TV license needed for live TV, but why?

poppasmurf_bewdley

wild666 wrote: »

If the BBC took on adverts, would those adverts rake in more money than the licence fees do? If they would then why doesn't the BBC take on adverts and scrap the licence fee?

Advertising on TV is shrinking. ITV have just reported a massive loss of revenue because advertisers are moving to online methods.

There simply is no way the BBC could attract enough advertising, because (a) it won't be there, and (b) if it was there, it would be pulled from ITV, C4, C5, and the myriad other commercial channels, who would then be demanding a share of the licence fee to keep going.

Uxb1

Retrogamer wrote: »

I wonder what the BBC will do going forward.

Seek to go down the Germany route most likely.
There every household compulsorily has to have a TV licence - end of story
It matter not whether you only watch catch up TV or even if you have no TV at all in the house - you have to have a TV license at the address.

Being German they have no shortage of methods to ensure you pay either.
If you don't pay the debt the penalty charges simply mount up until it reaches the point where the authorities are allowed to dip into your bank account (which being German they know the details of) and they remove the said fees & penalties from your balance without more ado: and if that puts you in overdraft - tough sh*t.

Here I guess they would seek to tack it on to council tax.

Retrogamer

Uxb1 wrote: »

Seek to go down the Germany route most likely.
There every household compulsorily has to have a TV licence - end of story
It matter not whether you only watch catch up TV or even if you have no TV at all in the house - you have to have a TV license at the address.

Being German they have no shortage of methods to ensure you pay either.
If you don't pay the debt the penalty charges simply mount up until it reaches the point where the authorities are allowed to dip into your bank account (which being German they know the details of) and they remove the said fees & penalties from your balance without more ado: and if that puts you in overdraft - tough sh*t.

Here I guess they would seek to tack it on to council tax.

It's a shame if so.
If people decide to opt out from using the service, it's not pleasant for the government to force them to participate in funding it.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Retrogamer wrote: »

It's a shame if so.
If people decide to opt out from using the service, it's not pleasant for the government to force them to participate in funding it.

I object to the government sending my taxpayer ££'s to foreign countries to support dictators and Indian Moon Missions. Also on nuclear energy. And legal aid. And benefits for drug addicts and lazy people. Plus lots more.

But if my ££'s went to the BBC, at least I'd see some benefit for the money.

NCC-1701

Retrogamer wrote: »

It's a shame if so.
If people decide to opt out from using the service, it's not pleasant for the government to force them to participate in funding it.

There are many services you can opt out of using yet still have to pay for.

wild666

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

Advertising on TV is shrinking. ITV have just reported a massive loss of revenue because advertisers are moving to online methods.

There simply is no way the BBC could attract enough advertising, because (a) it won't be there, and (b) if it was there, it would be pulled from ITV, C4, C5, and the myriad other commercial channels, who would then be demanding a share of the licence fee to keep going.

In the 60's and early 70's the hourly adverts rate was eight minutes so a TV program was 26 minutes for a 30 minutes episode and 52 minutes for a one hour episode. Now it's a maximum of 42 minutes with the rest filled with adverts that's a third of any hour taken up by adverts. The biggest gap between adverts is a football match then they put in as many adverts as they can on ITV, CH4 & CH5.

Even if the BBC go to a scrambled channels method the government would take over the licence fee and add it to the council tax.

wild666

Uxb1 wrote: »

Seek to go down the Germany route most likely.
There every household compulsorily has to have a TV licence - end of story
It matter not whether you only watch catch up TV or even if you have no TV at all in the house - you have to have a TV license at the address.

Being German they have no shortage of methods to ensure you pay either.
If you don't pay the debt the penalty charges simply mount up until it reaches the point where the authorities are allowed to dip into your bank account (which being German they know the details of) and they remove the said fees & penalties from your balance without more ado: and if that puts you in overdraft - tough sh*t.

Here I guess they would seek to tack it on to council tax.

I could see those that want nothing to do with the TV licence only put in enough to cover direct debits or failing that tell every supplier of a service, excluding the TV, they will pay the bill with cash on production of the bill, even if they had to be at the bank to take out the money as soon as it hit their account to stop TVL or government agency grabbing the money.

Cornucopia

wild666 wrote: »

In the 60's and early 70's the hourly adverts rate was eight minutes so a TV program was 26 minutes for a 30 minutes episode and 52 minutes for a one hour episode. Now it's a maximum of 42 minutes with the rest filled with adverts that's a third of any hour taken up by adverts. The biggest gap between adverts is a football match then they put in as many adverts as they can on ITV, CH4 & CH5.

If you watch commercial catch-up then the ad breaks tend to be shorter than on-air. C4, C5 and UKTV also have ad-break clocks or counters on their catch-up breaks which usefully show how long you have to make a cup of tea.

Even if the BBC go to a scrambled channels method the government would take over the licence fee and add it to the council tax.

You mean double payment? I don't think the Public would tolerate that. I suppose it could be hidden by tricksy language (calling the two charges something very different), but that kind of thing doesn't really work these days.

Farway

Cornucopia wrote: »

If you watch commercial catch-up then the ad breaks tend to be shorter than on-air. C4, C5 and UKTV also have ad-break clocks or counters on their catch-up breaks which usefully show how long you have to make a cup of tea.
.

Thanks, that's something I never knew, and one thing that stopped me even bothering looking at the commercial TV catch ups


I suppose realistically they would have to be shorter or no one would ever bother, bit like You tube ads

Cornucopia

Farway wrote: »

I suppose realistically they would have to be shorter or no one would ever bother, bit like You tube ads

Yes - the downside is that you can't skip them(*) like you can when playing back a recording from off-air.

(*) You can however play all the ads at once on All4 and then when you rewind and replay the program from beginning it skips them.