Is the licence fee worth it? Poll discussion

PrivateWiddle

The fact that stupid people do not understand why the BBC is unique and one of the major cultural achievements of the British nation since the war should not be a factor.

If we cave in to the ignorant dish wielding mob we will throw away one of the greatest assets we have and soon enough be living in the same 1000 channel WWF wrestling/Mexican soap/shopping channel hell as our colonial cousins.

These polls are only really representative of the opinions of people who use this site and like to answer polls. Faced with the choice of 40p a day for all the BBC TV channels, national radio, the local radio and TV network, BBC Sport, The truly awesome BBC website, BBC News gathering and a hundred other ways in which this institution is woven into the fabric of this country or living in the Men&Motors/Bravo nightmare that Murdoch would foist upon us is no choice at all.

With all its flaws the BBC is Britain at its best, the people who would destroy it for the sake of 40p a day are the worst this country has to offer, many of them have probably never used more than 10% of what is on offer.

Some of the opinions expressed in this forum are truly sad, demonstrating, as they do, the incredible shallowness and self-centred nature of much of our lives today.

Get your Sun-reading mits off my BBC, its time the sensible people of this country stood up to the mindless Murdoch dish taleban who want to destroy what they do not understand.

Phew!

Tetsuko

tbh444 wrote: »

Also, it is not compulsory as often stated - as alluded to above there is such a thing as not owning a tv you know (and I suspect we'd be a much better country if more people went down this road...) hence no license fee. It's your choice in the end.

That's not true. People have been prosecuted for watching programmes on their PC's and the licensing people even want to catch people who watch news programs on their mobile phones :eek:. If you can claim to not watch the BBC broadcasts only those of another broadcaster undoubtedly they will use the same excuse of: if you can receive it then you must pay for it whether you watch it or not.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4708170.stm

It's simple really. Whichever means you use to avoid the state-run BBC and their tax, they will broadcast their media to it and force you to pay for it regardless :mad:

I wonder how long it will be before they officially start turning up on people's doorsteps who are not registered as owning a television set and search their house for a PC and/or mobile phone instead. What then PDA? x-box? Playstation? I have in all probability, at some point, breathed the same air as the people who act in Eastenders. I'm surprised I haven't yet been taxed for the priviledge :rotfl:

Tetsuko

PrivateWiddle wrote: »

the people who would destroy it for the sake of 40p a day are the worst this country has to offer, many of them have probably never used more than 10% of what is on offer.

Some of the opinions expressed in this forum are truly sad, demonstrating, as they do, the incredible shallowness and self-centred nature of much of our lives today.

Get your Sun-reading mits off my BBC

Phew!

"many of them have probably never used more than 10% of what is on offer"
Exactly So why should people who don't watch it subsidise others self-centred viewing habits.

I would love to see the statistics on the kind of people who are regular viewers of the BBC myself. I just took a look at the TV listings on BBC1 for today and I suspect that you might find the viewers of much of the content will be the very tabloid readers you are referring to.

If it's your BBC you can pay my TV licence for me so that I can watch my scifi channel in peace without being bombarded with Eastenders adverts and lottery programmes.

PrivateWiddle

Um, did you check the BBC2, BBC4 listings? did you look at radio3 and Radio 4 or 7.

British Sci-Fi would not exist if it were not for the BBC. The point of the BBC is that there is something for everyone, we all get a wide range of programmes because we all contribute.

Your view of the world is the same view that leads to low quality predictable programming where everyone chases the lowest common denominator.

I seldom watch BBC1, I don't therefore want 12 quid off my license. there is a world of content available, look at the educational resources on the website, the children's programming, and the world-leading Science and Nature output.

the BBC keeps this country on the map and is considered the gold-standard internationally.

the fact that some people in this country don't understand that says more about them than the BBC.

If you only watch the SciFi channel, how much are you paying Sky for stuff you don't watch?

Go to countries with with no public television and look at the tidal wave of dross they have to put up with, and the complete lack of variety.

Fireyredhead

THis is my first ever post but this is something i feel very strongely about
I begrude paying 2 things in this world.....1 is council tax and 2 is the bbc license.
Firstly i dont watch anything on bbc other than dr who.
Secondly why am i being made to pay for something which i dont want?
Im not MADE to pay for sky, broadband, phoneline, mobile etc so why am ibeing for forced year after year to pay for a product i dont!!!!!!
I listen to local radio.......... i hardly watch tv, neither does my husband.
My children watch tv but to be honest if we didnt have to pay for it then i wouldnt get it.
They pay exstorsionate (sorry spelling) wages to fat cats, they pay massive amounts of money out for those stupid clips in the middle of programs... they pay £25,000 an episode for neighbours!!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYY????????
Im sorry but in todays society it should be choice....and i would choose NOT to pay for it...

OH and repeats!!!! 1 week i counted the amount of repeats the 2 bbc chanels had on..............162!! i hope that is not a regular amount because other wise my money is getting well and truely wasted.
IF we have to pay for the bbc then the least they can do is NOT put repeats on...

Tetsuko

PrivateWiddle wrote: »

Um, did you check the BBC2, BBC4 listings? did you look at radio3 and Radio 4 or 7.

British Sci-Fi would not exist if it were not for the BBC. The point of the BBC is that there is something for everyone, we all get a wide range of programmes because we all contribute.

Your view of the world is the same view that leads to low quality predictable programming where everyone chases the lowest common denominator.

I seldom watch BBC1, I don't therefore want 12 quid off my license. there is a world of content available, look at the educational resources on the website, the children's programming, and the world-leading Science and Nature output.

the BBC keeps this country on the map and is considered the gold-standard internationally.

the fact that some people in this country don't understand that says more about them than the BBC.

If you only watch the SciFi channel, how much are you paying Sky for stuff you don't watch?

Go to countries with with no public television and look at the tidal wave of dross they have to put up with, and the complete lack of variety.

The point of the BBC seems to be to please as many people as they can most of the time and that is what is contributing to the middle-of-the-road tripe we have to contribute towards.

" If you only watch the SciFi channel, how much are you paying Sky for stuff you don't watch?"

I'm not. I'm on cable. If I decide I want another channel I can upgrade my TV package. If I decide I want to downgrade and remove some channels, I can. If I decide I can no longer afford it and choose to get rid of it altogether, I can. If I wanted to do the same with Sky, I could. I would have the choice.

The good scifi programs have always come from the USA. Lost, The 4400, Heros, Angel, Stargate, Firefly, Blade, Eureka, The Lost Room, StarTrek, the next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, Buffy, Dark Angel, Farscape, Andromeda, Alias, The Dead Zone and coming soon hopefully Carnivale will make it over here, then there's Flash Gorden coming soon...

"Your view of the world is the same view that leads to low quality predictable programming where everyone chases the lowest common denominator".

Maybe it is. Maybe the fact that people like me who are intelligent and spend more time doing other things like sport, working, reading, volunteering and studying are leaving a television viewing void.

A void that we still are forced to throw money into regardless.
This is then being leeched by the remaining few who are happy to be molycoddled by the BBC and have everything paid for them.

No I don't want £12 off my TV tax either, I want £135 off. The people who arrogantly would like to force other people to subsidise their viewing entertainment are no better than dole scroungers.

ckerrd

Fireyredhead wrote: »

THis is my first ever post but this is something i feel very strongely about
I begrude paying 2 things in this world.....1 is council tax and 2 is the bbc license.
Firstly i dont watch anything on bbc other than dr who.
Secondly why am i being made to pay for something which i dont want?
Im not MADE to pay for sky, broadband, phoneline, mobile etc so why am ibeing for forced year after year to pay for a product i dont!!!!!!
I listen to local radio.......... i hardly watch tv, neither does my husband.
My children watch tv but to be honest if we didnt have to pay for it then i wouldnt get it.
They pay exstorsionate (sorry spelling) wages to fat cats, they pay massive amounts of money out for those stupid clips in the middle of programs... they pay £25,000 an episode for neighbours!!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYY????????
Im sorry but in todays society it should be choice....and i would choose NOT to pay for it...

OH and repeats!!!! 1 week i counted the amount of repeats the 2 bbc chanels had on..............162!! i hope that is not a regular amount because other wise my money is getting well and truely wasted.
IF we have to pay for the bbc then the least they can do is NOT put repeats on...

Unfortunately, at the moment, you can't have just part of the BBC it is all or nothing. IS the local radio you listen to BBC or commercial? If it is BBC then there is a bit of your licence fee.

As for choice. I have a BSkyB subscription. I cannot pick and choose the channels I wish as they are all "bundled" with other stuff I have no desire to receive.

If I was to get Virginmedia (which I can't) and I wanted to get the Sci-fi channel. I would have to subscribe to the L size package which contains many channels I wouldn't want e.g Bravo. The God Channel, CNBC, Challenge and more.

Fireyredhead

My local radio is commercial...........NOT bbc
I CHOOSE to have sky..........notice the word CHOOSE. I do NOT choose to have bbc i HAVE to have it. I HAVE to pay the licence fee......
Its a matter of choice.........which we are not given.....
Thats what gets me the fact we have NO CHOICE in whether we have it or not.......... we are given the choice of everything else so why not the bbc....????????
I certainly do not choose to pay over 25grand a day to have neighbours on my tv.....
I certainly do not choose to pay over a million £ to watch some hippos swim about between programs.......
I certainly do NOT choose to watch eastenders.........
Like i said i watch very little tv........... i could live without it......

AndyMan

There seems to be a lot of people out there who disapprove of the BBC, one way to let them know is to post a cheque to them with your complaints written on the cheque. In fact you can do this with any company or individual you are not happy with.

Write out on the cheque I pay the ‘BBC for an expensive poor quality television programmes 135-50 pounds. You have to put all the paying details, then add your thoughts. I’ve always let the BBC know what I think of them this way. The only difference is that now you can’t pay at the post offices counters, you have to send it away to them. I paid my television licence for the end of July with a complaint on my cheque; I’m still waiting for them to clear it.

They can refuse my cheque for another payment method, though they do accept cheques, so, I don’t think they can refuse it. I obtained proof of postage -Free of charge- from my post office. I’m still paying my licence just letting them have some critical feedback. Is there anyone else out there who does the same? Let me know, we could form an alliance.

Let’s stop complaining and let them know how rubbish they are.

Another method is by turning a paving stone into a cheque, you need your account number and sort code on the paving stone. Not sure that you can still do this, but if anyone knows please reply.

Paying can be fun! Not for them!

AndyMan
:rotfl: :rotfl: :T

Justamum

Idiophreak wrote: »

Pretty much all I watch on the BBC regularly is neighbours, so once that goes, the licence will seem pretty poor value..

Me too. Anyway we are in the Border tv region which is due to have its analogue signal switched off sometime next year, so 6 months before cut-off I'm going to stop my DD. I'll keep the tv for watching dvds though.