Do you believe in the BBC licence fee?

Elle1971

dansan wrote: »

You don't necessarily need to pay for a license to watch TV. There is a completely legal loophole that few people use, but there is a compromise - you can't watch programs as they're being broadcast.

If you use BBC iPlayer, ITV OD, Channel 4OD and Channel 5OD and never watch or record a program as it's being transmitted, then you don't need a license. I can't post a link as this is my first post, but google "FAQ103 tv licensing" to find the relevant page.

We surrendered our TV license in October last year and have since been watching only catch-up TV. Admittedly, we're not big TV watchers and only watch 1-2 hours per night - usually documentaries and quiz shows such as QI. Our children love it as they can watch what they want in their TV hour - back to back Button Moon on YouTube at the moment!

After a month of having our certificate of No Licence Needed, they cancelled that and said we needed a licence, but a quick phone call sorted it out and they re-issued our certificate of No Licence Needed. No one has called at the house to check, although if they do I'll happily show them we can't receive broadcast TV any more.

With all that downloading, we are still within the 40Gb limit each month - we were prepared to pay an extra £5 per month to go to 80Gb download, but haven't needed to.

That's how to save £145.50 per year :-)

Interesting! Thanks for that xx

martinkorner

Every time I watch or listen to a BBC programme or visit a BBC event I think "I'd happily pay £X for this". If I added all those £X's up I'm sure it would cost more than the license fee.
Also, adverts really annoy me on tv/radio.

lollipopsarah

While I begrudge some radio stars being paid £1m (aagh), I am neverless happy to pay for a class service.
Where else in the world can you watch the telly ad-free/have brilliant local radio stations and the best nature programes?
It's worth it for me to be sitting here listening to my fave evening radio thanks to the interweb.
xx

giraffe69

If adverts are the problem causing people to think the licence fee is worth paying then do as we do and watch most things from other channels having recorded them thus eliminating the ad break in favour of the fast forward button.

discodiane

If i watched BBC or listened to its radio stations, then I suppose I dont mind paying the fee. However, my point is there is no choice. I do not watch BBC or listen to their radio stations but I still have to pay my licence fee. I subscribe to Sky and I'm happy to do that as I watch their channels. If I dont want to watch sky anymore then I cancel my subscription and I dont watch again. Currently I am legally required to pay for a service I do not use.

stevemcol

I can understand the view held by those posters who don't use the BBC's services. I'm guessing it's a conscious effort on their behalf to avoid BBC programming since it is very difficult to scan through Radio and TV channels without coming across some BBC output.
For me, the lack of advertising and in general, non-sensational high quality output swings it. On holiday recently in Tunisia, the BBC news channel was very welcome. In times of political strife and war, I understand the World Service has been invaluable.
My vote goes for the beeb in its current format.

BNT

I don't object to a licence fee for public service content. I don't see the point of paying a license fee for programming that could be supported commercially. There are plenty of channels that would quite happily broadcast the Olympics for example, without need a licence fee to do so.

castlemilk

Why should we have to pay the BBC? I very rarely, if ever, watch tv let alone BBC. I certainly never listen to BBC radio. Why should we have no say in whether we pay this tax or not? Why do we have to pay the BBC who then use the money to pay presenters exhorbitant wages which they definitely do not deserve. The BBC are very self-indulgent using their own presenters on their own fly-on-the-wall programmes and also leading the evening news with things that happen to their own presenters which seem to take precedence over international news.
The licence fee was introduced as a luxury tax which is now totally outdated as almost everyone has at least one television set in their home. Most families pay for sky or cable and a lot of children use the tv to play xboxes etc.
The Government should abolish this tax.

zenmaster

castlemilk wrote: »

Why should we have to pay the BBC? I very rarely, if ever, watch tv let alone BBC. I certainly never listen to BBC radio. Why should we have no say in whether we pay this tax or not? Why do we have to pay the BBC who then use the money to pay presenters exhorbitant wages which they definitely do not deserve. The BBC are very self-indulgent using their own presenters on their own fly-on-the-wall programmes and also leading the evening news with things that happen to their own presenters which seem to take precedence over international news.
The licence fee was introduced as a luxury tax which is now totally outdated as almost everyone has at least one television set in their home. Most families pay for sky or cable and a lot of children use the tv to play xboxes etc.
The Government should abolish this tax.

Quite right. I very rarely, if ever, use the fire service, the police, armed services or NHS.

Scrap the lot I say

castlemilk

zenmaster wrote: »

Quite right. I very rarely, if ever, use the fire service, the police, armed services or NHS.

Scrap the lot I say

You liken the BBC television and radio to the services offered by our fire service, police, armed services and NHS? Oh dear! If we didn't have the BBC our standard of life, security and well-being would suffer? Erm, I think not. Certainly not mine anyway.

It's an outdated luxury tax for an outdated "institution" full of fat cats who are overpaid. If we buy a tv we pay vat, we buy a car we pay vat and an annual road tax for the upkeep of roads, ok I fully understand that but why do we have to pay an annual tax just for BBC channel?