Bbc license fee

whiteside

Why do we still have to pay this in the year 2013? It's not that we don't have any alternative nowadays and it would b interesting to know how long the bbc would last as a private company like the others.

I only have normal freeview channels which I find more than enough for me and my family. I would not miss any of the bbc channels and believe if anyone does want to retain them they should pay a subscription like anyone else.

Anyone else agree? Does any other country in world have a tv license? Do the Republic of Ireland have a licence?

hcb42

whiteside wrote: »

Why do we still have to pay this in the year 2013? It's not that we don't have any alternative nowadays and it would b interesting to know how long the bbc would last as a private company like the others.

I only have normal freeview channels which I find more than enough for me and my family. I would not miss any of the bbc channels and believe if anyone does want to retain them they should pay a subscription like anyone else.

Anyone else agree? Does any other country in world have a tv license? Do the Republic of Ireland have a licence?

it is mandated by law under the Communications Act 2003 and Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 (as amended). It is an offence to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on any channel and on any broadcast platform (terrestrial, satellite, cable and the internet) without a valid TV Licence.

Lots of Europe have a licence, America does not, but then their TV is absolutely awful, to the point of unwatchable, I would rather pay my fee (£3 per week) for a few decent programs per week.

Old_Git

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence.

I would prefer not to have the licence but we have it and its not going away anytime soon.
If radio 1 closed down anyone over the age of 10 would not miss it ,I suppose that would be a start

whiteside

hcb42 wrote: »

it is mandated by law under the Communications Act 2003 and Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 (as amended). It is an offence to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on any channel and on any broadcast platform (terrestrial, satellite, cable and the internet) without a valid TV Licence.

Lots of Europe have a licence, America does not, but then their TV is absolutely awful, to the point of unwatchable, I would rather pay my fee (£3 per week) for a few decent programs per week.

I still don't see why the bbc doesn't raise funds via advertising etc like all the other channels. I certainly watch the other channels more. In olden days when there was only the odd channel I could understand but with the choice available now I think it's a needless expense.

I take it when you say American TV is awful you mean their free to air channels as they produce the best tv series in the world IMO. HBO etc. The bbc produce a lot of embarrassingly bad programming. Give my head peace springs to mind. (Shudder)

duggan1

Radio 5 Live alone is worth the license fee.

I don't watch a lot of tv, but on the occasion when I'm watching something on BBC it's nice to not have it interrupted by adverts for injury lawyers 4 u.

donnac2558

The Republic has a licence fee as well, they have ads as well.

irishjohn

whiteside wrote: »

The bbc produce a lot of embarrassingly bad programming. Give my head peace springs to mind. (Shudder)

I think you mean BBC Northern Ireland make embarassingly bad programmes such as Give My Head Peace - BBC Drama programmes are big money makers for the BBC in many countries worldwide - I would miss documentaries, both series and one offs, period drama, current affairs (not the local ones) BBC News, Radio 4, Radio 5 Live

To watch the HBO type of programmes and avoid BBC I would recommend you abandon live television, declare this to the licence people and use one of the subscription streaming services which offer many american series, they are becoming almost current so you would not be too far behind those of us who are happy to pay less than £3 a week for the BBC. And the added bonus is that you can still listen legally to any of the BBC radion output without a licence.

RikM

"give my head peace" was good....
Now, "Mrs Brown's boys"...

The "licence fee" is basically just a tax to support the public broadcaster. Whether you think it's worth it is kind of irrelevant, as far as the govt/ BBC is concerned...

Lots of stuff on the web about the licence fee, not paying it (legitimately) and the authorities apparent inability to grasp that some people don't watch broadcast TV...

duggan1

RikM wrote: »

"give my head peace" was good....
Now, "Mrs Brown's boys"...

.... is a phenomenal success, and whether you like the show or not it brings in piles of money for the production company, BBC and RTE.

Anyway it's not that bad.

Cornucopia

I can recommend YouView as a very easy way to become legally licence-free. Simply plug the box in with the Ethernet cable and not the aerial, and it does the rest...

iPlayer, 4OD, Demand5 as basic offerings. ITV Player if you tune in your freeview region. And extra content from ISPs like BT & Talktalk.

lazer

The only reason I haven't gone catch up only is that we can't access the catch up rte service from a northern ISP - and I love the gaa and the sunday game!