TV Licence article Discussion

cw18

'Double for the first 6 months' is a heck of a lot better than the whole year up front I had to pay when I bought (and furnished) my first home.

Cornucopia

Britannia12345 said:

It seems unfair though on people who are struggling to pay as they have to pay double for the first 6 months. That is a lot of money to someone struggling on a low income which is I suspect why a lot of people don't have a licence. It's all very well the BBC saying it's only so much pence a day but when you have to find £26 a month for 6 months that is a lot of money. They should have a more flexible payment plan and not charge for quarterly payments either. 

I agree, and so do various charities that have made the same representation to the BBC and the Government about it.

If it's any consolation, I suspect that the TV Licence reforms that are coming will include a much simpler approach of straight monthly payments of 1/12 of the fee from Day 1.

Jackmydad

I thought that perhaps being as they'd extended vehicle MOTs for 6 months, they'd do the same with the TV licence. . .   

cw18

They have delayed the requirement for those aged 70+ to pay for one by a few months - I'll take that as a good start.

Stevieb24

The TV Licence website claims to have a 'customer' base of 30 million people. I like watching TV but have no interest in watching the BBC. As I am a 'customer' I assume I can choose to no longer be a customer. Therefore I would like to not pay my licence fee and at the same time ask the BBC to stop sending their programmes into my household. Ok - I understand that this might be difficult for them but here's the point - That is not my problem. I do not want to pay any monthly/annual fee for any TV channels but would be quite happy to watch commercial channels which provide good free programmes.
Any one feel the same and has anyone considered a petition along these lines?

[Deleted User]

I haven't had my monthly threat-o-gram in the post yet this month. What a shame I was looking forward to which version they were using this month, last month it was the spoof sorry we missed you Royal Mail card.

Cornucopia

Stevieb24 said:

The TV Licence website claims to have a 'customer' base of 30 million people. I like watching TV but have no interest in watching the BBC. As I am a 'customer' I assume I can choose to no longer be a customer. Therefore I would like to not pay my licence fee and at the same time ask the BBC to stop sending their programmes into my household. Ok - I understand that this might be difficult for them but here's the point - That is not my problem. I do not want to pay any monthly/annual fee for any TV channels but would be quite happy to watch commercial channels which provide good free programmes.
Any one feel the same and has anyone considered a petition along these lines?

There have been several petitions, one of which triggered a somewhat lacklustre Parliamentary debate.   However, until the present Government mentioned the possibility of decriminalisation, politicians of all colours have traditionally been very luke-warm about reforming the Licence Fee.  

OTOH, under the present system opting-out of the Licence is as simple as no longer watching TV broadcasts and not watching BBC iPlayer.  Everything else (commercial catch-up, commercial streaming services, etc.) can be accessed without requiring a Licence.

The official MSE guide provides more detail on this:   https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/tv-licence/

Watchkeeper

Stevieb24 said:

The TV Licence website claims to have a 'customer' base of 30 million people. I like watching TV but have no interest in watching the BBC. As I am a 'customer' I assume I can choose to no longer be a customer. Therefore I would like to not pay my licence fee and at the same time ask the BBC to stop sending their programmes into my household. Ok - I understand that this might be difficult for them but here's the point - That is not my problem. I do not want to pay any monthly/annual fee for any TV channels but would be quite happy to watch commercial channels which provide good free programmes.
Any one feel the same and has anyone considered a petition along these lines?

It may interest you to know that you are, according to the BBC, a licence fee payer by virtue of the following definition.

57.The meaning of “licence fee payer”
In this Charter, a reference to a “licence fee payer” is not to be taken literally but includes, not only a person to whom a TV licence is issued under section 364 of the Communications Act 2003, but also (so far as is sensible in the context) any other person in the UK who watches, listens to or uses any BBC service, or may do so or wish to do so in the future.

cw18

Deleted_User said:

I haven't had my monthly threat-o-gram in the post yet this month. What a shame I was looking forward to which version they were using this month, last month it was the spoof sorry we missed you Royal Mail card.

When I read this I realised I hadn't seen any Darlington return address mail amongst everything I'd been posting over the last couple of weeks.

Today that changed.   Back to the envelopes with the small second window, but the text in that is now blue and said something along the lines of "Watching TV at this address?  What you need to do next."     I was also posting the first renewals I remember seeing in a while, but I guess those probably only go out on a monthly basis given they all start on the first of a month - I just hadn't noticed it before

[Deleted User]

cw18 said:

Deleted_User said:

I haven't had my monthly threat-o-gram in the post yet this month. What a shame I was looking forward to which version they were using this month, last month it was the spoof sorry we missed you Royal Mail card.

When I read this I realised I hadn't seen any Darlington return address mail amongst everything I'd been posting over the last couple of weeks.

Today that changed.   Back to the envelopes with the small second window, but the text in that is now blue and said something along the lines of "Watching TV at this address?  What you need to do next."     I was also posting the first renewals I remember seeing in a while, but I guess those probably only go out on a monthly basis given they all start on the first of a month - I just hadn't noticed it before

Jolly I'll be looking forward to that. I do love those second window envelopes with the threat peeping out. Heh