About the TV license potentially being extended to streaming services?

[Haruka]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/28/netflix-users-could-forced-pay-licence-fee/

I already pay enough for the services themselves. I don't watch live TV and especially not the BBC. I am fed up with this potentially becoming a lack of choice; it feels like extortion and yet another tax.

I know that in other countries any device capable of receiving live TV and/ or radio needs a licence (including car radios, laptops, iPads and smartphones), but in this day and age it's taking the piss potentially having to pay for a service I don't even use, just to get access to things that I do.

AIBU to take a very dim view of these proposals?

I'm surprised I haven't seen any other threads on this yet, but maybe I'm blinded by fury 😆

Not too expensive at all and worth it to me. Our Sky is not much more than the tv licence

@Feelslikewinter

Oh dear in with more insults for posters who feel differently, I think you should relax a bit about reading those views

It's not compulsory to feel as you do about the BBC

People are not keen on the suggestion in the op

well no, you just specifically said paying for the BBC is optinal and I'm pointing out the point of the thread which is to point out that it wouldn't be optional if this comes in.
Would you understand people's anger if they were forced to pay for an entertainment channel they don't want or intend to ever watch?
Why are you so annoyed that some people think the BBC is shite?
You do realise perople have different tastes to you?

@Feelslikewinter
Also on Eastenders I haven't watched that for years, so you haven't even got the insult right

I use the radio more than their programming

Gosh, more faux indignation.

It’s not insulting to point out your views are misguided. I didn’t, for example, call you a nob
like the OP did.

Ours is about £100 but we have everything, a basic package is still about £30 though with Sky Cinema so quite a lot

Yes, I assumed that, hence using Eastenders as an example of something you would likely not find to your taste. Although you haven’t mentioned Strictly, so perhaps that’s one you do like?!

bye-bye radio when you defund the BBC.

If it wa too much I'd just have netflix and youtube so not a problem. That's the beauty of the other services, you can cancel and resubscribe every month if you want to

@Feelslikewinter yes you're misguided.

Now what? Are you going to insult everyone who doesn't feel the same way about the BBC as you do

And you need Sky broadband for those prices.

@Feelslikewinter

bye-bye radio when you defund the BBC

That's fine, I never listen to the radio.

Although you haven’t mentioned Strictly, so perhaps that’s one you do

For all your following on threads you're not doing well. No Strictly

Don't list bother listing others they're unlike too

For now. Many of them are looking at ways to stop the sloughing of subscribers, and minimum terms are being considered.

That’s the other thing - once the streamers kill off the competition from PSBs (which will also decimate other terrestrial channels, by the way - they are interlinked in a complex way), they will have a monopoly.

So we’ll have very expensive American programming. Hooray’

@Feelslikewinter sadly the ignorant are taking over the Earth (wait for all the 'don't call me ignorant comments')! You can spot one a mile away.

1. They hate the BBC and always refer back to historic sex abuse scandals
2. They get angry about any journalism or reporting that doesn't fit their agenda and decry it all as fake or biased.
3. They gloat about not paying for services which they don't use, which let's be honest the majority saying that will have used some of the BBC services.
4. They get their news from Instagram and Tik Tok. I actually saw the account 'UKFactcheckpolitics' which is an awful, inaccurate and biased account has nearly 1 million followers. I see people blindly reposting this crap onto their feeds and spreading misinformation.
5. They're Happy to pay over £15 for Netflix, which let's be honest has some good films but it's all the same shit regurgitated and don't get me started on the quality of kid's programming on there. I pay the TV license alone so my kids can have access to programmes that don't hype them up to a level on insanity.

God, I don’t follow you. I just see you pop up on lots of threads about immigration and remember your name.

😂

Seems like I correctly guessed 2 shows you don’t watch on the BBC, which is 100% success rate in this weird game you’ve made up. Go me!

Ah right.
So your reasoning so far ( previous on the thread) was that I need the BBC becuase in 20 years my tastes may have changed and I'll want to watch it then.
And now, I need the BBC because at some point in the future I may find there are too many American shows on Netflix?
The trouble with that reasoning is the BBC has no appeal to me wahtsoever now. I'm hardly going to pay for it for 20 years just in case it improves and the other services decline?
You're not making much sense

@Feelslikewinter don't give my posts headspace like that. Rent free headspace is never good

Focus on how much you like the BBC. Btw you're the one guessing programmes so maybe stop as I suggested in pp

Exactly. And it’s a terrible circle of increasing stupidity because they never watch anything that improves their minds.

I posted this on another thread (a bin fire on immigration) but it has some resonance here, too:

m.youtube.com/shorts/7dPZR1LZi74

@woodenbatandball

They gloat about not paying for services which they don't use, which let's be honest the majority saying that will have used some of the BBC services.

Again, it's not gloating to state you don't pay for a service as you don't use it.
And I don't think a single person without a licene has said they watch what they shouldn't.

What on earth makes you think that if people aren't watching the BBc they're getting news from Tik tok? What a strange leap

Not a strange comment. Mostly factual. If you don't pay the license or listen to the radio, where do you get your news from? Sky News? Or do you buy papers everyday?

@Feelslikewinter

Exactly. And it’s a terrible circle of increasing stupidity because they never watch anything that improves their minds

Right, so if you don't watch the BBC you're getting increasingly more stupid?

You do realise your opinion is nuts and offensive?

The irony of calling others ignorant just because they don't watch or like the BBC
You think the BBC is marvellous and your happy to pay the license fee that's great
However not everyone feels the same as you what's so hard to understand about that?

Gosh, that's a good point.
It's not like there are 8 billion free newspapers online covering every corner of the world.
But you're right, I'll just watch Tik Tok

I do watch some programmes on BBC, iPlayer and listen to Sounds. I would pay a subscription, but don't see why people who never watch should. It's outrageous really.

@Mightymoog she wasn't saying that.

I'm just intrigued where you get good quality programming from and your news from? What do you watch and listen to? As on the main streaming services I'm struggling to think of any quality programmes that doesn't originate from the five terrestrial TV stations? BBC is known for very unbiased reporting hence journalists leave to go to LBC to have more anonymity. You can't condemn the other poster for her opinions on the BBC and then get hurt when those of us who think it is worth the money make valid points.

Everything in the U.K. is taken over by US programming because people seem fixated with shit from the US, which is fine. But don't try and make valid points that the BBC is a shit service because it isn't.