TV Licence

[Flatbellyfella]

How many people will own up to not having a Television Licence on MN?
with the absolute crap the BBC bombard us with over the last multiple years, I feel we should all boycott paying for it.
I purchased a license at 11-55 pm on the last day of the month of April, thinking it would start on the first day of the next month, Oh no, it was back dated to the first of April, what a con. for the sake of 5 minutes I was well & truly stuffed.

It is the choice of a business to give something for free or require payment. Morally I wouldn't struggle in the slightest.

We use the BBC website loads, news, recipes, education, listen to loads of the BBC radio stations.

Enjoy some of the drama and prefer BBC news and sports coverage to any other. At least it has some regulation because if the licence, without that you could be watching the absolute bollocks that is FOX news and the like with our media information media run by a few individuals that the politicians would have to keep onside to stay in power.

No thanks

It's not perfect but it's much much better than the alternative. And it's more impartial than the rest, it has to be.

Hopefully it will just go digital and you have to put in a licence number then if you don't want it you just won't be able to get it. Stop all the whining then.

Everyone whining it's biased, who or which channels are more impartial? Or is it just you like the much more far tighter stuff blaming the poor for all the problems, turning you away from the billionaires in their tax free havens?

If I buy loss leaders from a supermarket I also don't feel morally obliged to do the rest of my shop there. The only moral obligations I feel are towards small businesses.

Hopefully it will just go digital and you have to put in a licence number then if you don't want it you just won't be able to get it. Stop all the whining then.

No one is whining. People just don't like the nasty scare tactics by letter or door to door salespeople for simply choosing not to buy their product.

Hopefully it will just go digital and you have to put in a licence number then if you don't want it you just won't be able to get it. Stop all the whining then.

People aren't whining but if any other service like Netflix or Disney + for example felt entitled to send threatening letters, emails, send people round to check on you or have a jumped up sense of entitlement that you had to opt out of it people would be rightly questioning their methods.

At the end of the day it's a service like any other and it's the only one I can think of that makes me contact them to say I don't want or need it.

If they want people to have a licence for BBC radio they could bring it back in

I don't listen to the radio anyway but I don't really buy into the "morality" viewpoint that you should pay for something offered for free

Some council car parks are free and some charge, do you send the council extra money if you park in a non charging one because of morality?

Yes thanks I know the rules

It doesn't

We barely watch anything live on TV, aside from DP and DD watching Strictly, but I'm happy to pay the licence. Watch a fair bit on iPlayer, and listen to podcasts on BBC sounds. Hell, it's worth it for ad free radio alone (I know I don't need a licence to listen to BBC radio, but it does fund it)

On top of that, the BBC is one lost the last pieces of soft power we have as a nation, so I'll continue to support it as long as I cam

It's worth it for gladiators and radio 4

We have Sky and I think I would find it too much bother thinking about what I could and couldn't watch if I didn't buy a licence. I use Sky go extra a lot when we are away in the caravan, also iPlayer a lot.

Yes, it's a joke...hence the eye roll. Both of them are Tory as fuck.

Not really something to own up to.
I don't have a license because I don't need one. Just like I don't have a sky subscription because I don't use their services either. Shock horror, not everyone watches TV.

People who say they never watch the BBC. What do you do about big national events?
The Queen's funeral, Coronations etc? The BBC is still the go to for that sort of stuff

I'm not interested in the royal family.

We don't have one. I don't even have an aerial to plug in to the tv! We just watch Netflix, Disney etc. tv Il sensw tried saying if we watch you tube and Amazon you have to pay but it's ONLY if you watch bbc!

If people are interested then they could always choose to watch events in a group at a family members house which does have a TV licence (such as a grandparent's). Much as people would have when television was new. £170 a year for the odd event is a lot of money.

I stopped watching the BBC in January. There was a drama I wanted to watch, a bbc drama and it was only available on itv so when my license was up I started an itv subscription instead. The on,y thing I miss is BBC breakfast but that's more of a habit I think. I don't listen to any radio at all although that's not included anyway and if there was a big event I suppose I'd go to a friend's house and watch it.

All TV is expensive now if you want a wide choice and no adverts but if you want to narrow your choice or not watch it just pay for what you want, no one has to get a licence if they don't watch it.

Watch them at a friend's house or not watch them at all. I don't think anyone would agree £170 a year is good value for a few big events.

Edited to add that after checking because I was sure I read something about it at the time the coronation was actually given a special dispensation so you could watch it without a license.

I think the Queen's Funeral was given a special dispensation for no licence, not sure about the coronation,

Does anyone ever have conversations about the t v licence in real life? Threads the same as this are started loads and people have such strong views, I don't ever remember speaking to anyone I know about this

Don't most people buy one if they need one and don't if they don't and get on with their day?

Is it a demographic thing in some way?

Does anyone ever have conversations about the t v licence in real life?

I've told people if they have asked me if I have watched a specific programme.

Same. I've also advised friends and family who are recent immigrants to the UK.

Chilli Jon Carne does some excellent videos and I've directed people to those.

m.youtube.com/c/ChilliJonCarne

I have a TV license but I never watch live TV. I know the BBC is a shadow of what it once was but occasionally it puts out something great like Earth (the Chris Packham thing).

I'm not living on the bones of my arse though.

I would actually like to watch it but I am in a country where it is not available. (Well, I guess you could faff about with VPNs and watch it for free but I CBA). They seem to make it especially difficult for overseas viewers (except for a select view countries) to pay for it and access it legally.