TV license, BBC lose 1.1 Billion.

[Milzy]

No other private company in the country is allowed to put a service into your home without contractual agreement.The BBC effectively impose a tax, backed by the threat of prosecution, based purely on the assumption that you’re watching their broadcasts. Yet the BBC has been allowed to operate this way for decades. It’s an outdated system where a single broadcaster enjoys legal powers no private organisation should ever have — the ability to demand payment regardless of use, to criminalise non‑payment, and to treat every household as guilty until proven otherwise. In a modern media landscape where people have endless alternatives, the idea of forcing the public to fund one corporation through legal compulsion should have been abolished long ago.
Good day.

 

[CXRAndy]

Do you pay it?

There is no obligation to pay

 

[Pblakeney]

No other private company in the country is allowed to put a service into your home without contractual agreement.The BBC effectively impose a tax, backed by the threat of prosecution, based purely on the assumption that you’re watching their broadcasts. Yet the BBC has been allowed to operate this way for decades. It’s an outdated system where a single broadcaster enjoys legal powers no private organisation should ever have — the ability to demand payment regardless of use, to criminalise non‑payment, and to treat every household as guilty until proven otherwise. In a modern media landscape where people have endless alternatives, the idea of forcing the public to fund one corporation through legal compulsion should have been abolished long ago.
Good day.

The future will be a BBC with adverts and a subscription iPlayer. Much like ITV and ITVX.
Then people will complain about adverts and how good it used to be.

 

[Milzy]

The future will be a BBC with adverts and a subscription iPlayer. Much like ITV and ITVX.
Then people will complain about adverts and how good it used to be.

No they won’t, there’s so many good channels & streaming content. BBC is no longer relevant.

 

[Pblakeney]

No they won’t, there’s so many good channels & streaming content. BBC is no longer relevant.

Ha! People always complain. About everything. Older people reminiscing especially so.

 

[Blazing Saddles]

No they won’t, there’s so many good channels & streaming content. BBC is no longer relevant.

Speak for yourself. I don’t know what your problem is with the BBC, but I still use the iPlayer as much as Netflix or any other subscription app that I have.

 

[Beebo]

Abolishing the licence fee is such a simplified argument.

Is your problem with the BBC as a whole or just the fact it has to be funded at all? Surely a not for profit gerenal broadcaster is a good thing for soviety in general. If you let the likes Amazon or Netflix control the media we are just falling into the trap of Billionaires pumping out propaganda for their own benefi.

Why not provide us with your view of how the BBC should be funded? General taxation, subscription model? How do you stop piracy?

The BBC has a Royal Charter which imposes huge obligations on the BBC which no other broadcaster has. This means much of what it is obliged to do is not commercially viable.

The extent of the enforcement does seem a bit of overreach, but how else do you collect the money? Relying on honesty won’t work. I understand why this historical anomaly exists. And up until probably 15 years ago no one really cared. The rise of streaming services has made the license fee seem absurd to many young people. But the steaming services dont offer what the BBC does.

I can guarantee that people will miss it when it is gone.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

I can guarantee that people will miss it when it is gone.

That's what I usually say, we'll miss it when it's gone. But at the same time what would I miss - prime time ball room dancing, baking competitions? Most of the content is mindless garbage. And the news? Balanced isn't it?

 

[Psamathe]

The future will be a BBC with adverts and a subscription iPlayer. Much like ITV and ITVX.
Then people will complain about adverts and how good it used to be.

BBC is full of adverts already. Makes no difference to me if the ads are for burgers (on non-BBC) or Strictly Come Celebrity Dancing (and other programs I have no interest in).

In effect the license fee is a subscription, makes no difference to me if you call it a subscription or a license fee as either way I have to pay. Only difference is I can choose not to pay any given subscription if I'm not interested in the content from that provider where with license fee I can't (BBC are charging for non-BBC channels).

 

[Beebo]

That's what I usually say, we'll miss it when it's gone. But at the same time what would I miss - prime time ball room dancing, baking competitions? Most of the content is mindless garbage. And the news? Balanced isn't it?

Those are the most popular programs on the station.
And the news is fairly bland, but it doesn’t have an agenda. I trust them over news outlets paid for by millionaires.
If they cancel the BBC then OFCOM would have to raise its game. Otherwise you will end up with the likes of Russia today and GBnews dominating.

 

[Pblakeney]

BBC is full of adverts already. Makes no difference to me if the ads are for burgers (on non-BBC) or Strictly Come Celebrity Dancing (and other programs I have no interest in).

Okay. Vastly increased advertising.

 

[Psamathe]

Okay. Vastly increased advertising.

Advertising doesn't really affect me. Pretty well everything I watch I watch recorded (even if on "time-slip" so fast forward through the ads.

When I do occasionally have to see an advert (BBC or commercial) I react negatively and "must remember not to buy from them").

 

[Psamathe]

Those are the most popular programs on the station.

Then they should have no problems getting people who want to watch them to pay for them rather than charging everybody else that doesn't even want to watch their channels.

 

[Pblakeney]

Advertising doesn't really affect me. Pretty well everything I watch I watch recorded (even if on "time-slip" so fast forward through the ads.

When I do occasionally have to see an advert (BBC or commercial) I react negatively and "must remember not to buy from them").

Time-slip does not work on the free versions of ITVX or 4OD.
Not for me at least.

 

[Psamathe]

Time-slip does not work on the free versions of ITVX or 4OD.
Not for me at least.

I use it recording Freeview eg I tend to recond C4 news but am cooking until maybe 19:10 when I'll start watching whilst it's still recording.

Whilst I don't use ITVX or 4OD, if I watch something I'm happy to pay for it if the broadcaster wants to charge a subscription (seems to me fair). But I don't watch BBC yet still have to pay for it (to me, unfair).