TV Licence article Discussion

Cornucopia

azafran21 wrote: »

Would I need to watch Wimbledon on YouTube? It is shown live on there but it's not a TV channel, i.e. BBC or channel 4 etc

If it is genuinely a different feed from the main BBC broadcast, AND it is not the feed of another UK broadcaster then you wouldn't need a TV Licence.

Be aware, though, that it is this kind of detail that TVL seem to confuse themselves about. Ideally, in the unlikely event of being challenged about it, you would be able to point to clear differences between that feed and the live broadcast - such as different commentary and/or different on-screen graphics.

dawyldthing

If you have a bet365 account and leave a penny in you can watch a heck of a lot of matches for free, including Wimbledon I’m sure

RandomQ

Cornucopia wrote: »

If it is genuinely a different feed from the main BBC broadcast, AND it is not the feed of another UK broadcaster then you wouldn't need a TV Licence.

Be aware, though, that it is this kind of detail that TVL seem to confuse themselves about. Ideally, in the unlikely event of being challenged about it, you would be able to point to clear differences between that feed and the live broadcast - such as different commentary and/or different on-screen graphics.

Spot On as usual Cornucopia.

I have heard the Crapita TVL Goons saying "do you watch News or Sport on YouTube, then you need a licence".

This is why one must never engage with the Goons, do not answer the door, they are easy to spot with their faux leather black A4 wallet with the various forms and their little data collector.

If you answer your door it will become obvious because rather than saying "good morning madam I am from TV Licencing, they say "ARE YOU THE OCCUPIER" and respond aggressively if you say "Sorry, who are you".

RandomQ

Today on the Radio I heard a call in on local radio where the BBC were BLAMING THE GOVERNMENT for their plans to charge the over 75's for the TV Licence.

They said the BBC were having the money withdrawn by the Government but a caller pointed out that it is not being withdrawn by Government, it was negotiated away in return for the Government rushing in legislation that allowed the BBC to close the then loophole on BBC iPlayer

I checked the web and he was right

The government had promised to close the loophole, which already costs the BBC about £150m a year and is likely to increase, during negotiations last summer that also saw the corporation agree to shoulder the £750m burden of free licence fees for the over-75s.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/01/bbc-iplayer-tv-licence-iplayer-loophole

The caller very sensibly proposed that it is time the BBC moved all it's content going back to donkeys years to a BBCflix type service sold in exactly the same way that NetFlix is on a worldwide basis rather than giving it away as they have been to date.

Of course the BBC would prefer to have their greedy little mitts taking money from our pockets by legislation rather than actually compete with an open market!

So now we are back to the days of Osborne's Austerity, blame the victim, "it is these terrible elderly people they are richer now"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45888200

Turning one demographic against another, young against old

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/20/free-tv-licences-over-75s-not-fair-young-says-bbc-boss/

Tell the BBC where to stick it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/tv-licence-consultation

Join the Mirror Campaign against this disgusting rise

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/gordon-brown-launches-mirror-campaign-13743127

Many of the over 75's fought in the war for the freedoms we currently enjoy, others had the hardship of war as children, others are the bank of mum and dad for millions who cannot afford a deposit to rent a flat or to buy one.

What I find most disgusting is that the BBC negotiated this away in good faith and are now trying to get elderly people to pay it. They got a benefit from Government for doing so and now want the elderly to pay anyway.

I have been reliably informed that the Captita contract provides a fixed income for the BBC and once that level has been reached Crapita gets to keep all the money they raise, no wonder they act like commission hungry debt collectors! Now we will have these bullies harrassing the elderly the way they do disabled people!

Will care homes be their new target, I know they love to go after disabled shared accomodation and temporary housing facilities (many of which have banned their bully boy tactics).

Nick_C

While I am against the TV Licence, and believe the BBC should move to an on line subscription model, I dont think pensioners should be getting anything for nothing just because they reach a certain age.

Many pensioners are well off. Many are better off than young workers who struggle to pay high rents, and may be saddled with high levels of debt because they have been led to believe it is important to go to University and get a degree.

Pensioners don't have to pay to go to work, don't need to buy clothes for work, and don't pay National Insurance on their occupational pensions.

People shouldn't be getting free TV licenses, prescriptions, bus passes, or WFA simply because they reach a magic age.

Scrap the TV license, make the BBC a subscription service, and allow everyone to watch Sky, ITV, Ch4, etc etc without paying the BBC tax.

If the BBC had to compete for their income alongside other broadcasters, they would be forced to become more efficient and less wasteful.

cw18

Thanks for the info about the possible changes and the consultation - it's the first I've heard of it. They say they're publicising it on the BBC, but when you're legally licence free.......

I've read the document and answered their questions. In the final box I've said I think they should move to a Netflix / NowTV type of service behind a pay wall. That way people can decided whether to pay or not without being hassled by letters and 'officers', and the fact they'd no longer need to send letters or employ 'officers' would save them money too

RandomQ

Nick_C wrote: »

While I am against the TV Licence, and believe the BBC should move to an on line subscription model, I dont think pensioners should be getting anything for nothing just because they reach a certain age.

Many pensioners are well off. Many are better off than young workers who struggle to pay high rents, and may be saddled with high levels of debt because they have been led to believe it is important to go to University and get a degree.

Pensioners don't have to pay to go to work, don't need to buy clothes for work, and don't pay National Insurance on their occupational pensions.

People shouldn't be getting free TV licences, prescriptions, bus passes, or WFA simply because they reach a magic age.

Scrap the TV licence, make the BBC a subscription service, and allow everyone to watch Sky, ITV, Ch4, etc etc without paying the BBC tax.

If the BBC had to compete for their income alongside other broadcasters, they would be forced to become more efficient and less wasteful.

They are not getting it for nothing, like you by the time they are 75 they will have contributed to society in one way or another, this particular bunch went to war, were bombed out of their homes, were evacuated and separated from their siblings, then went through an austerity you cannot imagine with the rebuild decade after the war.

Some pensioners are well off but that does not lessen their contribution and if they are well off they probably earned it by running their own company, paying into a good pension or putting up with poor wages (which was the way public sector workers were remunerated in those days).

Just because of the scandal of housing for young people does not mean you punish pensioners, in fact for many a landlord the property they rent IS their pension and they have been hit by a new tax so they can't claim in the same way as a business who owned an identical property. That is one of their reasons for them increasing rent; if you want to hit them for another £150 then do not be surprised if they put up their rents in accordance with local market conditions. I know several landlords who rent well below the LHA rate to young people and have had their properties trashed and rent not paid.

I totally agree with you about university debt and especially the disgusting increase to 6% interest rate, I would be in favour of a claw back of paying £30k plus 2% interest per annum compounded to all people who attended university (subject to over £25k income) before the charges were brought in or else the scrapping of the fees altogether.

Many pensioners have to go to work and have to dress accordingly, go look at B&Q, the rules for employer or employee providing uniform are the same. As for NI, they paid already for years, what you find is that non-payment was given to certain groups in various budgets over the years to make up for other increases not given at the time.

People SHOULD be getting free TV licences, prescriptions, bus passes, because they reach an age that reflects their contribution to society. The elderly are the biggest givers to charity, they volunteer more than any demographic and they keep many a small local business afloat.

Maybe when you get to that age you will find yourself with nothing to show for your years of hard work and be grateful for a few things for free. When you talk about bus passes remember that bus services in rural areas would collapse without free bus passes, most of these are now run by private companies, if the subsidy was not provided the elderly would not use the service because they could not afford to and the bus service would be withdrawn.

My father died in his 60's so never got any of the benefits of paying into "the system", my mother died after less than 6 years, her pension was so low that she was entitled to Council Tax benefit (we paid her rent) but she would not claim it until she had run down all her paltry savings and had nothing. She was in a care home for her last 3 years and oblivious to what was on the TV after a stroke, would you have her pay a TV licence for that? They took her all her income despite the fact the family paid the vast majority of the £5800 a month it cost for her care and the fact that the family has no obligation to pay.

We did it because it was the right thing to do, if she had a house the Council would have sold it to pay for her care.

You work all your life to pay into a system that you think looks after vulerable people, you save and try to buy a home to give your kids a better chance than you had, but instead you find it will be sold to pay for you to be abused in a care home by some poor immigrant who themselves is being abused by a investment fund who repossessed the care home.

I am glad I will not reach my father’s age, just to receive disdain from the likes of you, maybe when you have walked in the shoes of those you begrudge this small benefit that was negotiated and promised, you will appreciate it.

What we can agree on is that the BBC's needs to move to a subscription model at which point the elderly can utilise the plethora of free channels or subscribe to the BBC if they want to.

The sad fact is that elderly people would really struggle to understand that they can avail themselves of alternatives to Live TV, they would also struggle to understand when a programme was live or catch up or that it was dependent on an internet service. You can be sure of one thing; that a bully boy crapita thug would persuade them that they needed to pay or needed to let them in.

I removed iPlayer from my Roku but you can imagine just as video has shown TVL plug aerials in they might sneakily re-download the iPlayer app. I have blocked them on the router but there is no way your average over 75 year old is going to be able to understand how to do that.

Most importantly the over 75 concession was given by the BBC years ago when people complained about them increasing the cost of the TV Licence, in other words they justified the increase by giving the concession. THEN BBC agreed in 2016 negotiations to shoulder the cost themselves after getting concessions to harass even more people, now the BBC are trying to blame government, besmirch the elderly, say they will have to close channels all because they messed up. SHAME ON THEM

When you think about it what it shows is just how incompetent they are, they traded an estimated £750m concession for an estimated £150m concession but the only beneficiaries of that £150m one are Crapita because the BBC has a fixed ceiling contract with Crapita. Any idiot could have told them non-paying people would not decide to get a TV licence solely for BBC iPlayer, they would just dump it. This shows the management at the BBC are not fit for purpose never mind their eye watering salaries.

sevenhills

RandomQ wrote: »

They are not getting it for nothing, like you by the time they are 75 they will have contributed to society in one way or another, this particular bunch went to war, were bombed out of their homes, were evacuated and separated from their siblings, then went through an austerity you cannot imagine with the rebuild decade after the war.

When today scroungers reach the age of 75 will they have contributed?
I don't get this, they are old so they have contributed, didnt they have scroungers 40 years ago?


TV is entertainment, which some people think that they should get for free, go figure.
I am 4 years away from 60, when I will get free prescriptions, am I a scrounger or have I paid loads in tax?

Cornucopia

sevenhills wrote: »

TV is entertainment, which some people think that they should get for free, go figure.

We'll have to see whether the BBC lets this issue deteriorate into an "us" vs. "them" issue, but I really don't think it has to.

We have plenty of "free" TV - at least TV that is funded by advertising. From a purely practical POV, the BBC's best option is to replace the Licence with a Subscription and allow everyone (over 75s included) to have free access to commercial TV without requiring a TV Licence.

The present situation is untenable for so many reasons.

cw18

Cornucopia wrote: »

We'll have to see whether the BBC lets this issue deteriorate into an "us" vs. "them" issue, but I really don't think it has to.

We have plenty of "free" TV - at least TV that is funded by advertising. From a purely practical POV, the BBC's best option is to replace the Licence with a Subscription and allow everyone (over 75s included) to have free access to commercial TV without requiring a TV Licence.

The present situation is untenable for so many reasons.

I so totally agree with this. It would also allow the likes of me (who stopped paying for a licence as I didn't like what the BBC were giving me for it) to watch the channels I did used to watch (mainly 5USA and Channel 5).