TV licence fee cash guarantees house prices of relocated BBC staff

Broken_hearted

Would like the choice of not having BBC and using the money for sky instead for the kids channels

Cleaver

Broken_hearted wrote: »

Would like the choice of not having BBC and using the money for sky instead for the kids channels

Saves finding them something constructive to do innit?

Cleaver

Joke by the way.

geoffgeofftygeoff

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

Ignoring the unreliable Wikipedia and the Murdoch owned Times, you have to concede that a) it was not a tax before Jan 2006 and b) it is legalistic hair splitting. The obvious difference is that the TV licence goes to pay for the telly, and VAT goes to pay for whatever the government decides. It is no different to paying a train fare under British Rail. Perhaps you think that if the licence fee were made private it would then a) then be fair and b) be cheaper (like the privatised trains - not).

From the House of Lords website linked earlier, this section is interesting as it suggests that the TV licence doesn't necessarily go towards paying for telly.

28. The licence fee is now classified as a tax and we note that for the first time the Government have started to use it as such. They are using it to cover costs that should be covered by general taxation, in particular the costs of providing targeted help with digital switchover. As we will discuss in the next chapter, over 75s are currently given a free television licence funded from general taxation as part of the Government's social policy. By proposing to fund targeted help with digital switchover through the licence fee, the Government have introduced a type of "top-slicing" for the first time. This is a profound change to the constitutional position of the BBC. By doing this the Government can raise taxation without being seen to do so.).

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldbbc/128/12805.htm

neverdespairgirl

chris_spackman wrote: »

House shows, dull soaps like Eastenders, people selling things, overpaid presenters, terrible Christmas TV listings etc is not worth it.

We don't watch much TV, but most of that we do watch is the BBC, there's an awful lot on that doesn't come under any of your catagories. Radio 4 is also brilliant.

neverdespairgirl

chris_spackman wrote: »

I do not watch any BBC shows, they do not produce anything i want to watch. I watch Sky news or ITV News and even CNN etc.

The BBC news is a lot better, though. And Newsnight's pretty good.

oldMcDonald

chewmylegoff wrote: »

you do have a choice not to pay the tv licence whilst still watching tv programs: buy everything you want to watch on dvd and watch it on a player which is not capable of receiving a tv signal.

It is the best way to watch TV, I was never happy having to pay for a licence, but you have to have a licence to watch DVDs and videos that have been recorded from a live broadcast.

This is a pet subject of mine, I spent many months making sure I was confident in the rules regarding TV Licencing before we stopped paying for our licence. You can, however, watch BBCi and not need a licence.

brixham

Do you still need a licence of some sort to listen to the radio ? Sure I can remember something about that in the past.

oldMcDonald

brixham wrote: »

Do you still need a licence of some sort to listen to the radio ? Sure I can remember something about that in the past.

I can remember something in the dim and distant past about it being a TV and Radio licence, I think, but you don't need one anymore.

Copied and pasted from TV Licensing website:

Do I need a TV Licence to listen to the radio?


No. You do not need a TV Licence to listen to the radio.

Short and sweet answer from them!!

Swan_2

oldMcDonald wrote: »

It is the best way to watch TV, I was never happy having to pay for a licence, but you have to have a licence to watch DVDs and videos that have been recorded from a live broadcast.

This is a pet subject of mine, I spent many months making sure I was confident in the rules regarding TV Licencing before we stopped paying for our licence. You can, however, watch BBCi and not need a licence.

it's one of my pet subjects too, all the mis/disinformation about the need to buy a licence drives me mad

I did the much the same as you for a long time, I only used my telly for DVDs & gaming, so no need for a licence

I have one now though because my son moved in with me & he likes to watch telly, but when he leaves, I'll go back to being licence free again



EDIT ... I think the radio licence was abolished in the early 70s