To say that the TV Licence should be abolished?

[Appalonia]

When I look at what I watch on TV these days on the BBC, it's really only Strictly, repeats of TOTP and Glastonbury . There's nothing else that interests me. I listen to Trevor Nelson on R2, but that's it. I watch Netflix, Amazon much more and some shows on ITV, C4 or Sky Arts. And a lot of interviews on YouTube and podcasts. I also object to how the BBC posits itself as the voice of truth and neutrality, but it really isn't these days, on so many issues.

Why are we forced to pay for a service that has had its day and is no longer fit for service?

Yes and they don't do it out of the goodness of their hearts they will be making a healthy profit .

Gavin ands Stacey, Wolf Hall, Detectorists, Only Connect...just off the top of my head. Nobody else would have made Wolf Hall.
I still think it's good value. I had to cancel Netflix because I kept getting hacked and it seems now that everything I might want to watch is on a different subscription service. Slow Horses, Apple TV. the new Black Doves is on Netflix (d'oh!), then there's Disney plus and Sky Atlantic. All those subscriptions soon mount up and they keep putting the prices up. I do have Amazon Prime but it seems to me that every time I want to watch something there they want to charge me extra. Sod that.

Maybe but they don't advertise gambling, for example. We watched Bake Off Extra Slice last night and there were loads of adverts for gambling apps.

It's only good value if you watch and enjoy what they show ,lots of people don't

Yes, relentlessly - including the TV licence.

I never watch it or any live tv. I thought you had to pay just for owning a tv? I used to think the news was very good but now it seems terribly biased and I feel there is often an agenda with their reporting. I would happily cancel.

Then they can opt out.

And all of the old folk who can't get out much/at all but who aren't online? They can simply lose their trusty simple pleasures like Coronation Street or Countdown for good?

I think the BBC does too much overall and should drastically reduce some of its content, cut say BBC 4, put it all on iplayer, they never should’ve backed down on doing that with BBC Three.

I think there must be something that I'm missing completely here, but I've never understood how it saves so much money just moving the broadcast of programming from traditional live channels to online.

Surely the vast bulk of the costs are incurred in making the programmes; not in showing them?

No you only have to pay if you are
Watching live TV
Having a Tv is irrelevant as people use them for streaming ,gaming etc

Me as well.

If something major happened in the past (let's say the death of the Queen) I would only believe it if the BBC had confirmed it. Since the whole Saville affair I started losing faith in them. They knew about him for years before it came out (thanks John Lydon!).

@Appalonia

That's your personal choice, I watch lots on the BBC but definitely not strictly. Shetland is particularly good currently

We have had a licence for years. Don’t watch live tv and if there was something big say football just go to the pub or a mates house if you wanted too.

If we could pick to pay for a month if they ever made a good series I might do that but I can think of a single show the bbc does that I would want to watch that they haven’t sold off to Netflix or Disney anyway.

It was a response to the OP, I never mentioned pensioners 🤣

If the pensioners are watching BBC via their coax then I don’t see an issue with paying it, as they’re paying the “subscription” to BBC. It’s not a huge amount of money, and if they’re on qualifying benefits then it’s free for them anyway.

Got to be honest, there’s far more pressing matters than this.

Apologies for misconstruing - I thought it was a general statement rather than specifically addressed to OP.

That said, it's far from a trivial matter to a lot of housebound elderly people. My DGM didn't actually have a TV at all for the last several years of her life - her mental illness reached a stage where she believed that the people in the TV were watching her and talking to her personally, so unsurprisingly, she was frightened of it and wanted rid of the thing.

She'd previously had a free TV licence owing to my DGD being over 75 and then she turned 75 herself - probably 20 or so years altogether. Once the law changed, so that many over-75s now had to start paying - after she'd already got rid of her telly and was housebound - she started receiving an endless stream of nasty letters telling her that she was breaking the law, she would be prosecuted, somebody would be visiting her in person etc., no matter how often we informed them that she didn't have a TV.

'Luckily' for her, her mental illness was at a stage where she couldn't deal with her own post anymore, so we did it for her; but what a way to treat folk in their 90s. If she'd been seeing and opening those letters herself - housebound, no TV, no phone (similar issues of feeling 'spied on'), no internet... it would have severely impacted her, being hounded and threatened by a supplier of a product which she had no interest in using for not paying them for not using it.

You're allowed to view the BBC news website without a TV licence.

Not watching telly isn't cutting yourself off from news. I knew the queen had died without telly. The BBC website streamed coverage on their news section, no iPlayer required.

I've never had one.I full out their form ever 3 years and when they visit I send them packing. They won't catch me watching telly because I don't. TV is a spoon feeding of culture and terribly distracting if I want to think, read or talk. I can't stay long in someone's house when it's blasting away.

Most things end up on YouTube if I want to watch them, anyway. I can't see the TV lice system lasting much longer, they will have to do what other services do and play ads, with the option of paying to stop the ads.

I don't pay TV licence cause I not watch TV. Just use my phone and you tube for watch stuff

I listen to radio 4 and radio 6 all the time, watch iPlayer lots, the kids were raised on CBeebies and cbbc as i loathe adverts and didn't want them subjected to the advertising all the time, I find itv to be quite trashy so don't bother watching that. Much as i get annoyed with some of the political news coverage, the rest of the bbc news is well worth listening to ( thankfully much less vacuous celebrity bollocks on bbc than on itv news - ch 4 news is pretty good though). Excellent documentaries and investigations on bbc too, quality drama. I happily pay my license fee, I get a hell of a lot more for my money than I do from Netflix / now tv etc.

They send those letters to everyone ,they are on a loop they start of gently reminding you you need a licence if you are watching live TV
And they get increasingly threatening telling you they are starting an investigation
And may send someone to visit
And then theu go back to the gentle reminder, still if they want to waste their money more fool them

Oh, yes,I know that - but I'm not an elderly or vulnerable person.

They're clearly designed to terrifying enough people to make them think it's worth their while - just like with scammers who know full well that most recipients will sigh and delete it; but the minority who do believe/are frightened unnecessarily are who they're aiming for.

I wonder if the people at Crapita who come up with the wording for these letters have potentialy vulnerable grandparents or great-grandparents themselves?

Just be careful who you are streaming programmes from:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14160713/amazon-firesticks-warning-issued-police-raid-illegal-streaming-tv.html

Never had a tv licence in my life tjey came to me door in 2002 n took me to court didn't get tv licence not seen hide nor hair of them since 2002 doing pretty well it obviously not needed as tjey not looked near me in the 22 years lol

If you don't want to pay for it then don't use any BBC services or watch live TV.

Personally I watch and listen to loads of stuff on BBC and use iPlayer and Sounds regularly too, so I find it very good value for money.

I wish I could pay a single fee for all the other subscriptions I only watch things on occasionally!

And I'd like to just pay for Sky Sports and not all the other 500 crappy channels I never watch, but it's sadly not an option either.

We pay in one month for everything else what we pay for an entire year with the BBC.

Why are we forced to pay for a service that has had its day and is no longer fit for service?

If it's so dire then don't watch it and therefore don't pay. Job done.

Doesn't the bbc have to serve everyone? Everybody has different views so they'll always be stuff you don't like. People say it's not impartial but everyone's views are different about what impartial actually means to them. I think whatever the bbc does someone will moan about it but overall I think we're lucky to have it when you look at other countries