POLL! Should BBC only be available via subscription? So we can scrap the TV licence?

[Ravenblack]

Following on from a recent thread ... Some people think the BBC TV licence should be scrapped, and some people think it's WELL worth the money and everyone should still pay for it ... even if they don't watch BBC, or access any of its services.

Some people on the thread - including me - think it should be changed to subscription, and do not agree with everyone having to pay the BBC licence fee ...

Sooo..

Click YABU if you think things should stay as they are, and EVERYONE should still pay the licence fee (whether they use BBC or not???)

And YANBU if you agree with me, that BBC should change to subscription, and the licence fee should be scrapped??? That way, people who want the BBC, and who use its services, can pay for it, and us people who don't want it/don't use it, don't have to subsidise them all!

Just to be clear, when you say you never use BBC...does that include all news services, bbc radio, world service, bbc sounds and local radio stations?

YABU.

Yes I DO mean BBC channels and all of its services. My OP does state that

Definitely YANBU.

BBC are heading towards a subscription service anyway AFAIK.

I don't think they would change it. It works out to £13 per month. If I could, I'd subscribe for the months that I wanted it then cancel and others might do similar causing a surge around Christmas and when strictly is on.
As it is now, we're tied in for the year.

Our SKY service is for one TV only and requires a piece of equipment in addition to the TV (the sky box), something like netflix requires a smart TV and reliable internet connection.
I don't want to pay and not be able to watch the news in the kitchen at breakfast time.
Or would it be a pay once get access to everything they produce on as many devices as you want, no extra equipment or Internet access required, for say the very reasonable price of around £12 a month? Oh wait...

Thanks for your comments! And votes.

YANBU. I don't use any BBC services at all

The tv license covers live tv of all channels not just the bbc I agree it shouldn’t still exist but making the bbc subscription only wouldn’t make them stop charging it

YANBU. I quit paying for it a few years ago and it felt liberating. I don’t watch the BBC, I haven’t for years.

@Milsplus3 it’s not true, it is purely for the BBC. Other channels have advertisements.

There's now nothing to distinguish the BBC from any other subscription model outfit, in my humble opinion. If they want to play with the big boys by abandoning their charter, then they can live or die with them too, and not expect to be propped up with a tax on users.

YANBU - although it breaks my (and Lord Reiths) heart.

No one here reads bbc news online? 😮

No one here reads bbc news online?

Actually it was BBC "New" that tipped me over.

News , of course ...

Don’t bother with any of it

Better to let them use advertising to make up the shortfall imo.

I can't see a poll but YANBU. I live overseas and miss it and would happily pay for it on subscription like I do Netflix and amazon prime.

Most people overseas I know still manage to watch it anyway via illegal streaming and I'm pretty sure most of them would be happier to pay for a decent on demand service.

Yes I read the BBC News. But if I did not pay for it, their are plenty of other channels that have exactly the same news.

I cancelled our licence recently as we don't watch bbc so why bother? Don't feel like giving them money when they just cancel the shows I liked to watch anyway.

Yanbu

This country would be far poorer without the BBC. These threads always depress me. They produce world-leading television, fairly unbiased news (the fact that both sides believe it's biased in the opposite direction show how unbiased they manage to be!), as-free radio stations of unparalleled quality and they hold the other broadcasters in this country to account. They're the reason we don't have ad breaks every 7 minutes on the commercial stations like the US do.

Better to let them use advertising to make up the shortfall imo.

Advertising changes programme making. Your primary consumer is no longer the viewer but the advertiser and your priorities change accordingly. Not only that but storytelling has to adjust to encompass as breaks. Things become more sensationalised with more frequent "cliffhanger" moments in order to entice you back, and recaps when you are back.

YANBU but I have no vote button

How would you switch BBC radio to a subscription model? 34 million individual people in the UK listen to BBC radio each week.

Adverts are possible - not my personal choice, but possible - but a subscription model is a non-starter for radio or (IMO) for a mass market TV service with an increasingly elderly demographic.

The vote button is back! I noticed it disappeared earlier for an hour or so. (On ALL polls... must have been a glitch.)