To not understand people who want to get rid of the tv licence but watch iplayer

[MeFour]

If none of us bought a tv licence and all wanted to watch everything after the event on iplayer there would be nothing to watch as they wouldn't have the money. Yes they get money from other sources but surely iplayer is one of the things that would go.

I agree that babies shoudn't be watching TV. My four year old loves cbeebies.

My TV package is with Virgin and I don't have access to the Documentary, National Geographic or History channels unless I pay extra. Also, if they are funded with revenue from advertising, they can hardly be impartial in the way that the BBC aims to be.

You might want to look into that greenbananas. My parents have Virgin, don't pay any extra, but certainly watch the History Channel and channels like Yesterday - It's like a trip down memory lane for them! My father is never happier than when watching old war scenes and my mum loves the 'Edwardian Home' and cookery programmes about rationing!

DD (7) doesn't watch much TV, but when she does chooses Boomerang or Cartoonito. As a 4 year old she loved Nick Jr and lived on a diet of Dora and Diego. Vamanos!

We've never had a TV here. We do watch iplayer but if you had to have a licence for it then we wouldn't iyswim. We don't watch much anyway. We just watched DVDs before the iplayer came out.

The history channel documentaries I've discovered are ideal for my 5yo interested in WWII. Everything is given in bite sized chunks, repeated several times with a breathless excited voice. Ideal for 5yos but very irritating for me. They're better on DVD too because you don't have the adverts.

The TV licence should be scrapped for the one and only reason it pays for Eastenders. You may think children shouldn't be watching adverts for toys, I don't agree. I don't mind at all.

I've never had a TV license; I watch IPlayer.

You may enjoy paying the BBC money, but if you like it so much, I suggest you make them a generous donation and stop guilt-tripping people who are less well-off than you, and who are using a service which the BBC (who, just possibly, know more about their financial situation than you do), have decided to offer for free.

The History Channel used to do good educational programmes, now it's mostly reruns of Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, and their offshoots and doomsday programmes. TLC, and the channels that come from it like Discovery and History, have gone downhill since they are no longer part of the US's Education Department and NASA budgets and had to go fully private. Great example of what happens in media goes completely private.

A middle ground could be reached though (some public funding, some advert commercial funding).

We use Netflix and You Tube. We deliberately don't have a TV licence because we don't need it; have set up our TV so we can't access digital channels. We do have access to catch up tv through the PC and Xbox but even then we don't use it. I'm glad I can currently opt out of the licence, might not be able to if/when they extend it to cover catch up services.

Last thing I watched on TV was the O'Reilly/Stewart debate on You Tube. I really don't miss regular TV and would resent having to pay the licence.

I have no TV license (though have regular arguments with them when they start sending threatening letters) as I have no TV. I also don't watch iPlayer TV (though I do listen to radio shows). In any case though, I would never pay the equivalent of three meals out with my DH to watch something live when I could just watch it later for free.

There seems to be a moral undertone here, we are talking about the BB crappy C not saying dodge paying higher rate income tax!
I live abroad and download everything I need or watch live tv via a proxy thing. Adverts are a treat for us although a bit bemused as to why they are either for ambulance chasers,payday loans or housewife bingo. What happened to those Mattel adverts of our youth?

Those 1 hour programs you watch are actually about 41 minutes long. My life is too short to spend 1 hour watching 40 minutes of program. I do think that it's cheeky that you have to pay for your license 6 months ahead if you pay by direct debit, and that getting a refund if you leave the country is like trying to get blood from a stone.

I successfully sued them. I got everything back from them. Now I watch it illegally (in UK illegal not here) which is much more enjoyable.

I once moved into a house that had previously been used for 3 tenants - so 3 TV licenses.

It took over 9 months to get the licensing people to stop sending threatening letters to Room 1, Room 2 and Room 3. When they eventually 'got it' and sent one addressed just to me - I was moving out!

They then chased me at my next address...where I didn't even have a TV!

Cowboys they are, bloody cowboys.

That's why I sued them. The threatening phonecall was recorded. It cost me a few hundred quid but was worth it.

'You may enjoy paying the BBC money, but if you like it so much, I suggest you make them a generous donation and stop guilt-tripping people who are less well-off than you, and who are using a service which the BBC (who, just possibly, know more about their financial situation than you do), have decided to offer for free.'

the BBC do NOT offer it for free - they offer it because it is funded through the licence fee. No licence fees= no services at all from the BBC inc iPlayer to anyone whether living in UK or not .

No, they offer it free, over. Trust me, you don't have to pay the license fee to watch Iplayer on the time delay.

I am sure if this were not financially viable, they wouldn't do it. They're not actually idiots.

I don't object to people watching Iplayer without a licence, but I can't help but look down on people that don't like the BBC because it's like admitting that you like crap telly.

When you move to a country where you have to pay the licence fee and every single channel still has adverts, you miss the BBC.

Dont see why i should pay for something i can watch for free a few hours later. Nearly a 150 quid to watch TV ? You are joking. No way.

"There is a dedicated Documentary channel on Sky/Freeview. There is also the National Geographic Channel and the History Channel. All produce very good quality programmes."

Not all of us have Sky or want Sky.

I am happy to pay for a TV licence because I prefer to watch TV on my lovely largeish TV screen and not on a laptop with poor sound quality and poor picture quality (I have eyesight problems as well)

"I suggest you make them a generous donation and stop guilt-tripping people who are less well-off than you"

The licence fee breaks down to £2.78 per week.

"but I can't help but look down on people that don't like the BBC because it's like admitting that you like crap telly."

That made me laugh.

Great, you can pay 2.78 a week and stop implying everyone else has it spare.

i would happily give up all bbc tv and radio channels if i could opt out of the tv licence.

Freeview isn't Sky.

"but I can't help but look down on people that don't like the BBC because it's like admitting that you like crap telly."

What, like Eastenders? Oh yes, that's so much better

So keep the licence fee but let people opt out of it, how can anyone object to that if people don't want to watch the BBC? I'd probably still pay it but I object to being forced to.

Am totally 100% happy to pay the licence fee - and I hardly ever watch tv.

But when I do, the luxury of not having to sit through 20% advertising in any given schedule is priceless.