To say if you care about the future of the BBC, then please complete the public consultation survey by midnight tonight!

[CuttingNails]

I personally believe that the BBC is an incredible asset and should be protected at all costs.
I watch, listen and read a huge amount of content across TV, radio, and online services. Content that is often not available anywhere else. I am more than happy to pay my license fee.

If you have a spare 30 mins and want to have a say about the BBCs future, then the public consultation survey closes at midnight tonight (10 Mar).

dcms.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9EOcvcDvkNu8c9E

I remember when the BBC created all that wonderful, educational BBC bitesize content for our children over the covid lockdowns. It really helped us through it all. We certainly didn't see Netflix or Disney+ doing anything like that. That is what sets the BBC apart - we all pay for it and so it is a truly public service.

And this is the one question the survey does not ask. Fortunately, there is an 'add more information' option where you can state that you think the licence fee should be abolished, and a subscription model introduced.

But if you used say a car wash and then drove away without paying I think you should expect some come back.

I agree with you that there's a huge breadth of engaging content across the BBC, and that I often serendipitously stumble across something I love. But not everybody feels that way at all, and they don't want to pay a 'just in case serendipity tax'.

Just like some people will go to a library or bookshop with a very clear intention of which books they want; some will enter with an open mind and an excited wonder about whatever new gems they may discover this visit; and some people never read books at all, for whatever reasons. None of these people are wrong; but equally none of them should be telling the other people that they are wrong.

This doesn't make any sense. If the BBC is subscription-only then people won't come across BBC content as they won't have access to it, so they won't miss it. If, by some chance, they find out about a BBC show that they are interested in, then a subscription-only service gives them the opportunity to pay for said service. Why the hell should I pay for you to watch the BBC because it's your personal preference? Would you be ok to pay for me to shop at Waitrose because I think their food is superior? You wouldn't. The whole concept of being forced to pay for a licence to watch media output is so anachronistic in this day and age. Just make it subscription only and it can survive or die in the arena of ideas, competing fairly against all the other options.

I actively choose to not consume the company's products, for ethical reasons, so no stumbling across potentially excellent things for me. I'm fine with that.

Many are happy to have a service they can pay for if they want to, like other subscription services.

The survey is an attempt to get the answers to keep as is or get some to pay even more. But many people don’t want that. They would like to opt out as others can with Netflix etc

I agree that, whilst the TV licence system exists and is required for anybody watching BBC TV, then if they do choose to watch BBC TV, they should be paying for a licence and deserve to be pursued if they don't.

But that still doesn't justify harassing the 10% who don't use the BBC. And whilst 10% is of course a minority, it's a very significant minority. Would you want to move to a village where 'only' 10% of the residents were known murderers, with a reassuring 9 out of 10 of them all being perfectly nice, decent sorts?!

Even if it were only 0.1% who don't want to use the BBC, they still shouldn't be threatened and harassed into paying when they don't need to.

What a truly awful opinion. Do you know how many people use the BBC? The UK and global TV, the radio, the website, the podcasts, the schools resources, the charity fundraising etc. Closing it down would be an absolute travesty for it's significant role in UK media but also for the hundreds of people it employs.

If you legitimately never use any of it's services, I can see an argument around the licence fee but wishing it would close is a terrible opinion and, frankly, not the most intelligent!

I’ll never support a company that sends threatening letters for not using its service. The sooner it’s gone, the better.

Same. Paid for a fee all my life since becoming an adult. Moved house, didn't yet have a TV and planned to buy a licence once I got a TV. The letters absolutely horrified me. One literally said 'we will be back. It might not be tomorrow. It might not be next week. But we will return'.

Genuinely sickened me. The thought of some vulnerable person getting something like that, having someone turn up at the door, and being pressured into paying for something they don't use is awful.

One day there will be a big investigation into how the BBC like to act like the mafia imo. I don't know quite how they've gotten away with it for so long.

Done

I agree the BBC is not perfect and some aspectsay need reforming, but I think we would be in a poorer places if it didn't exist at all.

But what if you never use the car wash at all? If you have a blue Toyota and the car wash find that they get a disproportionately high number of people with blue Toyotas wanting to use (and pay for) their services, as well as some people with blue Toyotas who also choose to use it but then drive off without paying... why does that justify them pursuing YOU in any way?

And this is leaving aside the possibility that you may regularly go to a different car wash on the other side of town and happily pay them the cost every single time!

Although the BBC has huge problems not least I don’t think it’s changed that much since the 1940s in the way it is as an institution and that’s why things like paying women less was allowed to carry on I would miss it if it went.

I listen to Radio 4 pretty much everyday mostly World at One and I don’t think anything like their Radio Network could be a commercial success, things like File on Four are matchless and just wouldn’t get made without public funding. But it’s obvious others just don’t engage and it’s not really fair to expect them to payout 15 a month for something they never use. So some form of Subscription service and public money from general taxation is the way to go. But I think the TV licence is going to become a more general internet license and tied to your internet service as every household pretty much has the net. I can’t see a license of some kind disappearing and money collected from a license will go towards the BBC and internet infrastructure.

I think you should be able to just pay if you want to subscribe to iPlayer like you do for all the other streamers, I would probably subscribe anyway like I do for all the others and have a Sky contract but that is my choice. At the moment I have to have a licence just to use Sky Q, even if I never watch BBC

Thanks.
I have very much enjoyed telling the BBC exactly what I think should happen to it!

The part for watching live TV should be divided between every company that supplies live TV so Netflix, Prime, ITV etc and incorporated in their subscriptions so also a choice for what you want to subscribe to

But I think the TV licence is going to become a more general internet license and tied to your internet service as every household pretty much has the net. I can’t see a license of some kind disappearing and money collected from a license will go towards the BBC and internet infrastructure.

Yes, I find this proposal rather baffling. It's going from an outright assumption that the BBC must remain regardless. It's a bit like a person going to a restaurant and enjoying a massive, expensive meal with lobster and fine wines - but then, when the bill arrives, saying "Well, I don't have any money; but I had to eat - so somebody will have to pay for it!"

Saying that it isn't fair for people who don't want to use the BBC to have to pay a licence fee, and so instead of that, everybody (including the people who don't want to use the BBC) have to pay an internet tax/levy/charge/fee or whatever changes absolutely nothing. If somebody doesn't want to hand over a £10 note that you ask for (that they don't owe you), will they be any happier if you help yourself to two fivers from their purse instead?

It's beyond breathtaking arrogance if the BBC - or anybody in government - genuinely believes that the only/primary reason that people have the internet is so that they can watch the BBC! Even if you only ever use the internet to go on MN and nothing else, the BBC have their mitts out for money from you for it?!

Also, a great many families now don't have a fixed broadband line and just rely on their phones. If you have a household with 8 people in, who all have a smartphone (not to mention any tablets or other devices), will the household be expected to pay 8 lots of tax to the BBC, even if they never watch or listen to any BBC content at all?

This is what people are missing.

It isn't like going through a car wash and driving away without paying.

It's driving past the car wash, the staff running out and blocking you from driving further, knocking on your door and shouting threatening statements at you like 'you've driven off without paying! If you don't cough up now we'll send someone after you! They know your address, they will find you! You can make it stop now by paying us right now!' and then receiving a series of threatening letters.

It's bonkers how many people don't realise the BBC openly do this.

Done. All of you with very strong views on the licence fee and how this could be reformed should fill in the survey as this is a question that is asked in some detail and you can have your say.

It's bonkers how many people don't realise the BBC openly do this.

I agree. I can only assume that the big fans who are so unconditionally supportive of the BBC already pay for TV licences and so they never get the threatening letters and visits - so they have no point of reference for non-BBC consumers who are regularly subjected to all of the harassment from the BBC and their nasty Crapita goons.

This is all very subjective and very common of fans of the BBC they sways try and make those who are not fans feel guilty
Just accept it people can like / dislike whatever they want.

The BBC is like the mafia.

You have to use the open boxes to actually put your own views in.

Completed it, but put my own actual view on funding. I.e. make it voluntary subscription, or as based.

I did but it irks that the easily collated multiple choice are pretty much for the outcome that is wanted by the BBC and gov. So they can say we asked but there’s not much point if the survey is loaded. They’ll take more notice of the multiple choice.

I guess it’s on brand though, not impartial even for a survey.

How ?
People always say this but never explain how?

I certainly had absolutely no idea it was going on. It was very eye-opening.