Why the F should I tell BBC every year that I don’t watch TV ?

How isolating for your relative. What a shame they haven’t got a tv to enjoy in their old age.

Can send people round to check a they like. TVL goons don't have any powers to force entry etc, just tell them to get off your property and close the door

Cancel any DD to TVL/ƁBC, bin any letters, don't answer the door if the caption goons/sales people knock, if you do answer just say no thanks and close the door.
You're not obliged to tell them anything.
Not had a tv licence in years.

They are actually doing that now. For real.

The charter review is up soon so probably write to your MP if you don't agree to the licence.

I pay it because although I don’t watch live TV, I appreciate all their ad free radio output and want it to continue. And I can afford to.

But it is an outdated system. An opt in system, like Netflix, would be much better.

I got caught out when I first left home at 18 and was really skint. I thinm they detected it and then hadym someone knocking on the door of my bedsit and I said I didn't watch it, but then Eastenders theme tune came blaring out. I got taken to court and got a massive fine!

That's not true, you have to make a declaration or they keep chasing you

@SESMA yes bonkers

I am happy with the current model, as I am legitimately licence free. I do not want it added to general taxation, like millions of others.

Maybe they should have closed the door

Labour are the ones that want to keep the fee, I wonder how many moaning about it voted for them.

I’d have left the silly bastard on the doorstep for 40 minutes and ignored them.

Precisely what I’m worried about!

I don’t see it as polictal at all. It’s generational. If you’re under 50 you’ve been brought up lwith media being consumed on demand or on subscription, or free via the internet. The thought of needing a licence to own what is an every day electrical appliance is an anachronism that is difficult to justify objectively. Either fund through general taxation or make it a subscription service. The ‘presume guilty until proven innocent’ approach of everyone needing one unless they say otherwise and the heavy handed approach of Capita on behalf of the BBC has no place in a modern world.

To those saying they never visit, my student daughter said the flat below them had someone from TV licensing at the door who refused to go away for 40 minutes. That is harassment in my book.

This would be a shame. But then it needs to do what it was set up to do and act as an impartial broadcaster. If it wants to be a propagandist for pet causes it should accept the same conditions as the rest of the entertainment market. A licence fee funded broadcaster should have specific and closely monitored responsibilities.

@Longnightsshortdays they pull in billions in revenue annually. they are not underfunded, they are just spaffing licence fees on pension funds, massive wages to their senior staff and jollies such as five star hotels for 600 staff when it’s Glastonbury

ETA and huge salaries to their ‘talent’ such as Zoe ball raking in nearly a million pounds pa

It really pisses me off. My relative of 94 has never had a tv & I assume if she did given her age she would not have to pay anyway. Yet I still have to fill out a ‘no licence needed’ form for her every year & she regularly receives letters threatening a visit, which she finds terrifying. Why should she have a tv? What gives government agents the right to harass an old lady for not wanting state propaganda and mindless crap beamed into her home?

I also don’t have a licence because I never watch BBC or live tv so I have to fill in the forms for me too- but I am not frail & elderly. I get annoyed, not terrified.

Amazed by the suggestions above btw that not having a tv is somehow ‘right wing’ & therefore deplorable (not that being right wing should be seen as ‘deplorable’ in a pluralistic society). My relative grew up in a staunchly left wing household & her radical political views are largely why she has never had a tv! She just spent her time reading instead & now in old age with limited sight benefits from happily remembering the plots of Dickens & the highlights (and lows) of the French revolution.

They dont have the right to enter your house uninvited. Only the police can do that and they have to have good reason to do so

@RoseAndGeranium they won’t visit.

Well I admit the BBC isn't the great institution that it once was.
And a lot of it's problems actually stem under funding. As well as political interference.

But it still fulfills a very important function. And it would be a sad loss.

I find all this anti BBC campaigning very disturbing.The absolute outrage about being asked if you need a TV licence would be almost laughable if didn't seem so politically motivated.

Indeed, but I don’t want some bloke showing up here and aggressively demanding entry in front of my small children, and I don’t see why the BBC should have the right to demand an annual declaration from me with the threat of home visits if I don’t comply.
The sad thing is, until a couple of years ago I was a committed licence fee payer and I remain generally of the view that a genuinely impartial state broadcaster is a good thing. In the age of Twitter etc there is an increased need for a balanced presentation of the news. But it became clear to me that the BBC was absolutely not fulfilling its obligations in this respect, and was in fact acting as a propagandist for select causes. My letters of complaint to this effect were answered in derisory fashion and on one occasion with a response so irrelevant it felt like I was actually being trolled by the BBC. It’s time the Beeb either fights it out in the wild against Netflix and co or cleans up its act and does what it’s supposed to do.

Defund the bbc now!!!

@DaffodilTuesday you also cannot watch LIVE tv without one.