TV License. Who pays it?

[Tulipsroses]

Judging by the variety and quality of the streaming services I always ask my self where are the people that actually pay for TV license? I have never paid non of my friends pay. It is obvious that BBC have lost this game and is sticking to the licence fees as a lifebuoy.

I can't help wondering if any of the posters proudly announcing on here that they are stealing access to a service they aren't paying for are the same people who benefit bash on other threads because they perceive someone's getting something for nothing.

Even if not, where is your integrity? If you use a service that costs money, you should pay for it, end of.

I pay it. I'm a lawyer, it's not worth losing my career over, but also I like the BBC and still watch it plenty, especially Planet Earth, Strictly and Newsnight.
I'm under 40 for what it's worth

I pay as I support public service broadcasting and freedom from commercial influences via paid advertising.

@ButterCupPie
maybe you should be too.

I agree - they're horrifying. What other crime do you regularly get official threatening letters about, with the assumption that you will be committing it?

I'll bet they get a lot of people - with learning or cognitive difficulties, or just terrified and confused - who end up paying even when they don't actually need a licence. It's staggering that their nasty threatening letters are even legal.

And as for them saying "Just tell us if you don't need a licence" - which they ignore anyway - that just marks you out as 'live' and gives them your name and other personal info as well to hound you with.

And I agree that people who should be paying for a licence but deliberately don't should be punished - but to imprison somebody for that is a gross totalitarian abuse of taxpayer-funded prison spaces that are desperately needed for violent criminals.

@Tulipsroses

"Is it a generational choice, people that are used to black and white tv and two channels on them are still the ones that pay for the license."

You sound very sneery and up your own arse. Given that there has been colour TV and more than two channels since 1968 you sound slow on the uptake too. Most people on this site won't have known black and white TV so I'm afraid your attempts at ageist insults are pretty lame as well.

How many days do you think there are in a week?!

I pay for it, I also pay for Sky and all the streaming channels and I pay not to have adverts on some

And its licence not license

How do you mean? As far as I know, they treat anybody without a licence as a criminal and come down hard on them all, regardless of their need of a licence or intent to buy one.

I don’t pay it but I don’t watch it. I would if I did. I used to love the BBC but there’s nothing for me these days (Inside No.9 aside but I just wait for that to come out elsewhere).

You don’t watch Channel 4 or ITV etc at all?

I don't pay, nor do my parents or boyfriend.

Edit: I see there was an error in the original

We use iPlayer for Hey Duggee and radio plus sport like Wimbledon

Hardly any programmes, no Dr Who or Strictly

I’d not use a service and not pay although sometimes I consider not using on principle

I wonder how many of the people who buy the cheaper black and white licences are genuinely only watching in B&W, or if they're just thinking they'll score a bargain and then be left alone if they do have a licence?

When did the last B&W TV set roll off the production lines?!

Mind, I remember the nasty old days when blind people only got a fixed £1.25 discount on their licence cost. I think it's a much fairer half-price now, but would it really hurt to make a relatively small amount of people, with much more limited entertainment options, completely exempt?

If you can only hear the TV, how does that really leave you in any better position than a sighted person who chooses to just listen to the radio, for which no fee is required anyway?

And don't get me started on those nasty ableist car supermarket adverts that they deliberately broadcast silent, in the hope that people will wonder what's happened and look up at the screen. All very well if you can look at the screen...

I don't we only use Netflix, Prime.. nothing streaming and no bbc

PP was picking up on the claim that it cost less than 5p a day - I had done the same thing too.

The given weekly cost was correct, but not the daily one!

We pay it because we watch live sport, through various channels. It also means we can watch anything, iPlayer etc without having to think about it.

Thanks for thinking I’m a liar. I don’t even have an aerial to receive live broadcast TV. I watch Netflix, Prime, Apple TV and Disney. More than enough there to keep me occupied.

I pay it because I value it's work. I think the radio is good and has something for everyone, Cbeebies is fantastic, I like lots of stuff on BBC4 etc. I don't watch Live very often at all, but I use iplayer every day. I think the BBC would be a big miss if we didn't have it any more. When big things happen like the Queen's death, it's the BBC I want to watch.

Broadcasters have, to be fair, invested quite a lot in audio description for TV programmes to make them more accessible to visually impaired people. A half price licence seems like a reasonable compromise - I agree that the old 1.25 discount was ridiculous.

If you can only hear the TV, how does that really leave you in any better position than a sighted person who chooses to just listen to the radio, for which no fee is required anyway?

It’s audio-described now.

@thankyouforthedayz 😄
Our tv is only connected to game consoles, zero interest in watching whatever shite is on tv, and we don’t listen to a radio either. Why would anyone lie about not consuming BBC stuff?

I'm 25 and only pay for a TV licence as we put Cbeebies on for my son. Didn't pay for it before as we didn't watch live TV.