To cancel my TV licence

[trampoline123]

I want to cancel my TV licence because I'm fed up of the way they broadcast the news. The language they use and the way they report is biased and quite frankly sickening. I don't want to fund it in any way shape or form.

AIBU to cancel my tv license for this reason?

I cancelled mine after Christmas and I haven't missed it at all. I didn't watch any live tv anyway so that was no big deal. We used to watch stuff on iplayer but we just don't now. Just the same as if we didn't have Netflix we wouldn't watch that.

There is absolutely loads of BBC stuff on ITVx.

There is a form on the TV license page to fill in.

Megifer, just so we know, what else is ok to steal?

any channels

This thread is about TV licence, I was just letting op know I've not had one for a while.

I did accidentally steal a cucumber or might have been an onion from Tesco and went back and paid for it though.

What is being stolen?

Theft is the dishonest appropriation of property. Electronic signals aren't property since they have no physical entity. That's why the "offence" is "watching" TV.

The TV licence was something which made sense 70 years ago, when there were no other alternative sources and advertising revenue wasn't like it is now. So the TV licence was introduced as a way of paying for a service that almost everyone used.

Clearly that is no longer the case.

The law just hasn't caught up with the technology. Although this is deliberate, because the Government doesn't want to be see spending tax money to pay for soap operas.

What about sky though? Say for example sky news?

When we moved back to the UK three years ago, the container with our furniture took a good six months to follow. As such, we were without a TV (or beds, wardrobes, pots, pans and cutlery!) for six months. I received a television licence letter, and I called the company to explain that we currently had no TV. This happened for three months running, and I politely called them on receipt of each letter. Then I gave up, as there's only so many times you can say the same thing. Then we received a letter stating that an inspector would visit. He did visit one evening - a polite gentleman who explained at the outset that he had no statutory authrity and I had no obligation to let him in. DH was home, so I was happy to let him in and show him all the empty, furnitureless rooms. If he had found a television I'd have been thrilled! We did get a TV licence when the television arrived, obvs.

Not had one for years and am glad not to pay the BBC this ridiculously outdated fee. I despise what they have become and don't even listen to Radio 4 anymore thanks to some of the annoyingly smug and vastly overpaid presenters who can't even do the very simple job of reading words off a screen without adding their own opinions (or speaking clearly at a normal pace).

Its anything that is being broadcast live. So the sport on Prime counts, or wating Coronation Street on ITV as it is broadcast.

However you can watch the same programmes on Catch Up.

If you cancel, you can’t watch any BBC and any live TV. You can watch pre-recorded / pay on demand services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc. You can even watch the other British channels, as long as they aren’t being broadcast at the time of viewing. It is worth knowing the regulations, so you are fully compliant. We stopped paying the licence fee five years ago. We probably watched 5 or 6 hours of TV a year before that and haven’t missed it at all. I’ve stopped listening to BBC radio too, having been brought up on Radio 4 every morning. It has done my mental health the world of good. I get my news from a newspaper subscription and free sites, as and when I choose.

YANBU. It's a stealth tax, you'd be a mug to pay it. I haven't watched live broadcasts for years. Most television is rubbish these days.

I haven't paid my TV license in years. But I don't watch the BBC at all
or any live TV. It's always streamed through on catch-up(never iplayer)/prime/Netflix, etc.
You self declare, and they email every two years to check that you still don't want it.

YABU.
Individual reporters use their own language.

There is no one cross referencing language used in reports to make sure it reflects relative levels of deaths across world events that day. Do you imagine they have some sort of chart that they use, so that if an event reflects 10% of deaths that day they can use the term ‘ unfortunate’ but if it’s 50% they use the term ‘massacre’.?

There is no such chart and you can’t expect this level of what you seem to imagine is consistency.

The BBC is not perfect but it’s a lot better than the alternative of extremely biased, and openly so, news channels in places like USA which has almost certainly contributed to the extreme polarization of politics there.

I listen to the BBC via Radio 4 daily and I think the reporting is pretty good.

They get criticized from both sides of the debate in ME for bias, and on a host of other issues, which I think is telling.

The BBC does not reflect our own personal views and I do wonder if so many people consuming news from what are partisan sources has led people to subconsciously expect this from the BBC too. That’s not what they do and I am glad of it.

I listen to radio 4 and there has been loads on Rafah on there.

Do it! I cancelled last year and it's so nice knowing I am no longer funding BBC propaganda and hate (and I never watched any of their rubbish channels anyway).

If you don't watch any live tv or Iplayer, you don't need a licence and you'll save yourself money.

If any goons turn up at your door, don't answer it and don't talk to them. If you accidentally open the door, just close it and don't say anything. They have no legal powers.

As the majority of other providers use the BT Openreach system, that's exactly what happens. It's just that Sky, etc, pay them out of the money you hand over, instead of BT invoicing you direct.

I've never had a TV license. We have a TV but it's only used for gaming and watching Netflix. After years of getting letters from TV Licensing, I did finally get an inspector show up last week. He could see I had a TV, but didn't ask to check it wasn't tuned in to receive TV (not that I would have let him in the house). He filled in a form to say I was exempt and spent most of the time asking about my caravan!

I like having a TV. Use my phone also

PS
For me reasoning was twofold:
Around the same time that I was finding myself no longer enjoying BBC news and programming because of political messaging being relentlessly shoved down our throats, I found out that the biggest single reason why women in the U.K. are in prison is non payment of the BBC licence fee. Most are classed as vulnerable. They are widows who never managed their finances before their husbands died. They are single Mums living precariously on food bank donations. Non-payment if anything else would be a civil offence that might result in a fine. But the BBC gives criminal records to otherwise law abiding, poor and vulnerable women. I won’t get one on principle now. Not unless it is decriminalised.

Are you posting from the 1970s? 😂

Why did you let a stranger into your house?

Why did you even speak with Capita?

Those letters are just computer generated, there is no "investigation".

Do you usually fall for scams?

You let a stranger walk into your home to "check" something!

He could have been anybody.

If a random man knocked on your door and asked to check the contents of your fridge would you have let him in also?

I hope you didn't sign anything.

It's a common tactic of the Capita sales people, they look around and than ask you to sign their paperwork to "confirm that you don't have a TV". This paperwork is a prosecution witness statement called a TVL 127 form, they basically write out a statement admitting that a TV is being watched illegally and then get gullible people to sign it. You end up in court, they get their commission.

These scumbags aren't decent people, they aren't nice or polite. They prey on the vulnerable and poor.

You were really silly to let that man into your home.

Yes they can, pay for it if you want to watch it, how are they supposed yo make programmes with no money?

Omg, criminal of the century. Go straight to Mumsnet/BBC gulag for your daily gruel!

Hasn't the Palestinian issue pushed Ukraine out of the news until this week? Nobody has heard much about Ukraine for months it's all been the awful events in Gaza

Hope you get caught?
How do you think they make programmes, pay radio staff etc if nobody pays?

You can't watch It X either