TV Licence article Discussion

Fantastic, thanks for the info. I hadn't realized news was on ITV Hub catchup. I'll sign up just for that and The Chase. Then, next year, sign-up for the licence for July/August for Olympics, paying double (due to six months) and then cancelling to get a refund of the overpaid two months.

Thanks.

I've paid my TV licence for 32 years, completely automatically and without thought - just as I pay my tax and council tax, never questioning it - a scenario probably true in 99% of housholds ... but recently I became less comfortable with paying the licence fee due to lots of issues (listed below) so looked at the facts of the licence in this modern age....

Technological changes over the last few years have made being non-licenced completely workable and entirely legal, only needing small changes in viewing habits like no live broadcasts or iplayer use (all we needed to do was substitute our PVR use with online catch-up - easy!). Its only myself and my wife who needed to change how we view content - my sons were already 'licence free' in the way they viewed - I suspect the majority of young people maybe paying without needing to if my sons are typical?

I sat back and thought, the days of sticking to a broadcasters scheduled are now over - content is on demand and users watch when it suits them. We've had the middleway here with the PVR recording programs and us watching later, but the huge amount of online content now makes even this outdated (and thus licence free!).

The BBC licence has been overtaken and can't cope with the digital age and relies on 'its the law' mantra to keep its income high. Even after the fact its easy to be licence free AND legal it still assumes if you dont have a licence you are 'probably' a law breaker, and this is something now engrained into society (certainly the older generation). Tell a 70 year old you don't have a TV licence and they will probably call the police!

My wife struggled for months once we were licence free, being anxious and scared of the letters and possible visits - she felt like a criminal even though she was doing nothing wrong - the BBC have done a good job over the years thats for sure!

A nation of people with historic attitudes to the BBC like my wife keep the BBC licence fee running. So many times I see misleading views such as 'you have a TV therefore its the law to have a licence' from people - true in the 80's when a TV did one thing only and the idea of catchup was limited to VHS!

When I was at work many years ago i remember a conversation about the licence - we were discussing for and against, and there was a distint view that if you didnt pay the licence you were a low life evader who deserved everything you get - licence 'evasion' was seen how smoking is today .... it would be interesting to get an update on this conversation today!

I'd suggest to anyone to have think about it - could you be licence free for a small change in your viewing habits? If you were able to be licence free then you could help the BBC move into the 21st century by looking at modern funding methods such as subscription... wouldn't you feel better knowing you're not paying to listen to Gary Lineker's political views?

I thought it best change my habits and stop paying, as if I continued to pay it would mean I accept the licence is relevant and fair, and that isn't the case anymore. We've had to wait for technology to catch-up to give us a means of being licence free!

The average age of the BBC1/2 viewer is in their 60's, so the clock is definately ticking on the licence as we know it!



My top BBC gripes are:

The licence itself is non-sensical. If you read it word for word it has some very odd terms such as if you have a licence you can't plug in your tablet or phone to the mains when viewing content when away from the home - how silly is that? Why should you have to have licence if you view live foreign satellite (this doesnt even use any BBC funded infastructure)?

With their guarenteed income stream, the BBC have no restraint on their wage bill and don't seem to know what 'talent' is. Gary Linekar as an example of both.

The BBC should be unbiased, including its presenters, but does have a politcal slant to its reporting and its employees openly give their opinion in breach of these guidelines. Brexit as an example.

The over 75's debacle. Awful decision to withdraw the free licence of the most vulnerable in our society who have contributed the most. Criminalising OAP's does not show sound management. Can you just imagine how terrified these pensioners will be when they are visited by the 'Outreach teams' knocking on their door?

Outrageuous expenditure. The BBC's bill for taxis/newspapers and other 'small' items is a complete scandal in its own right.

The BBC is trying to compete with commercial stations, forgetting its core value of public service broadcaster of quality programmes.

The number of repeats on the BBC is increasing. How many times should we pay for the same content?

The quality of BBC content is decreasing (some exceptions, but these are now getting rare). 'Homes under the hammer' and other 'brain dead' content are taking over the schedule. It seems to be a race to the bottom.

The good historic BBC content is on 'Gold' - forcing you to pay again for content you have already paid for when first aired.