BBC Licence fee to be abolished in 2027

[knark]

Fucking Tories. Why do people vote for them? Why isn't there a viable opposition?

I would protest against this decision, but, oh, they've abolished that too.

Now, when you can watch pretty much whatever you want, when you want, it's hard to see what its role is.

That’s half the problem. People only wanting to watch what they want. It’s childish, like toddlers in a sweet shop. What about the stuff you need to be informed and educated about? The stuff your children should be informed and educated about? The stuff you don’t even know you don’t know, or don’t know you might actually like if you even knew about it. That’s what publically funded TV can be good at. You don’t get that stuff on Netflix or Amazon.

The BBC is biased. Given how much it produces how would you know that two people are thinking of the SAME thing as ‘the BBC’?

For me it’s the main website.
It does do excellent, unbiased in depth features HOWEVER overshadowed by lots of Daily Fail level dross.
‘Human interest’ stories where a couple of carefully selected idiotic specimen of humanity is interviewed for doom and gloom. ‘Woman misreads T&C’s, angry doesn’t get refund’ sort of thing

@Snowiscold

Now, when you can watch pretty much whatever you want, when you want, it's hard to see what its role is.

That’s half the problem. People only wanting to watch what they want. It’s childish, like toddlers in a sweet shop. What about the stuff you need to be informed and educated about? The stuff your children should be informed and educated about? The stuff you don’t even know you don’t know, or don’t know you might actually like if you even knew about it. That’s what publically funded TV can be good at. You don’t get that stuff on Netflix or Amazon.

But you can’t physically force the lowest common denominator to watch these things over Netflix. It doesn’t matter whether the BBC provides them if nobody watches

Fantastic news!

@Snowiscold

Now, when you can watch pretty much whatever you want, when you want, it's hard to see what its role is.

That’s half the problem. People only wanting to watch what they want. It’s childish, like toddlers in a sweet shop. What about the stuff you need to be informed and educated about? The stuff your children should be informed and educated about? The stuff you don’t even know you don’t know, or don’t know you might actually like if you even knew about it. That’s what publically funded TV can be good at. You don’t get that stuff on Netflix or Amazon.

You can't dictate what other people watch on TV 🙄

@Snowiscold

Now, when you can watch pretty much whatever you want, when you want, it's hard to see what its role is.

That’s half the problem. People only wanting to watch what they want. It’s childish, like toddlers in a sweet shop. What about the stuff you need to be informed and educated about? The stuff your children should be informed and educated about? The stuff you don’t even know you don’t know, or don’t know you might actually like if you even knew about it. That’s what publically funded TV can be good at. You don’t get that stuff on Netflix or Amazon.

In a thread full of stupid posts this is well up there.

Of course people only watch what they want to watch. Do you think that we should all be forced to watch 2 hours of state-controlled tv and stand up and sing the national anthem at the end of it.

JFC.

@Snowiscold

Now, when you can watch pretty much whatever you want, when you want, it's hard to see what its role is.

That’s half the problem. People only wanting to watch what they want. It’s childish, like toddlers in a sweet shop. What about the stuff you need to be informed and educated about? The stuff your children should be informed and educated about? The stuff you don’t even know you don’t know, or don’t know you might actually like if you even knew about it. That’s what publically funded TV can be good at. You don’t get that stuff on Netflix or Amazon.

But who gets to decide what "you need to be informed and educated about"? And who gets to decide what the nature of that 'education' should be? That sounds incredibly patronising, and how would you enforce this 'education'? Sounds a bit North Korea.

And to be fair, I've seen lots of informative documentaries on Amazon and Netflix.

@Snowiscold

Now, when you can watch pretty much whatever you want, when you want, it's hard to see what its role is.

That’s half the problem. People only wanting to watch what they want. It’s childish, like toddlers in a sweet shop. What about the stuff you need to be informed and educated about? The stuff your children should be informed and educated about? The stuff you don’t even know you don’t know, or don’t know you might actually like if you even knew about it. That’s what publically funded TV can be good at. You don’t get that stuff on Netflix or Amazon.

And how are you planning to force me to watch the BBC when I can get all of the information I need from other sources?

Disney+ has National Geographic which is where my DD gets a lot of educational information from, Netflix has plenty of documentaries and drama series that have encouraged me to do more research into the topics, as have programmes on ITV/C4/C5 (the best programme I have watched recently has been Anne on ITV), Sky Arts is a brilliant channel to access theatre and culture programmes and then there's there's availability of access to all sorts of informative and educational content on YouTube and the Internet.

Nothing on the BBC is so unique that it can't be accessed elsewhere for free, or at least cheaper, than the BBC licence fee.

Appalling cultural vandalism and all to try to save that lying, entitled, incompetent wanker Johnson's nasty little skin. You don't have to have a license if you don't want one - my mother didn't for 30 years, and never had a problem with the TV license people - just said she didn't have one and that was it. I still say the BBC is an absolute bargain for everything it offers - 13.25 per month vs (as best I can tell) 31 pounds per month for combo of sky and Netflix - what am I missing here?

@VeryQuaintIrene

Appalling cultural vandalism and all to try to save that lying, entitled, incompetent wanker Johnson's nasty little skin. You don't have to have a license if you don't want one - my mother didn't for 30 years, and never had a problem with the TV license people - just said she didn't have one and that was it. I still say the BBC is an absolute bargain for everything it offers - 13.25 per month vs (as best I can tell) 31 pounds per month for combo of sky and Netflix - what am I missing here?

Your mother was very lucky to get away with it then. If you own a TV or even a laptop, you are legally obliged to have a licence. Of course many people get away with not having one, but that doesn't change the fact that if you are caught, you are breaking the law and may face serious consequences.

If you think the BBC is a great bargain, then by all means pay for it. You've compared it to Sky and NF, but the difference is that nobody has to buy subscriptions to these services. It's a choice. So why shouldn't the same be true for the Beeb? If you enjoy their services, you can pay for them. If you don't, then don't. That would be fair and reasonable, wouldn't it?

If you own a TV or even a laptop, you are legally obliged to have a licence

No you aren't.

@LuckyMeISeeGhosts

If you own a TV or even a laptop, you are legally obliged to have a licence

No you aren't.

You are.

"The law says you need to be covered by a TV Licence to:

watch or record programmes as they’re being shown on TV, on any channel
watch or stream programmes live on an online TV service (such as ITV Hub, All 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV, Sky Go, etc.)
download or watch any BBC programmes on BBC iPlayer.

This applies to any device you use, including a TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, games console, digital box or DVD/VHS recorder."

www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one

You don’t need a tv license for your laptop or tablet or whatever if you don’t watch BBC iPlayer on it!

Or any of those other devices!

@VeryQuaintIrene

Appalling cultural vandalism and all to try to save that lying, entitled, incompetent wanker Johnson's nasty little skin. You don't have to have a license if you don't want one - my mother didn't for 30 years, and never had a problem with the TV license people - just said she didn't have one and that was it. I still say the BBC is an absolute bargain for everything it offers - 13.25 per month vs (as best I can tell) 31 pounds per month for combo of sky and Netflix - what am I missing here?

Isn't it illegal not to have one if you need one though?

I pay £9.99 for Netflix and £7.99 for Disney so £18 overall. If BBC works out at £13 a month then I'm definitely not getting my monies worth. We have CBeebies on for an hour in the morning, and I use the Good Food website probably once a week. Can't think I use BBC for anything else. So definitely not a "bargain".

The trouble with the "TV License" is that the model doesn't work anymore. It doesn't just fund TV. It funds radio and news and weather and GCSE learning materials and symphony orchestras. Someone might have to have a TV license if they watch an hour of Comedy Gold a week, and someone else who has Radio 2 on continuously may not have to have one. You can argue for Government intervention of this market failure if we knew the BBC were more competitive in terms of what they produce (across the board) but they're just not. (And the people who think they are can continue to fund them appropriately without dragging the rest of us into it.)

@phishy

You don’t need a tv license for your laptop or tablet or whatever if you don’t watch BBC iPlayer on it!

Did you read the link?

"The law says you need to be covered by a TV Licence to:

watch or record programmes as they’re being shown on TV, on any channel
watch or stream programmes live on an online TV service (such as ITV Hub, All 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV, Sky Go, etc.)
download or watch any BBC programmes on BBC iPlayer."

So if you watch any live TV, not just BBC, you need a license.

@IcedPurple

She wasn't "lucky" to get away with anything. She didn't have one (it's true that she was quite technology averse). Once they came to her door, she invited them in to have a look, and thereafter every couple of years they'd write to her, she said no I still don't have one, and that was that.

@IcedPurple

Fine, but that poster said you need a tv license if you OWN a laptop, which isn’t true.

[quote VeryQuaintIrene]@IcedPurple

She wasn't "lucky" to get away with anything. She didn't have one (it's true that she was quite technology averse). Once they came to her door, she invited them in to have a look, and thereafter every couple of years they'd write to her, she said no I still don't have one, and that was that.[/quote]
Good for her, but she was still breaking the law.

She may have got away with it, but many do not.

So if you watch any live TV, not just BBC, you need a license.

If you own a TV or even a laptop, you are legally obliged to have a licence

These are not the same thing - your original statement was that if you own a TV or laptop at all then you have to have a licence whenthat is not the case at all.

I don't have a licence as I don't watch BBC content or any other live TV broadcast, bug I do have TVs, tablets and laptops in my home perfectly legally.

I don’t think I’d like it if they started adding TV license to my broadband bill.

I pay for broadband, but I don’t pay for a TV license, so I’d have to start paying for a TV license through my broadband.

@melj1213

So if you watch any live TV, not just BBC, you need a license.

If you own a TV or even a laptop, you are legally obliged to have a licence

These are not the same thing - your original statement was that if you own a TV or laptop at all then you have to have a licence whenthat is not the case at all.

I don't have a licence as I don't watch BBC content or any other live TV broadcast, bug I do have TVs, tablets and laptops in my home perfectly legally.

Fair enough, the word 'own' was inaccurate.

[quote phishy]**@IcedPurple

Fine, but that poster said you need a tv license if you OWN a laptop, which isn’t true.[/quote]
I see that poster was actually you, @IcedPurple

You are misinformed,

Fair enough, the word 'own' was inaccurate

Totally.

watch or record programmes as they’re being shown on TV, on any channel
watch or stream programmes live on an online TV service (such as ITV Hub, All 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV, Sky Go, etc.)
download or watch any BBC programmes on BBC iPlayer.

But you can own a TV or laptop and not do any of that can’t you? Just not watch anything live, I mean. And not watch BBC iplayer?