BBC licence fee - do you pay it?

[BG2015]

We were out with friends and there kids last night. Kids are late teens and early twenties.

Our friends were saying how they don't pay their licence fee anymore.

They rarely watch live TV and stream everything. The kids were saying they never watch live tv at all.

We occasionally, once every few weeks watch the news but it got me thinking that we don't actually watch much live TV either.

Very tempted to cancel my direct debit but I've got the typical fear of the van roaming the streets and knocking on our door!

Who else no longer pays it?

no never have never will

Absolute nonsense
If somebody knocks on your door asking to to come in to see you are not watch ping live tv either say no or just don't answer they have no powers to enter your property none whatsoever ,also.lots of people just watch subscription services on tv so don't need a licence anyway
As for the mythical Detector vans....

I pay the license fee but I don't use Netflix or Disney or any other streaming service so probably watch enough to make it worthwhile.

I do still have a tv licence. I have a tv, which I rarely even switch on, in main room, which I rarely even use either, let alone use the tv, and virgin tv on it (which I don't use either, but the whole cheaper as a bundle bs they pull!). I'd say the only time the tv is used is the odd time that my oh puts it on to watch MOTD, (not always on the bbc channel, but often the iplayer app on the Roku) if they're here and we aren't doing anything else. I also do use iplayer, a fair amount at some point, but never live tv on that or any of the other channel apps - ITVX, 4od(is it still called that?) or ch5. I also rarely use those apps even for catch up as my attention span just finds the adverts too long and too annoying - another reason why I no longer watch live tv. I'm just out of my latest year contract with virgin, and really disgusted at the price it is going back up to, but I've not once watched virgin tv in this last 12 month contract and I think for a longer time before that, possibly years now. Again, bloody bundle bs!

I have a phone, an iPad and a laptop. I share Prime tv and apple+, which is paid for by a family member, and then I pay for Netflix and Spotify for us to share, and I have nowtv. Mostly I watch on my iPad, occasionally phone, rarely laptop. I have a roku stick in the tv so if the tv is used by partner/daughter when here it's either through that or a chromecast. Chromecast, usually, lives in an old, smaller tv in the kitchen, which does have a Freeview box attached. Again rarely used. Tv is only there due to it being sold off as ex-display where daughter worked a few years ago and they got it for just £30.

I'm not overjoyed at the price of the tv licence, but I do use the iplayer a fair amount 🤷🏼‍♀️ it may sound as tho it's a lot of streaming apps, but I'm also pretty much housebound, and it's those or drive myself nuts with sheer boredom. So I don't enjoy the tv licence, and I can't really afford it, but I spend no money going out or socialising at all, and don't drink, etc etc so I guess that's why we have a few apps, it's my only social life 😂

And if anyone bothered to read this, thank you, and if anyone can recommend a new company/deal etc for fast Internet (tho I would be eligible for a social tariff too), which doesn't bump up prices by bundling shite you don't use (I don't use the landline either) it would be great to hear from you (dm fine so as not to derail OP's post (sorry op), I really need to decide asap as mine is going up this week and I need to gtfo asap!

Not had a TV Licence in 18 years by just declaring that I do not need a licence at my address on the TV Licence website, simple process, I don't watch live tv at all, never have and never will, my kids don't watch live tv, but you can still watch on demand tv like netflix / hulu and so on with no licence needed or required

If you don't watch live tv, just fill in the form and declare no licence needed at your address, you will be asked to renew the declaration every two years but, do that and they leave you alone, they may send someone out to visit you to check your not watching live tv, if you prove to them you don't watch live tv, they leave and leave you alone, I have only had one visit from them in 18 years, but, you have to remember, you can only declare no licence required or needed if you do not watch any live tv at all

If you cancel your DD without making a declaration with them, they will send you letter after letter and they will send their sales team knocking on your door, save the time, just declare no licence needed and never watch bbc or live tv again and you will never need a licence

You don't need a license to listen to BBC radio, or Sounds, and probably 90% of stuff you can watch legally on catch up itv, channel 4 and 5 without a license. You need a license to watch anything live, or to watch the BBC or I player
I don't have a TV and don't watch live or BBC or I player. I can't afford it, and I resent the bullying red ink letters they send out. Should anyone knock on my door from Crapita, who "enforce" the TV licence, I will shut it in their face

Yes. I like Strictly, Call the Midwife, The Newsreader, DNA Family Secrets to name a few. I’ve enjoyed dramas like Line of Duty, Gentleman Jack and Killing Eve in the past.

I also watch tennis, athletics and rugby pretty avidly. I like Championship League football but that’s all on Sky.

I totally understand the concerns about impartiality and freedom of speech but I feel it’s fair to pay for the content I use.

Of course. I love the BBC. Detectorists and Doctor Who alone (800 episodes coming to iPlayer soon) alone would make it worth it for me.
It always cracks me up how people moan about the licence fee (never listen to the radio either?) but are quite happy to pay a fortune for Sky/BT Sport?Netflix/Prime.
I like Netflix but Prime is rubbish. If there's ever anything there that I want to watch they want me to pay extra..that's not happening.

Really? You get sport, current affairs, news, weather, children's TV, broadcasting of big national events (royal wedding/coronation etc) and educational programming all on Netflix? Wow.

If your DC have a license at their home, they are fine to watch stuff on their phones/tablets in your house as long as they're not connected to the mains electricity

The BBC has lost 1 million licence fee payers in the past few years. We only watch Gardners World and sometimes Antiques Road Show. £70 of the licence fee goes to pay highly paid presenters pensions. I used to listen to R4 all the time at home. Stopped when everything was issues and far left, and what the have done to The Archers

No, we stopped paying for it years ago as we weren’t watching it. We have Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney and Paramount at the moment.

@beguilingeyes

News is better on ITV, weather more accurate on Apple, sport stronger on Sky - you get the idea. BBC is an also-ran in every major broadcast category.

Except in radio ie the World Service, but we don’t listen to that bit.

BBC decline is sad, and an appalling waste of billions, but they’ve done it to themselves. Worse, the quality plummet means they’ve shafted the paying public. That deserves the off switch.

News is better on ITV? Really? I prefer C4 news personally but no-one does everything like the Beeb does. How much do Apple and Sky cost also.
They were doing lots of extra children's programming during the pandemic,. commercial broadcasters weren't doing that.
The absence of adverts is a major plus too.

I pay it. It accounts for quite a lot of what I watch and listen to. I don't subscribe to any streaming channels. I think it's reasonably good value and like not watching ads.

I pay it. I never watch live TV, but do use the iPlayer and have BBC radio on for hours in the day.

Yes we pay it and think it is good value. We have netflix, disney plus and prime but probably watch BBC the most.

I cancelled my Ty licence at the beginning of last month, I don't watch any live TV, or any of the BBC channels. However I think I may reconsider and restart it - I've seen clips of their reporting on Gaza, Congo and Sudan floating around IG and tiktok as one of the few credible sources of information. Which is a rare feat in the current climate.

I pay it because we watch live sports on Sky TV. I won't ever watch BBC as I disagree with its bias. I occasionally watch Sky news.

This is correct, because in the UK any method of delivery of live, broadcast TV will also include the BBC channels by default, so it doesn't matter if you are only recording Bravo or something, your package includes BBC, your package airs Bravo "as live", so you need a licence.

Just to put your mind at ease OP; - There is absolutely no such thing as a "TV Detector Van" and never has been, at least, not in the sense that BBC tried to make people believe, i.e. they contained equipment which could detect a set being watched. It's a straight up lie. These vans never existed, the tech never existed, the BBC has never produced "detector" related evidence to attempt to prosecute anyone. Not even once.

Plenty of BBC and TV Licencing branded vans around at one point, but they never contained any sort of electronic detection equipment. What used to happen on occasion is staff would watch bbc on a set in the van, and look at the glow coming through your curtains, see if they matched, and that would key them in on people who were watching live BBC, but that's all it was, a hint. It's in no way "evidence".

Oh, and FWIW, no, I don't pay licence and have not for years.

I very rarely watch any sort of TV, when I did it was usually news, and the BBC's political news reporting is so completely anodyne and lacking in any sort of effective scrutiny that it's essentially government propaganda by stealth. So no, I refuse to pay to watch them completely fail to challenge or counter blatant lies and liars.

We pay it, use iPlayer, rather than watch live bbc, we do watch live tv mainly sport.

I would pay if it was an option. I live outside the UK and watch the BBC using a VPN. We watched loads when my children were young enough for CBeebies / CBBC. Then they watched a lot of Bake Off, Top Gear, Dr Who with us and I loved watching crime / dramas after they had gone to bed - Killing Eve, Silent Witness etc. I also listen to a lot of BBC radio and podcasts, though I know you don't need a licence for that.

Watching from outside the UK via a VPN is a grey area: it would be illegal to watch in the UK without a licence, but outside the UK that doesn't apply. But there is no mechanism to allow overseas viewers to pay a licence fee / subscription. It's a bit of a cat-and-mouse game, with the BBC identifying and blocking various VPNs, but recently they seem to have given up.

Since Netflix etc launched, and the kids got older, we've watched a lot less BBC. But having lived in different parts of the world I have to say that - even with the current DEI overload 🙄- the BBC makes a lot of really really good tv, way above the standard of public broadcasting in other countries. I really hope that they can find a way to modernise and provide a global subscription service of some sort - I think they have millions of overseas viewers like me.

What a nuts country that makes us pay the BBC a fee so someone can watch Sky sports - which they have to pay for anyway.

If you do want to watch football on BBC it's mostly not live - and often introduced by obnoxious individuals.

And if you want to watch tennis then no more Sue Barker. How rubbish is that?

The BBC jewel in the crown -TMS - is on radio so free anyway.

Let's defund the BBC and save us all a lot of money, and save us from being subject to awful and bias news reporting. Although who watches that now?

I haven't watched the BBC for years and don't miss it . No I don't pay a license fee .