Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

How long until the License Fee is dropped?

188 replies

mumofoneAloneandwell · 30/03/2026 22:07

I reckon by the end of this year, it will begin being phased out.

I am sad about it.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
9
AntiqueBabyLoanSmurf · 30/03/2026 23:38

PottingBench · 30/03/2026 23:29

Lots of people like the trailers so they can see what programmes are coming up. This has always been the case on BBC as long as I can remember.

I like to know if something's on next week.
I'd not be so interested in sitting through 60 seconds of crap about beans or Center Parcs.

I'm not saying they should never trail upcoming programmes; the other channels do this too, although they will sacrifice actual adverts (and that revenue) if they really want to promote something - the BBC want to have their cake and eat it.

Over the last year or so, though, the sheer number of trailers - often the same ones again and again - seems to have skyrocketed. Moreover the ones advertising the licence fee and the ones telling you how good they are, because everybody who watches any live on any channel is forced to pay them (not to mention the people who are aggressively and threateningly sold licences who don't actually need them at all), are intolerable.

TightlyLacedCorset · 30/03/2026 23:38

randomchap · 30/03/2026 23:33

I'm assuming so. It's rather pathetic

I've given them the chance to explain and nothing.

It's nasty.

I'd report. MN removed the laugh reaction for the same reason so then we all couldn't enjoy it anymore over a few people who don't know how to engage in debate respectfully.

OonaStubbs · 30/03/2026 23:38

The BBC should be scrapped. There is no need for it in todays modern media landscape.

Silverbellsandtacoshells · 30/03/2026 23:40

PottingBench · 30/03/2026 23:36

Your link is behind a pay wall.

OK.
I'll try and find another one.

Try this - https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024-02-22/debates/CE7F7318-A531-4855-A23D-BEE37D17AD08/ProtectionForMembersOfParliament

BIossomtoes · 30/03/2026 23:41

Thank you. So according to Hansard there’s no excuse:

provides protection at Members’ homes and constituency offices, and can provide security operatives for constituency surgeries and Members’ other parliamentary duties off the estate. It gives Members tailored advice for their individual circumstances. That includes security and situational awareness training, which is available to all MPs, their families, and staff.

Silverbellsandtacoshells · 30/03/2026 23:45

BIossomtoes · 30/03/2026 23:41

Thank you. So according to Hansard there’s no excuse:

provides protection at Members’ homes and constituency offices, and can provide security operatives for constituency surgeries and Members’ other parliamentary duties off the estate. It gives Members tailored advice for their individual circumstances. That includes security and situational awareness training, which is available to all MPs, their families, and staff.

I don't think it actually said that.

The MP that asked the question was told that the person with Mental Health issues who made death threats is now out of a secure unit and knows where he (The MP) lives and the MP has had to adjust his lifestyle accordingly.

Lonelycrab · 30/03/2026 23:49

I resent the aggressive license fee scraping tactics the bbc have

I don’t watch live tv and I find it slightly offensive the thought that surely everyone must do so…

I don’t. Now leave me alone.

AntiqueBabyLoanSmurf · 30/03/2026 23:54

I'm guessing that the TV licence will be replaced by an overall 'public media element' added to the council tax. It will be sold as cost-neutral, to replace the licence fee (ignoring the people who currently have no need to buy one).

Then, before long, it will be expanded and merge into a nationwide 'broadband infrastructure stability' tax (relied on even more when traditional broadcast/scheduled TV is scrapped soon). Once it's in place, it will quietly go up and up and up, with other vaguely media-related things cited now and then for good measure and to justify the rises.

Now that the PSTN infrastructure is being scrapped, monthly costs will (temporarily) go down for many households, as the vast majority won't care about moving to VoIP and paying extra to keep a way open for scammers to hassle them. The authorities and big business will already be eyeing up that money that people paid for landlines and finding ways to divert any potential savings straight back into their own coffers; once people are used to paying a certain price, the last thing they want is for them to get used to it decreasing.

OonaStubbs · 30/03/2026 23:54

It is wrong that people are forced to pay for a media content provider that they may not use. The BBC is no different to Netflix, Disney plus or Crunchyroll. Imagine the furore if a law was passed mandating that you had to pay for any or all of those whether you used them or not?

Lonelycrab · 30/03/2026 23:55

Having said that

The thought of Geebeebies or Sky for example being the only thing broadcasted is probably bleaker still…
but FGS licence enforcement, give the average person a break would you

Tauranga · 30/03/2026 23:55

TightlyLacedCorset · 30/03/2026 23:21

The BBC 'left wing'

Oh that's really got me laughing my socks off, and I need them on, as it's not exactly warm here.

And no, trans/LGBTQ simply presenting are not either 'left or right wing' (god are we becoming like Americans for whom even everyday minute things, like what form of dairy you drink, or hobby you indulge in, is now left or right)

People who address themselves as such exist. Yes their personal views may fall within either of those categories, but they aren't 'Left or Right' in and of themselves.

A man presenting the news in a dress may not be up one's particular street, but it doesn't say anything about their political beliefs.

This is simply not true.
Transgenderism us pushed by the left.

Marv1nGay3 · 31/03/2026 00:20

I would be so sad to see the BBC go. It employs five wonderful full time orchestras, which do a lot of outreach and community work throughout the regions, and the amazing BBC singers.There is nothing else like the BBC Proms. It would be cultural vandalism to lose all of this, in my opinion. If the license fee goes and is replaced with some kind of subscription service then all these wonderful cultural assets would not survive.

OonaStubbs · 31/03/2026 00:31

Marv1nGay3 · 31/03/2026 00:20

I would be so sad to see the BBC go. It employs five wonderful full time orchestras, which do a lot of outreach and community work throughout the regions, and the amazing BBC singers.There is nothing else like the BBC Proms. It would be cultural vandalism to lose all of this, in my opinion. If the license fee goes and is replaced with some kind of subscription service then all these wonderful cultural assets would not survive.

If there is demand for those "cultural assets" then people will pay the subscription and they will survive.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 31/03/2026 00:35

Silverbellsandtacoshells · 30/03/2026 23:24

He (Farage) didn't "pop up" on Question time last week, even though it was from Clacton !

Edited

Well this scans, since Farage has barely set foot in place himself.

TightlyLacedCorset · 31/03/2026 00:56

Tauranga · 30/03/2026 23:55

This is simply not true.
Transgenderism us pushed by the left.

When it is pushed by people within certain contexts it is 'left wing' agreed.

But people are complaining about just seeing or hearing presenters who use pronouns, or dress in clothes stereotypically associated with certain genders etc.

The point I am making is simply employing people to present on the radio or the news who chose to identify as Trans or dress gender alternatively is not automatically the BBC being 'left wing' neither does it mean those people are. It is employing people who, like it or not, make up the British population. As has been said, EVERYONE is compelled to pay the licence fee. So the BBC cannot jolly well not employ some of the people included in that demographic. Hosting a debate on what is a trending social issue also is not the BBC being left wing.

I strongly recall when all pro-gay conversation was perceived as 'left wing' but today no one would assume that merely featuring a gay person or a gay person presenting the radio or the news is automatically 'left wing' nor is say, debating gay marriage seens as strictly a left or right wing issue.

There has been an unwelcome and in my opinion a deliberate, strategy of focusing on identity which is highly emotive as opposed to the very critical problems of structural inequality, like class, the K economy, the deplorable situation where people are using food banks regularly, billionaires taking huge amounts of wealth the UK selling off vast amounts of it's assets abroad without scrutiny and the housing market being almost a rigged Ponzi scheme, the dangers of soft digital ID systems being implemented. The rise of cashless payment systems and so on.

The BBC the so called state broadcaster that supposedly serves all it's licence fee holders, addresses none of these things in any focused way, and in fact, has a disgusting record of perpetuating cycles of poverty by prosecuting overwhelming numbers of poor women, often immigrants or single parents or students who are less able to make a case for themselves, for not paying for the privilege of merely watching TV, whilst paying a few special people who work for it millions of pounds a year, which is why it's laughable that anyone calls it intrinsically left wing.

Debating trans issues is not left wing in and of itself. The debate is just being had. Has the BBC been partial or biased on the issue? Absolutely and it has been rightly called out on it. But the BBC is also biased on other topics, particularly when it comes to how it reports foreign conflicts for e.g. I find it to be pedalling towards the right increasingly and editing certain things when it wants to and leaving certain things in when it wants to. I honestly cannot watch it very much anymore. That's not to say it doesn't also produce great programming, it absolutely does. But I cannot choose what I pay for and that is the problem.

Lonelycrab · 31/03/2026 01:16

The bbc didn’t even bother to report the nearly half million people marching against the far right last weekend

When pretty much every media outlet was reporting itHmm

Catza · 31/03/2026 07:02

PottingBench · 30/03/2026 23:32

But you've said both "other countries somehow manage without a license fee"
and
"I'm not suggesting there aren't public service broadcasters or that they aren't funded from a state budget."

Which of those do you believe to be true?

These statements are both true and are in no way mutually exclusive so I don't understand your question.

ProudAmberTurtle · 31/03/2026 07:46

Let's just say I'd be slightly surprised if Labour put the licence fee into taxation because too few people were willing to pay for it.

Imagine the optics - we would be paying million pound a year salaries for a left wing luvvie to tell us that men are women before they're sacked over a sex scandal.

It wouldn't look good would it?

Even Labour aren't that stupid...

HermioneWeasley · 31/03/2026 07:49

There is a direct link between the BBC broadcasting the propaganda programme “I am Leo” and the rise in child gender clinic referrals. A generation of children irreparably harmed because of the agenda of our beloved public broadcaster.

people don’t hate the BBC enough

ProudAmberTurtle · 31/03/2026 07:51

HermioneWeasley · 31/03/2026 07:49

There is a direct link between the BBC broadcasting the propaganda programme “I am Leo” and the rise in child gender clinic referrals. A generation of children irreparably harmed because of the agenda of our beloved public broadcaster.

people don’t hate the BBC enough

This.

I loved the BBC growing up but it's a mouthpiece of trans propaganda today and I can't wait to see it dismantled.

I urge anyone else who hates it to stop paying the telly tax - you could help end this depraved institution.

randomchap · 31/03/2026 08:05

ProudAmberTurtle · 31/03/2026 07:46

Let's just say I'd be slightly surprised if Labour put the licence fee into taxation because too few people were willing to pay for it.

Imagine the optics - we would be paying million pound a year salaries for a left wing luvvie to tell us that men are women before they're sacked over a sex scandal.

It wouldn't look good would it?

Even Labour aren't that stupid...

Great, you're back. You might have missed it earlier, but what is your issue with Pride?

BIossomtoes · 31/03/2026 08:09

Silverbellsandtacoshells · 30/03/2026 23:45

I don't think it actually said that.

The MP that asked the question was told that the person with Mental Health issues who made death threats is now out of a secure unit and knows where he (The MP) lives and the MP has had to adjust his lifestyle accordingly.

I copied and pasted it from your link. 🤷‍♀️

Changingplace · 31/03/2026 08:10

OonaStubbs · 30/03/2026 23:54

It is wrong that people are forced to pay for a media content provider that they may not use. The BBC is no different to Netflix, Disney plus or Crunchyroll. Imagine the furore if a law was passed mandating that you had to pay for any or all of those whether you used them or not?

The BBC is hugely different to those channels, the content they broadcast is agreed within a charter that goes through parliament, neither Netflix or Disney make any kind of news, radio or regional content whatsoever, it’s not a like for like comparison.

I gave no idea what Crunchyroll even is, but nobody is tuning in to that for an important breaking news event.

Changingplace · 31/03/2026 08:15

TooPoor4PandaPooTea · 30/03/2026 23:28

The poll directly addresses one of the biggest issues with the BBC, politicians being in control. There shoud be no political influence or bias. I occasionally read a news article and they are always biased.

Haven't watched live TV of any description in more in 15 years, stopped paying the license fee after I had paid in full for annual license only to have never watched anything live that year. Mostly played games or watched movies/boxsets in my free time.

Know very few people who have or need a TV license. Plenty of children's TV on far cheaper subscriptions. Maybe it is generational.

I agree there should be no political interference whatsoever.

I’d be interested to see an example of a news article you take issue with and which way you think it’s bias?

Do you really think someone sitting on the board has any editorial control or input into the news reporting? How would that even work when each individual news programme/online team has its own editorial management?

Silverbellsandtacoshells · 31/03/2026 08:18

BIossomtoes · 31/03/2026 08:09

I copied and pasted it from your link. 🤷‍♀️

Then you'll know what it says?

" A gentleman was arrested and went into a mental institution. When he was released, the House authorities and the Met police met me and said, “This gentleman is now out and he knows where you live.” "
" I am a person who watches where he walks and does not stand by the side of the platform on the tube. I alter my way of coming into the House. It is very stressful."
"...there does not feel like there is very much for those on the receiving end."