BBC iPlayer Radio & TV License

james_smitha

visionman to change my method, one at a time then. At 50 years old I can just remember radio licenses being abolished. Why do you believe it should be revived?

VisionMan

For the second time, the use of the BBC iPlayer will require a licence fee. Period.

Debate it with Parliament, not me. Oh, wait a minute.........

james_smitha

visionman until the day arrives we only have speculation, because between now and then things can change, Y/N?

VisionMan

No. And I knew about this before it actually happened. A heavy price was paid, but a trade off agreed. Only Senior Citizens won't be required to pay for consumption. Everyone else will.

And as we have moved forward into a digital age with developments into not just linear but also Hybrid TV, its a move I totally agree with.

james_smitha

So you individually believe that disabled sorts and unemployed should pay too. For these groups who are house bound taking their radio is a cowardly act. Should we bring back dog licenses to?

VisionMan

Don't put words into my mouth, troll. Despicable. Goodbye.

almillar

james smitha - why does Vision Man's opinion matter to you so much? Why are you pinning him as if he makes up the rules?
The basic proposal is that 'iPlayer' should be added to 'TV' as a use for which the Licence is needed. You think that's unfair for iPlayer Radio in particular. Fair enough. But bear in mind that serving out data DOES have a cost. Plopping out, say, 300mb of data for a 2 hr radio show certainly costs less than 1GB for 30 mins of TV, but you must agree there's a cost to it, including the work that goes into putting it online with the data etc.
And BTW, in MY opinion, I think that audio/radio via iPlayer should stay free, as long as it's easy enough to administer.

taking their radio is a cowardly act

You mean:
taking their IPLAYER radio is a cowardly act

silverwhistle

Why can't they be distinguished? On my desktop here I see that there is iPlayer and the radio is marketed as iPlayerRadio)). As someone who doesn't have a TV or watch catch-up I can't say that I'll be paying £140 for catch-up radio. Whether I use it or not is another matter, but as a law abiding person I can also say that bad law, particularly when enforcement is problematical, gets discredited and ultimately ignored.

VisionMan

silverwhistle wrote: »

Why can't they be distinguished?

As British television has moved forward into a digital age where it uses digital services, including the use of connected services such as Catch up players, MHEG-5, HTML-5, HbbTV 2.0 and digital radio via Freeview, cable TV, Satellite, Broadband and fibre, this was a badly needed closing of a loophole.

Previously, the TV Licence only applied to linear TV, as that used to be the only way one could get it. But Now? Everythings connected. Freeview, YouView, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk et al, TVs, phones, tablets and computers. This was/is a badly needed change which has taken an age to come about. And it will be approved. Don't want to pay a TV licence? Fine. Then just don't consume BBC content.

Jeems

VisionMan wrote: »

Previously, the TV Licence only applied to linear TV, as that used to be the only way one could get it. But Now? Everythings connected. Freeview, YouView, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk et al, TVs, phones, tablets and computers. This was/is a badly needed change which has taken an age to come about. And it will be approved. Don't want to pay a TV licence? Fine. Then just don't consume BBC content.

You currently need a TV license if you watch live TV via any format - TV, tablet, phone etc. Also you are misinformed about the no BBC = no license needed. The TV License site states very clearly that you can legally watch catch up without a license so the word "loop hole" has been misused greatly.

The issue the BBC has now is that there is literally no way of policing the internet. Whatever reforms they make wont help. If people dont want to pay, they wont pay, simple. Their scare tactics definitely worked on the older generation but today's generation are a little more informed.