bbc license fee to be bundled with other bills

[jobhunter7]

www.theguardian.com/media/2020/mar/31/tv-licence-fee-could-be-replaced-by-broadband-levy-says-bbc

doesn't sound a bad idea to me...if they were just to reduce the fee as well a lot and the size of bbc... bbc 4, radio 4, a rolling multimedia news service and maybe some kids tv... everything else could be done just as well in the commercial sector...

Sweden has done this. It’s now on the tax bill so you have to pay even if you don’t watch TV.

It’s different if it’s an actual tax (or part of general taxation). I doubt parliament would be all that keen on a specific new tax, and we pay for all sorts through general taxation, so it matters little if some of it goes to funding the bbc. Although the BBC don’t want that anyway for various reasons.

What’s been floated is a stealth levy on broadband and I doubt anyone is up for that: broadband providers, customers or anyone else.

I expect the BBC are panicking because they realise the massive amount of people that have lost their incomes will be looking at every option to cut their outgoings and with the ability to still watch TV with it I think many will take that option. I think people will also possibly just refuse to pay it and take their chances.

For those that say that the BBC offers great value for money at £14 a month, it really doesn't when you consider that it could still do what it does but fund itself through advertising, product placement etc. It really is a very outdated model and I hope that this crisis sees the end of it being funded through the licence fee.

BBC radio is free and always has been, forever

You don't need a TV licence to listen to the radio

You can have no TV or radio in your property

However, your vehicle, may have a radio

FREE

I just can't understand why a licence is necessary to watch ANY channel,not just the BBC. I was told this when I phoned their licencing centre after getting a letter 2 months ago because I had not renewed my licence. The reason I hadn't renewed it was because 2 months before it expired,my TV stopped working. When I phoned them to tell them this,the man on the phone ran through a check list to ensure that I didn't need a licence,and one of the questions was 'Do you watch ANY live TV channel,not just BBC ones'. I was .

I just can't understand why a licence is necessary to watch ANY channel,not just the BBC
Who do you think pays for all of the transmitters that you are using to receive the other channels?

Fuck that. I don't have a license because I don't watch live tv or iPlayer. Why should I have to pay?

I'm vaguely annoyed I'd be expected to have a license to watch live channels from abroad.

Also, my BB is £27/ month, add another £13/ month and it's another 50% which is a massive increase for something I neither want, nor need.

Help! LB is 9 months and has always been good at going to sleep. OH puts him to bed and is upstairs for less than 10 minutes until he falls asleep. Always had a fairly solid routine (consisting of mainly bath, bottle, bed). Suddenly the last week or so (before the clocks changed) he now just screams everytime we take him in his room at bedtime. Hes absolutely fine going up the stairs etc and has been in his own room a while now - just gets inconsolable as soon as we take him in.

We have tried reading him a story but he just gets more and more upset.
We've tried giving him his teddy to take to bed.
Weve tried sleeping with his sheets for a few nights so they smell like us.
I'm pretty sure it's not teeth as he never really suffers with them (half the time I dont even realise theyve cut through!)

It's got to the point where we just have to wait it out until he cries himself to sleep (about 20 minutes usually) but obviously not how we want to continue!

Any ideas?! Thanks!

“The BBC is a universal service – one to which everyone contributes and everyone receives something in return,” said the BBC in its argument to maintain the current system.

Except it's not. Plenty of people don't pay the license fee and don't watch the BBC or any live channels.

“Any system based on a universal contribution must have a sufficient deterrent and sanction to ensure that principle holds up and the system is fair to those who do pay, as well as those who don’t.”

How is that fair to those who don't need one?

As long as it's not bundled for people who have no need for it then ok. But it's sounds like it's not scrapping the charge but just changing the way it is paid.

Of course, it will be, though. If they were only charging the people who use it, they could just keep the licence exactly as it is now.

If this happens, it will be for two purposes:

1. To force everybody to pay for it whether they use it or not;
2. To mask the cost from the majority who currently do use it, so as to prevent them from wondering, as time goes on and technology and media consumption options evolve, whether they might decide to give up watching broadcast TV and save their money.

I agree with TonyChestnut above that it can be very good value for money - it is for us - but it should still not be forced on those who don't want to use it. I would also expect (without holding my breath) the price to drop, once the admin costs plummet from what they are with the existing system.

Most people pay by direct debit nowadays, anyway, so it feels just like another utility payment going out every month; rather than in the old days, when you would have to go out to the post office, fill in a form to 'apply' for it and hand over a year's payment in one go in exchange for an actual physical paper licence.

It also seems quite unfair for the ISPs (not that I have any sympathy for the big boys, but fair's fair), as they then become the bad guys doing all the admin to collect in money on somebody else's behalf. It's a bit like when a business crosses the VAT threshold and suddenly their prices have to go up 20% and people grumble about their 'greed', no matter how much you try to explain it to some of them.

Petrol stations are probably the extreme scenario (along with tobacco, but no sympathy from me there), where they have to handle and process an awful lot of money on behalf of the government. Motorists complain about what a rip-off they all are, when getting on for half of it is tax - and then VAT is added again on to the total. Petrol stations only actually make about 5p per litre, but because their prices already carry all of these extra charges to bump up the headline price that drivers have to pay, an extra penny or two added on top elicits huge complaints about their apparent profiteering.

I don't watch live TV anymore.

Happy to make the BBC commercial. Its day has gone.

@21Aliss

I think you must have clicked in the wrong place as your question has ended up in the middle of a thread about the TV licence rather than starting a new thread which might get you some helpful answers

That’s incredibly unfair. Broadband is a necessity for a lot of people these days, television is a luxury. People shouldn’t be forced to subsidise tv watchers. If the BBC is failing to support itself through providing value to its consumers then it should be allowed to die.

I for one would be happy to see the BBC forced to stop the adverts that it currently shows. They're not usually ads for products (although a lot of the programmes skate on thin ice with 'reviews' and apparent product placement), but the many ads (they probably euphemistically call them trailers) for the BBC itself.

The most annoying of all is indeed the slew of adverts for the TV licence itself. Adverts to encourage you to pay your subscription which buys you a supposedly advert-free service - Alanis Morisette should have written about that.

RandomLondoner

The BBC is in no way comparable to the nhs or education.

At the moment anyone that watches "live" tv has to pay for it.

To add it to a system that the BBC has nothing to do with would IMO be criminal.

The BBC is in no way linked to broadband provision and to screw people over so that fat cats can get their stupidly high salaries and bonuses would and should be considered extortion.

Just get rid of live television and have streaming only. Optionally solely via smart televisions, so people don't have to have a general broadband connection for other uses. Then people can choose what they want to watch and pay for (without adverts).

Could make installation of the connection free for 70+ still, so they aren't left without it.

The BBC can still do plenty within that model (apart from all their non-television activities).

It's a terrible idea. I dont subscribe to the BBC and have no tv aerial. The license fee at £150ish a year is too expensive for me. I have broadband for work and Netflix for kids just £5.99 a month.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll ooo weird! I havent even seen this thread before 🤣🤣 must have been a glitch! Thanks! 🤣