to wonder what would happen if EVERYONE stopped paying for their TV licence?

[shirleyhyypia]

Surely you cant put all of the UK in prison?
How does it even work, how do they decide who is responsible in a household with more than one adult?

I really begrudge paying for the TV license since I NEVER watch BBC or tbh hardly any TV at all. Its shit. I'd rather watch paint dry than watch a soap opera.

PooMachine - If you don't watch TV, you don't have to pay the licence fee.

Of course, you will then still benefit if you listen to BBC radio or access to the BBC website. Are you saying you or your family never use these either?

Why would I stop paying for something that I regard as a complete bargain?

Usually when I want to watch something I record it (can never depend on not being too tired/distracted /Mumsnetting at broadcast time) which lets me skip through the ads. I don't want to sit through four and a half minutes of adverts every 10-15 minutes ('Voyager' on Channel One). Recently 'Primeval' came back on ITV1 and we watched it as broadcast - sitting through the ads was TORTURE.

Long live advert-free broadcasting and being able to immerse yourself in a programme all the way to the end without being ejected from it periodically by commercial breaks!

What everyone else said.

I would never stop paying for something that is such a bargain.

Plenty of people choose to pay the equivalent of their licence fee to Sky for slightly more than two months of rubbish their programming when the licence fee covers us for a whole year.

Can you imagine how much Murdoch would start to charge if there was no BBC? Murdoch doesn't hate the BBC's "monopoly". It's simply a monopoly that he would like to have.

R4 would go off the air and I would have to talk to my children

have no problem with paying a licence fee! 6music and radio 4 are bloody brilliant

tv with no ads-blissful!

It's always a shock when we decide to watch something not on BBC. The ads are a complete bloody nightmare! I don't know how anyone stands it.

Just to answer the original question it would be paid via tax.

In Australia you don't pay a TV licence fee. They had one but people stopped paying it in the 70s I believe. So instead of spending lots of money on recovering the fee the ABC is funded out of tax revenue.

A few years ago the ABC used to quote it cost each tax payer just 8 cents a day. Bargain I think.

Personally I'm more then happy to pay for the BBC but I do think it should come out of tax revenue thus reduce the administrative cost of having a separate licence fee and licence fee recovery.

It's a bargain, all the BBC channels, the radio channels, the website, the "one big weekend".

Where would I be without the children's programming? What about things like bitesize, that help and encourage youngsters with schoolwork?

It would be a travesty to lose an impartial broadcaster.

I have Virgin and if I don't pay for a channel then I don't receive it. I think they should do the same for the BBC. That way people can choose if they want to pay the licence fee or not.

I very rarely, about once in every 1000th blue moon watch BBC tv. I haven't listened to the radio in years. As for the website, yes I used the BBC news website the other day but I could have got the information from other sources.

The BBC etc would become littered with advertisements & programming would NOT improve.

Have you ever watched TV in USA, Australia or NZ???? British TV is far far superior mainly due to the presence of the BBC. Licence fee worth every penny IMO.

they wouldnt put everyone in prison theyd just fine us.

I just think it is ridiclous to charge students in halls seperately for each individual room, and also even in a shared house, they expect everyone to pay if not on a joint tenancy agreement. I dont even haave a bloody telly in my roon, but will they believe that?!?!?!

ChaoticAngelofAnarchy - How do you manage to pay Virgin only for the channels you want?

In our area even the most basic "package" contains many channels I really do not want and, if I would like a channel which is in one of the other packages, I have to take and pay for a whole many more that I do not want.

well - I think one area of massive saving for the government is to stop sending out millions and millions of tv licence reminders to people like me who have opted out, don't have a TV and use iplayer once in a blue moon - I do feel like i should pay something because of the national radio stations, the excellent on-line news service and the amazing world service (that keeps britain high up in the world's estimation) but I am seriously reducing outgoings so feel justfied in not paying.

I have reminders about once every two months and sometimes a flurry of more than five in a month, yet twice I have registered as being TV less - the last time(today) I got a letter 'advising me what i would need for the court case' - er proof that I have registered as being without a TV perhaps??

I dont watch anything on BBC and I don;t listen to their radio stations either.

If not for my son I would not have a TV, all the programmes I watch are on freeview channels or via an iPlayer service after they have been aired.

My son goes to uni soon. Im disconnecting my TV when he does.

I'd happily pay double the tv licence if I could have double the amount of advert-free television.

The commercial channels are becoming more and more like the US with longer and more frequent ad. breaks. It is not uncommon to have the first ad break less than 10 minutes in to an hour long programme.

Apart from the occasional dreadful program which I think is their way of trying to be "hip" - the BBC is great and the license fee worth every penny. N American tv, is rubbish. 100 channels of free rubbish. There are very occasional good series like The Wire, but frankly these are few and far between. The children's programs, like Horrible Histories and the Sarah Jane Adventures are also excellent. In N America much of the children's programming is Hannah Montana style - lots of pre teens in short skirts and full make up being rude to adults. Also you cannot imagine how annoying the adverts are - at least twice as frequent as on British tv. I'm sure it's because they have to compete with an ad free channel.Having said that, we live abroad right now and watch the BBC via I Player so we don't pay the license fee! But now I feel quite guilty about it... perhaps I should send them an anonymous "donation".

The BBC is great. I would happily pay double the license fee to have independent non commercial broadcasting.

In terms of what would happen if everyone refused, well what happens when people all go on strike or all refuse to pay poll tax or various other examples of collective action across history. So there would be a political reaction. I would imagine at the moment we would then get privatised, commercial TV a go go with the BBC sold off the highest bidding Tory croney. Not something I would relish.

Yes, I know the tv I do watch is made with licence payer money

And no I don't listen to BBC radio. Do use the website but would quite happily substitute for others.

I do understand why it's worth paying - but they are explicitly happy for people not to pay IF they aren't watching live telly - why shouldn't I take that opportunity for a year? I'm not doing anything illegal. The licence fee is a massive amount of money to my family so we are trying it just this year.

FWIW I have heard they are thinking of introducing a mini licence specifically for those who only use iplayer et al and that's great, I'd happily pay that if it existed, because it'd be a legal requirement.

Big BBC supporter here. Worth it just for Radio 4.

I often think Virgin Media are missing a trick, there are plenty of channels I would pay extra NOT to receive - would put an end to arguing with the kids.

Oh and I totally agree about people who happily pay masses for sky et al and then whinge about the licence fee, that is bizarre. My friend had that exact rant to me the other week We had virgin media for a couple of years but when we moved to a non-cabled area we realised how much happier we were without all the channels and choice and adverts.

My DSCs keep asking us why we won't get sky ("but it's only £50 a month dad...") - errrrm because we don't watch enough telly to make it worthwhile! They always look at us like this

FabbyChic "I dont watch anything on BBC ... all the programmes I watch are on freeview channels or via an iPlayer service after they have been aired"

So you like BBC programmes sufficiently to watch them on iPlayer (IMO sufficient reason to pay the licence fee) BUT somehow you restrain yourself from watching those same programmes live on Freeview?

hazchem - I actually like the fact that television has its own "tax".

Wouldn't it be nice if all "services" had individual "taxes" applied, like television, water etc?

That way, like the Channel Islands, I could opt out of paying for, for example, the wars in Afghanistan, Trident etc by not having them used in my name .