BBC vote. Would you pay a subscription?

[YerMotherWasAHamster]

Inspired by the thread in AIBU regarding the public consultation.

Just a vote. I'm curious just to see the numbers.

If the government removed the licence fee and all bbc services moved to subscription only - like Netflix, sky etc, and this subscription was the same price as the current tv licence - would you subscribe?

You would not be able to view or listen to any BBC content without subscribing.

Subscription would be completely your choice and you would be free to watch other live tv eg itv etc without it. Just like if you dont have a sky account you can still watch channel 4.

No, I wouldn't pay a subscription, but I think there should BE a subscription! I would love to see how many people actually join/pay the sub. I bet it's not many. It would soon reduce the silly salaries some of them have! The only thing I watch on BBC is Doctor Who, and it's shit now anyway, so I only watch the ones with Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith. And I have them on DVD.

All the good shows that I have always liked (Only Fools and Horses, Red Dwarf, One Foot in the Grave, Fawlty Towers, Not Going Out, Birds of a Feather, Keeping up Appearances, Gavin & Stacey and so on,) I have on DVD too. So I could happily lose BBC altogether, and the iPlayer. I also never listen to BBC radio, and I don't like podcasts, and never listen to them....

So I really resent paying the licence fee. I am too chicken shit to stop paying though in case I get into trouble. Shame we don't have the nerve to ALL cancel our direct debits and stop paying, and make say May, (this year) the month we all do it. Then the BBC can introduce a subscription, and people can join if they want, and pay for it monthly, with no contract.

If we all stop paying at once, they can't fine 10s of millions of people and send us all to prison! Especially at the same time LOL!!!

As a few posters have said, having a Netflix style subscription (with no contract) where people can join for just a couple of months and then dip out for a couple of months, and then dip back in again, would be a good idea, as more people will probably join and pay it at least sometimes. I wouldn't bother - ever - but some would, probably...

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As for The BBC doesn't do anything I'm interested in… how is this even possible, considering that there are a several TV channels, plus many national and lots of local radio stations. Personally I’d pay just to get Radios 3 and 4.

I don't watch broadcast TV and haven't owned a radio since the 90s

I think it's really important that we have an impartial, national broadcaster and I do have concerns that a subscription model would impact that, and this is just a step on the road to making the BBC indistinguishable from the rest of the streaming platforms.

I think the BBC produces a vast amount of content for very little in terms of the cost of a TV licence (just shy of £175 a year). Local and National radio stations, regional and National television news & weather, arts, culture, sport (their olympics coverage is fantastic- knocks spots off c4's paralympics coverage), documentaries, comedies, podcasts, educational content (online like BBC bite size revision content and TV like the collaborations with Open University), specialist content (religious progs, progs for the d/Deaf community etc), online content (website, iplayer). It's enormous value for money!

I prefer the yearly tv licence. It’s good value for me.

"All the good shows that I have always liked (Only Fools and Horses, Red Dwarf, One Foot in the Grave, Fawlty Towers, Not Going Out, Birds of a Feather, Keeping up Appearances, Gavin & Stacey and so on,) I have on DVD too. So I could happily lose BBC altogether, and the iPlayer."

How do you think those shows were originally funded?

I've always wondered why they don't make you put in your licence fee number/address instead of just asking if you have a licence or not in the welcome screen.

I have mixed views on the licence fee though. Would they claim to remain impartial I wonder?

I would pay a subscription, as long as it means I can watch/listen use iplayer abroad. I suspect many uk immigrants would too.

I haven’t had a licence for years, not interested in watching any live TV. But I would pay for a subscription for just Iplayer if it was on par with the price of other services and I wasn’t tied in for a whole year

Edited to add: I recently saw Zoe Ball is paid almost £4K per radio show and Gary Linekar used to get £1.3m per year. I don’t know if they can keep paying out like that and then complaining that they don’t make enough money

I don't watch BBC that I can think of so I wouldn't subscribe. I do pay the TV licence as I'm too scared not to!

No I wouldn’t, I don’t pay for a tv licence. I watch Netflix and Amazon mostly and sometimes have other streaming services like Now, Disney etc when there is something on I want to watch. I don’t listen to the Radio.

If I had to pick two channels to subscribe to/keep I’d choose BBC and AppleTV. If I lived alone I’d happily lose Netflix Disney and Prime Video. So yes I’d definitely subscribe.

No. The only thing I've watched on BBC in recent years is Ghosts and Ghosts US. If I watch the news, I watch sky news. Radio - mainly magic. When I was teaching I'd use iPlayer for newsround or the occasional horrible histories so I would imagine schools and/or teachers might want to pay.

Only reason I haven't cancelled our TV license is because I'm confused about the exact rules and don't want to get into trouble. We don't watch live TV (rarely the news but wouldn't if we didn't have a license) but have a TV that can watch live TV. So if we accidentally clicked onto live TV, technically we'd be breaking the rules even if we went straight back to the sky menu.

I am in ROI and would happily subscribe if that enabled us to use the iplayer.

I wouldn’t pay.

I don’t mind if the BBC websites had ads and I would happy to pay for their best drama content via streaming platforms like Netflix.

No. I do not watch anything on BBC, occasionally read the news app but there are plenty of other apps I could look at for news if I had to pay. I havent had a licence for a few years now and don't miss it one bit.

It’s a shame. Beeb has its flaws but like most things, people don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone. People focus overwhelmingly on the tv dramas etc they watch. News is not a part of people’s lives, or they consume it via scrolling the socials. I’ll be gutted to see it go. Mistakes made by the bbc over the years but who else tries their utmost to provide impartial news and commentary? Nobody. But most people won’t care, they’ll just go back to scrolling their phones with half an eye on Netflix.

Not at the current price, no. If you have only just got a license, it is double for 6 months too.

I don't like the notion of having to log on just to watch a few minutes of BBC tv, such as the weather forecast.

I'd prefer a lower licence fee, say just to cover the basic two main tv and five radio channels, and subscription for the rest.

I think it should be a subscription service, but I wouldn’t subscribe to it.

I think people only start threads like this when they have a hidden vested interest.

I dont really watch it anymore so I wouod treat it like Disney plus and pay for 12 months binge watch it for a tine then leave it to build up for a couple of years im considering cancelling my licence but I think you need it for you tube now?

My interest is hardly hidden. I said it quite clearly in my op.

There is a consultation happening at the moment re the bbc. There is a thread about it in aibu

That thread, and the survey, have made me wonder how many people would choose to pay a subscription to the BBC.

So I asked.

I think you need it for you tube now?

Nope.

It's for content broadcast live by recognised TV broadcasters, not random youtuber channels.

BBC is investigating a partnership with Youtube in order to post some of their content on there, and thereby position themselves to argue that Youtube should be subject to TV Licensing, but as yet there is no requirement to own a Licence in order to watch Youtube.

The BBC also refuses to explain what constitutes a "recognised TV broadcaster", so until such time they clarify that it's essentially a meaningless term anyway.

Subscription is a good idea.
I personally do not want to fund it nor watch it and none of my children watch it. We pay Netflix and Youtube premium

its a difficult one for me, I can go several months without watching anything on the BBC and I only keep the TV licence because dad watches it occasionally when he comes down. Even my use of iplayer has gone down because I don't watch a lot of their previous content anymore. If they had it like you can do with Netflix where you can sign up for a month or two then cancel, I'd rather do that.