Should the BBC licence fee be replaced with a compulsory utility bill charge?

[FunStork]

The BBC has acknowledged that the licence fee is no longer fit for purpose, and the chair of the BBC says she wants the money to be a tax that's paid out of utility bills, ensuring everyone pays it.

Do you think this is a good idea or not?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20yjjm7n87o

@GentleSheep and Chilli Jon Carne

Awful idea

many people don’t do TV. Shouldn’t have to pay for it

like a compulsory charge to subsidise hobbies or something. Nonsensical

It’s outrageous. The licence fee has had its day - the fact thousands of people are refusing to pay isn’t a sign to make it compulsory FFS. It should be a subscription model.

I'm pretty left wing. The old fashioned kind that goes on about solidarity and common cause and all that. And I'm the sort of ghastly monster that lives in a small northern town and didn't go to university, so I'm clearly a terrifying racist who's never read a book. Burn her! Lol. Irredeemable.

I'll stick to Youtube, ta. Garys Economics, The Rest Is History, Yale Courses, Fall of Civilisations, Novara, Bobby Fingers, Voces8... I could list 100 youtubers putting out great content for when I want to sit down and watch something. And I'm sure each person here can and we wouldn't like each other's lists, and that's fine I think! The few times I've seen telly in the past few years it's just been absolute dross, honestly dross like you've had a stroke and are slowly relearning English with the help of this programme about buying a house in Woking. Or just absolute fools bellowing at each other about nothing. No thanks.

(Who's buying multiple houses in 2026 anyway. No one we know. Do they think that stuff is relatable? We're also not bidding on regional gas boards or space stations round our way, in case anyone's wondering.)

I think they should fund with with adverts like the the others. They could have an premium subscription for no-ads like netflix.

I have nearly 3 streams for the price of 1 tv licence. Do I watch BBC made stuff on them? Yes, but that's covered by my subscription which pays for the stream to pay for the rights to show it.
I don't want to pay £15 a month for something I don't use whether it's in form of licence or "tax". 😕 I don't listen to BBC radio either

theFrench tried this for a while, as part of our taxe d’habitation,
which wasn’t too popular
now both are abolished

Ha ha ha funny.
No.
Is this because so many people are cancelling their licence fee,or have long been cancelled years ago.
And he wants to change it over to everyone pays.
He will be shit out of luck.
Ha ha ha.

Stuff that, no. Left home at 17, 53 now and I've never owned a TV, much less watched the BBC.

god no
maybe they could start with reducing the number of staff that cover Glastonbury when it's on, I think it's close to 500 staff? How silly

those of us who have neither tv or licence cnnot open the article anyway

Yes, agree. If they'd suggested taking the licence fee out of general taxation 20 years ago, I might have been up for it. But now, when they're no longer impartial, they distort the news to fit their liberal-left agenda, most of their journalists are really out of touch: no way. Radio 4 is almost unbearable to listen to. The assumption that everyone is well-off and has left-wing views is ridiculous.

Let it go to subscription only, and compete with all the others.

I'd hate to have a world where everything we see is decided by a US tech company. So I'd like to see the BBC survive, and I think a ringfenced tax on every household is the only way to keep it separate to government owned and directed.

ITV is about to become part of a US Tech / media company (Comcast), 5 is already a part of Paramount. Channel 4 is government owned but a minnow in the industry now internationalisation has been rampant and there are questions about how long it will survive.
That is without the 'new media' platforms YouTube (Google - US), Amazon Prime (US) Insta / Facebook / WhatsApp (Meta - US) and Netflix (US).

TikTok is the only non-US media platform with any serious volume of viewing, and I don't think that's a great situation.

The BBC does have a really strong brand around the world and actively helps the UK in terms of influence and perception.

Then let it go to subscription only. If it's so great, surely people will recognise its greatness and will be happy to subscribe to it for £15 a month.

I wouldn’t mind paying for a genuinely independent and unbiased public news and information service.

That isn’t the current BBC.

I would strongly object to having to pay tax for a broadcaster that shows sports and entertainment programmes. That should always be voluntary.

I don’t watch BBC or any live tv (I don’t have a license because I don’t need it) so why should I be made to pay a mandatory tax?

you can click the 'maybe later' link to read the artice

Fuck that. I don't watch or listen to anything from the BBC and I would strongly object to paying for it. 2 tier subscription, with or without ads.

It should be a premium channel like Sky Sports. Allow people to opt out of ads on their websites and people overseas to subscribe to iplayer.

BBC has had its day..time to advertise
As they plug their own stuff to the hilt.

A utility bill charge - ha! What about people who can't / don't pay their current utilty bills? Run up shit loads of debt then end up having it wiped because the companies get fed up with trying to help them? I'm sure I want to pay extra because Joe and Jane Doe refuse to pay their bill. That can jog right off.

Molm - I want to recommend gdiddlydog channel on YouTube -
we don’t have a tv either

O ok, thanks!

I hate the bbc with every fibre of my being as they personally sparked a bout of serious depression in me when the savile stuff came out (too close to home). I sincerely hope they disappear. They're a smug, miserable, woke propaganda machine for this miserable leftist hellhole government. They also keep employing perverts and sex offenders. I don't even have a TV or watch any live stuff.

Their demise cannot come quickly enough.

I think that a one-off charge on anything that can view BBC programmes would be the least worst option. So when you buy a phone or a tablet, or a radio, for example.

I'd also agree to adverts beyond say the two main BBC tv and five main radio stations.

I would if it were my choice compel the BBC to stop showing the best argument for its abolition, the foul mouthed disgrace called Mrs Brown's Boys.