To think the TV License should be scrapped

[Hedgehogbrown]

Hear me out. I love the BBC, grew up on it, and want it preserved forever. The Television License is such an outdated and inefficient way to pay for the BBC though. Most young people don't have a TV, they have computers and they don't see why they should get a TV License, regardless of the law. They don't have a TV License. Most Millennials I know don't pay their TV License. When you are poor it is another stressful expense.

How much does it cost them to try to enforce? It seems so old fashioned and wasteful. In Australia they have a state run channel but it is paid for through general taxation. If the government grew some balls and taxed all the Tech Bros who are trying to destroy the world, they can ring fence some of that taxation for the BBC. The BBC is actually good at making money, it exports it's stuff around the world. Their profits can go to the Treasury. No more paying for people to go round in vans trying to catch people out for not having a license like it's the 1970s.

I think it would be such a vote winner for people to not have to pay this.

It should be a subscription service

It kind of is really.
It's a subscription for BBC channels plus iPlayer and for watching "live" ITV/Channel 4/Channel 5/Sky etc.
If you don't watch any BBC and only watch ITV etc via catch up channels online then you don't need a license.

It used to be amazing, we rarely watch it now.

The TV detector vans are a good example of BBC waste - the BBC admitted in a document in 2013 that they're just for show, they don't actually detect anything, but apparently there is still a fleet of them in existence, used by Capita and funded by the licence payer.

I grew up loving the BBC but it's been awful for years now. Presenters are overpaid and often deviants, output in my opinion abysmal. Scrap the licence and let it rely on subscription and advertising money like everyone else - we'd quickly see its programs get far better

I'd rather it got lumped into council tax or something. Since every household would be paying rather than just some, the price per house could drop quite a bit without changing funds available to the BBC.

Possibly but not through taxation. Make it more of a choice.

I’m happy to pay for it for radio alone.

I just cancelled my licence. The only thing I’ve watched this year was sewing bee and it’s all gotten so samey I can’t be bothered. I do think the commercial arm makes money, if they do make something decent I’ll catch it on Netflix/ prime/ Disney eventually. I’ll just cycle between subscriptions and take out stuff for a month or two.

Although I’m not a license payer (watch zero live tv whatsoever on any platform and don’t access iplayer) I think it would be sad to see the demise of the BBC which is what essentially a lot of the political posturing around this conversation is based on. They are, or at least try to be neutral, unlike absolute muck like Geebeebies.

The license fee equates to around £12 pcm. This is too much for what I want it for.
I do however have a Disney sub at £5 pcm (non live) as that’s better vfm and has lots of stuff I want to watch.

I think too the notion that anything live must require a license is a bit strange. No one watches via a physical transmitter anymore and you can bet that a lot of the live online content providers see absolutely nothing in terms of money for providing their streams, which are all obviously online. Why does the BBC or the broadcasting network (physical transmitters) get to keep all this money for not providing anything? It’s all being streamed from all over the world.

I wish the BBC would move into the 21st century- they might find a lot more people willing to pay if they made it a tiered system; ie basic gets you this, a bit more gets you iplayer etc.

Surely it’s no different to paying a Netflix subscription, or paying for Sky?

It’s not a tax though.

You don’t use it; you don’t pay it, the same as many other services.

The enforcement stuff though is intrusive and assumes you are using it though, granted.

Not really, as to watch netflix I just have to pay for netflix, I don’t have to also pay for prime or disney plus.

Where as I would be forced to pay for fhe BBC to watch ITV, despite the fact that the BBC do not fund ITV in anyway.

The license fee isn’t fit for the modern age, it needs to be subscription only. At the moment I’m enjoying the celebrity traitors so would still be happy to pay a subscription when there is something worth watching. There are a few gems but a hell of a lot of rubbish.

No one watches via a physical transmitter anymore

We do! We've just bought a new Freeview PVR. I love it.

I think if it was funded by general taxation it would be more at risk from government interference.

The BBC also do things like fund local independent reporters and we've taken part in orchestra outreach - I think we would lose a lot of culturally important stuff if we made if into just another subscription service. I have learnt so much from Radio 4!

It should be subscription I’ve not paid for years as we don’t watch live tv or Iplayer.

A subscription where I could one day decide I want to watch something and just pay for one month makes much more sense.

And Netflix don’t intrusively demand you confirm that you don’t watch Netflix and they don’t charge you for Netflix if you have a device capable of streaming content even if you don’t watch theirs. And nobody is in prison for failure to pay their Netflix subscription.

I'm paid up

I lived in a house before and a man came to the door. I was so vulnerable and alone, I couldnt just ignore it and its scared me since

I dunno how these millennials are doing it 😄

I know it’s not currently. I’m responding to the op who suggests it.

If the licence fee is dropped it should be subscription instead.

Same here!

They do detect. They detected us as students not having one. Knew our names and everything.

It's so expensive for what I use it for. I watch maybe 2-3 things a year on iPlayer, Netflix and other subscription services are much better value.

I have no television and don't watch any TV programmes at all ever. I haven't for about 20 years. There is nothing worth watching on the BBC. It's either reality rubbish or imported American rubbish. I have no subscriptions for television either. I enjoy reading and listening to music on the radio.
I would object strongly if I was made to pay for a service which I consider to be suboptimal and which I never use .

The only reason i refuse to pay it (and not watch it) is because of how threatening and abusive they are about paying it. I got a threatening letter from them in my new build house before the windows were even in and i wasnt living there. I just gave them a big F U and not subscribed to them

They don't detect. I worked for them years ago and even then they admitted that the vans were a way to scare people into paying up.

CBeebies was worth the entire licence fee we paid when the DC were under 7. I’m happy to pay now for R3 and R4. There’s nothing quite the same.