Should the TV licence fee be scrapped?

Barter

Having lived in France and watched their TV, I came to appreciate the BBC far more than I had and feel the licence is superb value.

In France it seemed that all channels had ads and most broadcasting was of quite poor quality; both the programmes and the programming. And yet there is still a TV licence to pay!

minislim

its a shame. a few years ago the bbc where producing some excellent television programmes.

but now all it seems to be is repeats.

most of the public now wonder where all the money actually goes.

and with the recent news in the press its seems to be all on massive wages for the top names and nice cushy pay offs!

its become far too wasteful!

if thats the case then theres only one solution. scrap the licence fee and make the bbc pay for itself!

happyinflorida

The BBC is NOT independent and I am furious at having to pay a licence fee for this garbage.

I have stopped watching so many of their programmes as I know it is government propaganda.

They helped and encouraged Jimmy !!!!! Saville and there are a lot of them involved with the BBC who have all got off scot free.

The money given to the executives is disgusting, no wonder the licence fee is so high. I don't want to be a part of that.

Programmes are deliberately pushing the elites ideas onto the brain washed public - like the Daily Mail does. Are people on benefits scroungers, are they the scum of the earth? No they are not. There are a few who are bad but they are most certainly a few, not the majority.

How many MP's have fiddled their expenses? Far more. When they were "found out" only two, I think, were taken to court. Why not more?! Because it will never happen. Those who were made to pay back their ill gotten gains were secretly given the money back later. That proves just how corrupt the government is.

Look at the current badger cull. We are being given complete rubbish on that. DEFRA is like the "Death to all animals" organisation. Vaccination is the only way forward. The government insists all children should be vaccinated and that is what cured TB in this country until we opened our borders to all and sundry from abroad with their TB and once again we're getting it.

Chris Packham is dead against the badger cull but the BBC refuse to let him speak openly when he appears on a BBC show, he is gagged by them! That is wrong on every level and shows how corrupt and disgusting the BBC really are.

Neither animals or children are safe in the governments or the BBC's hands.

Stop the licence fee, they are not worth it.

happyinflorida

why has the word !!!!! been blocked out of my last post?

It's not a swear word MSE - it's short for !!!!!phile?

Jennifer_Jane

I'm for the licence fee, but think the complacency of the BBC needs to be shaken up considerably. The licence fee should be set at a level where everyone feels it's good value to avoid advertisements.

I cannot watch Sky news vs BBC News because of Sky's irritating advertising. We are stuck with ads everywhere in our lives and it is lovely to not have ads on some channels.

I love many of the programmes on the BBC. Particularly BBC4, Parliament, BBC News, etc. Apart from that, for me, I mostly watch BBC programmes for entertainment, so that indicates that they are doing something better than the commercial channels.

The BBC have, however, been awful in certain respects over the years, however. The way they misread the public mood over the death of the Queen Mother, their seemingly left-wing agenda (although preferable to a right-wing one: but they should try to get the middle ground - QuestionTime: I'm talking to you). Not to mention Jimmy Saville. Not to mention the huge contracts paid to mediocre people (Jonathan Ross), and not to mention the huge salaries and pay-offs paid to management.

So it needs reform and a big shake-up, but I still would prefer it to be ad (and programme trailer!!!) free.

Also, it's too expensive. They need a rethink on the whole concept.

Cornucopia

I think there may be a compromise solution in which BBC channels are transmitted with ads on Freeview/Freesat/free iPlayer.

And they are also transmitted without ads to people who subscribe via Sky/Cable/subscription iPlayer.

Many programmes are already made in two different versions - one intended for UKTV with ads, and the other for BBC transmission.

Kat76

Don't get me wrong - I think the BBC provides a good service (radio, TV, online) and watch/listen daily.

However, with the advent of catch-up TV and broadband, more people will claim they never watch BBC "live" to avoid paying the licence and it will be impossible to prove otherwise, reducing the revenue significantly, so either the fee will go up or another source of funding will need to be sought.

Let's face it, the BBC is strewn with adverts already - just for its own programs! Replace them with commercial adverts and scrap the licence fee.

And then have an optional annual subscription fee of say £50 (or a pay as you watch hourly rate) to be able to watch TV without adverts (either commercial or BBC-own), so as to provide a premium service.

Droop

They spend an awful lot of time advertising themselves anyway :mad: (on radio and tv).

We must suffer that and pay the licence fee so might as well let others advertise and have no fee.

worried_jim

dawyldthing wrote: »

I'd prefer to have adverts in between as it gives you time to make a drink and a sandwich inbetween and discuss the programme that has happened. I think advertisers think we get bought in by it all but realistically I think word of mouth is more important, but if it stopped us all wasting another tax on the tv licence for watching a bit of rubbish advertising i'm all for it

But there are adverts in between programmes- just adverts for other programmes rather than products.

gbjbasdw

The licence fee was supposed to enable the BBC to make programs that everyone could enjoy be that on TV or Radio.

I strongly object on principle to them spending 6% of the licence fee on its online presence. Not everyone accesses the internet after all.

If they want a vast website it should be funded separately NOT from the licence fee.