Free TV licences for over 75's scrapped from 1st August

pphillips

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

brewerdave said:

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

You make a good point, the government can't realistically allow the criminal courts to be jammed up with prosecuting the over 75's. I think that decriminalisation is now a virtual certainty.

Probably not but what will likely happen is the BBC will hand over the "debt" to collection agencies who will then turn up adding £100s to the original fee every visit. I can't think of any over 75 who would want to go down that route, they just end up begrudgingly paying the fee.

No, I think the BBC will have to have the same enforcement rules as the likes of Sky and Netflix - if you don't pay your service will get cut off.

How do you imagine that's going to work? The BBC can't "cut off" all the services provided by by the license fee to an individual household.

And why can't they? The technology must exist, they just don't want to use it. But this sort of honesty box approach is unfair to the licence payer. It doesn't make sense that those who don't have a licence can easily get the same service as those who pay for one.

neilmcl

pphillips said:

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

brewerdave said:

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

You make a good point, the government can't realistically allow the criminal courts to be jammed up with prosecuting the over 75's. I think that decriminalisation is now a virtual certainty.

Probably not but what will likely happen is the BBC will hand over the "debt" to collection agencies who will then turn up adding £100s to the original fee every visit. I can't think of any over 75 who would want to go down that route, they just end up begrudgingly paying the fee.

No, I think the BBC will have to have the same enforcement rules as the likes of Sky and Netflix - if you don't pay your service will get cut off.

How do you imagine that's going to work? The BBC can't "cut off" all the services provided by by the license fee to an individual household.

And why can't they? The technology must exist, they just don't want to use it. But this sort of honesty box approach is unfair to the licence payer. It doesn't make sense that those who don't have a licence can easily get the same service as those who pay for one.

You tell me. How do you "cut off" a particular household from listening to BBC radio for example?

Silvertabby

I still think the fairest option would have been to continue the free licence provision for those who already receive it, regardless of circumstances, and just remove it for those who reach 75 ( and who are not in receipt of pension credit) from a set date.

After all you can't miss what you never had.

pphillips

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

neilmcl said:

pphillips said:

brewerdave said:

@pphillips - you missed the 3rd option - don't pay and wait to see if they will take an elderly person thru the Courts - have my doubts!!

You make a good point, the government can't realistically allow the criminal courts to be jammed up with prosecuting the over 75's. I think that decriminalisation is now a virtual certainty.

Probably not but what will likely happen is the BBC will hand over the "debt" to collection agencies who will then turn up adding £100s to the original fee every visit. I can't think of any over 75 who would want to go down that route, they just end up begrudgingly paying the fee.

No, I think the BBC will have to have the same enforcement rules as the likes of Sky and Netflix - if you don't pay your service will get cut off.

How do you imagine that's going to work? The BBC can't "cut off" all the services provided by by the license fee to an individual household.

And why can't they? The technology must exist, they just don't want to use it. But this sort of honesty box approach is unfair to the licence payer. It doesn't make sense that those who don't have a licence can easily get the same service as those who pay for one.

You tell me. How do you "cut off" a particular household from listening to BBC radio for example?

No, you tell me of another company that charges people for access to radio stations and how they collect the payment.

roddydogs

As its transmitted thru an aerial that's on every telly, how do you suggest they do it?

pphillips

roddydogs said:

As its transmitted thru an aerial that's on every telly, how do you suggest they do it?

Soon after TV first went digital there was an option to subscribe to 11 extra channels through a company called Top Up TV, perhaps the BBC could do something similar.

roddydogs

Mickey666 said:

How about the same way that Sky does it?

Without a  box?

Mickey666

Maybe they should think about start using ‘BBC boxes’ then, instead of forcing those who never watch BBC tv to subsidise those who do.  Other broadcasters manage and the only reason the BBC doesn’t do something similar is that it has no incentive because everyone who watches live tv is forced to pay for a licence anyway.  It is simply not fair!