Why the F should I tell BBC every year that I don’t watch TV ?

[LadyGillingham]

Why can’t they upgrade their subscriptions/licencing model like Netflix etc ?

If you look at BBC corporation’s ownership, majority stakeholders are private Ltd companies and individuals. Why the f are they entitled to demand subscription fees from me for services I don’t use!

The language in the emails is quite strong, I’m sure a lot of senior citizens just pay to not get into trouble. That’s extortion!

I’d have left the silly bastard on the doorstep for 40 minutes and ignored them.

Labour are the ones that want to keep the fee, I wonder how many moaning about it voted for them.

Maybe they should have closed the door

I am happy with the current model, as I am legitimately licence free. I do not want it added to general taxation, like millions of others.

@SESMA yes bonkers

That's not true, you have to make a declaration or they keep chasing you

I got caught out when I first left home at 18 and was really skint. I thinm they detected it and then hadym someone knocking on the door of my bedsit and I said I didn't watch it, but then Eastenders theme tune came blaring out. I got taken to court and got a massive fine!

I pay it because although I don’t watch live TV, I appreciate all their ad free radio output and want it to continue. And I can afford to.

But it is an outdated system. An opt in system, like Netflix, would be much better.

The charter review is up soon so probably write to your MP if you don't agree to the licence.

They are actually doing that now. For real.

Cancel any DD to TVL/ƁBC, bin any letters, don't answer the door if the caption goons/sales people knock, if you do answer just say no thanks and close the door.
You're not obliged to tell them anything.
Not had a tv licence in years.

Can send people round to check a they like. TVL goons don't have any powers to force entry etc, just tell them to get off your property and close the door

How isolating for your relative. What a shame they haven’t got a tv to enjoy in their old age.

You don't at all. They send captia sales people, it's not a legal requirement to make a declaration.
Stop scaremongering

They need a search warrant to enter your home so only need to let them in if they have got one.

52 is elderly? 🤣

When DH and I first moved in together over twenty years ago I made a mistake giving our address to the tv licence people which resulted in them having three flats on their system in one house when I reality there were only two. The very first letter they sent about the lack of tv licence for the non existent third flat threatened bailiffs, no exaggeration.

When I cleared out my estranged late father's flat, I found lots of TV licence letters, he hadn't kept them specially there was loads of other unneeded post as well, he didn't have a smartphone, internet or a TV, he was in his 80s.

I suspect if fewer and fewer people have a licence they'll end up doing what they've done in Austria and Germany and making it so every household has to pay a monthly fee for TV and radio even if you don't have a TV and never watch it. Because, they said, we could watch the streaming on the internet and say we didn't have a TV and not pay. So fucking put the streaming content behind some kind of pay wall then with a log in connected to your licence number.

But no, since this came in a couple of years ago I have to pay fucking €15 a fucking month for content I don't watch and is a load of shite anyway.

And that was because more and more people weren't watching the shite, didn't have a TV and were watching Netflix instead of ORF.

You don’t ‘have’ to really. I never have because it is none of their business whatsoever and I refuse to engage with them and I never will. I just get a letter every month addressed to Legal Occupier which goes straight in the bin. I don’t care how many letters they send me they are completely without any powers at all. I suppose it keeps the Royal Mail occupied.

And Capita won’t be getting one.

This made me laugh! (Trying to imagine moving a tv into her home & the reaction.)

But seriously I think this idea that tv (BBC or otherwise) is something you necessarily ‘enjoy’ in old age, or that it addresses isolation in the very elderly, is symptomatic of a real wider social malaise that downplays reading and thought and real human contact compared to figures on a screen.

Despite being so old, my relative continues to have good social contacts- I am amazed actually by the number of visitors she has each week. People are so kind! The idea that she has anything to gain in social terms by looking at a screen, at images of people she will never meet, who will never speak to her or care for her or make a joke to her or bring her a slice of cake, is a sad one.

We pay ours but we do watch live TV and to a lesser extent BBC. I agree the tactics on these are awful though-I do wonder how effective they are in "scaring" people into paying.

Surely there must be a more effective way to identify people who genuinely don't need to pay with digital technology being as it is, than sending out letters.

My DF seemed to manage quite well without a TV, internet or phone.

I was joking …