose is culled.
It simply cannot come soon enough.

If they are even half as confident of the quality of service they provide as they claim to be a voluntary subscription based model would not be a problem, the problem is they know it is a problem, they know increasingly people do not like their service, so they know the only way they can survive is to behave like a cartel by holding the public to ransom for competing services they do like.

These people know they are bad people, they do it anyway because that is what sociopaths do, its why i hate them, its one reason why increasingly the general public hate them.

 

[Maple Leaf]

We know but the TV licence isn't just to watch BBC channels otherwise you could watch ITV, Channel 4 etc live without a licence and you can't; what those links say is that they could change the terms of a licence so that you can't legally use a streaming service without a TV licence so it would no longer be just to watch live TV broadcasts.

Yes, but my point was that it would be very unfair to make Amazon Prime members pay for a TV license if they cannot even watch any BBC channels through it (as currently) and they don't receive live TV broadcasts. ITV and Channel 4 are entirely funded by advertisements and commercial sponsorship not the TV license.

I doubt they would do this but if people keep cancelling because they have switched to a streaming service there won't be enough income to pay their bills.

It's time the BBC raised funding for its entertainment channels through subscriptions, advertisements and commercial sponsorship then. BBC News 24 could be funded through the taxpayer instead, as it's performing a necessary service to the population.

 

[NetMan]

Yes, but my point was that it would be very unfair to make Amazon Prime members pay for a TV license if they cannot even watch any BBC channels through it (as currently) and they don't receive live TV broadcasts. ITV and Channel 4 are entirely funded by advertisements and commercial sponsorship not the TV license.

I only use streaming services and don't watch live broadcasts so I won't be happy if they widen the scope of the licence to include such services or add the licence fee to council tax.

But the current licencing model isn't to allow you to watch the BBC you can't watch ANY live TV stream without a licence so its irrelevent whether or not the BBC stick their content on Prime or Netflix etc if those platforms host any live TV broadcast you would need a licence to watch the live stream.

The last TV licence email I recieved asked: "Do you watch live TV on streaming services like: itvx, YouTube, Prime, Netflix, sky"...

Disney for instance has added some live sports so if you watched those then according to numerous sources you would currently need a TV licence I'm not saying I agree with it or like it because I don't:

e.g. https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/tv-licence-fee-coming-some-disney-plus/

t's time the BBC raised funding for its entertainment channels through subscriptions, advertisements and commercial sponsorship then. BBC News 24 could be funded through the taxpayer instead, as it's performing a necessary service to the population.

They do make money from some of their content things like Top Gear and Dr Who are sold / licenced to platforms outside the UK.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8101/

says 65% of their income is from the licence fee

Licence fee and funding

The BBC is primarily funded by the licence fee, supplemented by income from our commercial subsidiaries

www.bbc.com

says they had a commercial income of "£1,384 million in 2021/22"


But if you say the news needs to be paid for by the tax payer then what about BBC Weather, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Radio, all the archive footage they have etc... It's not going to be a simple job to pick it all apart and if the BBC News was funded directly from Gov then there are going to be people complaining that its no longer independent. There isn't a simple solution and I think eventually they are going to make it harder for people that don't watch live streams to opt out.

The BBC's services in the UK

We provide a wide range of programmes, content and services for audiences across the UK on television, radio and digitally

www.bbc.com

 

[jpaul]

bbc services like eurovision
Hadn't appreciated that through my license fee bbc contributes ~4million pounds to the eurovision traversty like germany/spain/france/Italy
- which now seems overtly political with the Israel(& past Russia) participation controversy,
why can't we see reruns of Father Ted like the Irish and bbc can put the money towards aid for Gaza,

The Membership f ee is subject to a minimum f ee of CHF 45,000 and a maximum f ee of CHF
4 000 000

must be some clauses that allow countries to withdraw funding completely, although contract talks about not adjusting adjacent years membership by >20/30%.

I assume there will be a warning before show, like that missed off of the controversial gaza documentary.