TV licence numbers

[topcat2014]

Do we really believe that none of the half million licence fee payers who stopped paying are not watching any live television?

94% use bit 80% pay.

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Are you in charge of the Beeb? I pay my licence and I don't begrudge anyone that wants to make a stand on this at all. It's about proving to the Beeb that people don't want what they're selling, in the hope of forcing change. If you want more licence revenue, make better TV shows that people actually want to watch and less of the right-on shite please! Or abolish the licence fee and advertise or introduce a subscription model... if you dare see how many people would actually pay for the BBC content that's currently being made.

Also IDK where you got 80% paying from, but I saw 23 million licences were sold this year according to the BBC article on this. That's between 30-40% I believe. Bottom of this article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gynyz4wqpo

What a bargain

The claims are (deliberately?) misleading, because while 94% might use BBC services not all BBC services require a TV licence. Radio, Sounds, their web platforms do not require a licence. Why would the BBC want to misrepresent the facts I wonder? To whip up those who need a licence and buy a licence to help them defend an outdated funding model ? Surely not ;)

There are often threads about the TV licence on here and there are always people who say they don’t need a licence.

Perhaps I am naturally suspicious but I suspect that most of them do!

And yes, I do have a licence myself!

One hundred per cent agree with this. Hear! Hear!

I have a licence as I use Sky to record and watch live TV, It would be quite easy not to have one though. It should be abolished

Is it 80% because it’s homes not people, there are 2 in our home bu only 1 licence, some homes may have 6 or 8 people including DC

I pay mine my dad paid his but no refund was given after he passed away despite him just paying a full year

I dont really use the bbc anymore but I keep it for the odd occasion when I do ridiculous really considering I pay for netflix and prime we watch all the time

Don't understand this. I've just cancelled my Mum's now she's in a nursing home and we got a refund for the last month as that would be unused. I would query why you didn't get a refund.

I reckon there’s as many the other way - I never watch live TV (not even really sure I have the ability to, but assume some catch up apps would allow it) but I pay the licence in case I want to watch anything on iplayer, which is basically the traitors once a year (which isn’t worth the licence price so I’d probably cancel if that was my only consideration). I do listen to a lot of Radio 4 though so happy to pay my licence to help fund that, even though I don’t have to.

I don't know why you would think that. Many people genuinely do not watch any live TV or use the BBC iPlayer, meaning they don't need a TV licence.

There's Netflix, You Tube, Prime, Now TV, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, etc etc etc. That's more than anyone can watch in a lifetime and none of it needs a licence if you don't watch live broadcasts.

We cancelled our TV licence when I realised it had been months since we'd used the BBC iPlayer and we can't watch live TV anyway as neither our aerial or Sky feed works.

If the BBC allowed month to month licencing like all the other platforms I'd get it every once in a while to watch the few things I do want, but I'm not paying £180 and then having to go through the hassle of getting it refunded after a month or two so I do without.

I think it will be only a small percentage of people not paying that should, how entertainment is watched has vastly changed and you don’t need live tv or the bbc to be able to watch something.
I haven’t had a licence in years and I have not watched anything illegally in that time, I just use online streaming options.

I have a licence but no other subscriptions. There are a couple of BBC shows I like plus I sometimes use iPlayer. I think it should be a monthly licence fee rather than annual so you can drop in and out as required.

For those who don’t have a licence do you have a way to watch the World Cup matches or other sports events like Wimbledon? The news?

I don't watch football/tennis or TV broadcast news. I just look at news websites and get the i weekend newspaper.

The only sport I'd watch is the Tour de France and there's a daily highlights programme on Channel 5 catch up.

I just read the news via apps/websites, and not interested in the World Cup or Wimbledon or any other big sporting events like that (olympics etc)

We pay the licence but largely because we have BBC6 Music on all day every day and I am happy to pay towards that/support new music being given exposure. We rarely watch BBC shows on TV. DP pays a fortune for Sky Sports as part of the Sky package and does watch live sport on the BBC at times (like all the time right now!).

I agree with pp that it should be a rolling subscription.

I do have a licence but I think that's a strange question to ask (and so many people ask it too). Not everyone likes sport or is at home relaxing when the main news bulletins are on nowadays. The only sport I have watched (dipped in/out) by myself are the 3-day eventing at the Olympics but I don't seek it out. I find all sport to be boring and similar to watching paint dry. As for News that is what I use my Internet for as I can read from different news outlets to get a fuller, less biased picture. News coming from one source now is becoming too politicised rather than informative, especially the BBC.

I do agree that paying for it should be changed, perhaps 3-monthly rather than annually.

Nandy is desperately trying to make herself look busy to hang onto her job. Birt is smart and is exploiting that to try and turn the licence fee into a household tax for media services - it might as well come out of general taxation if that is the case.

I mainly use the non licensed - radio and the websites. However the quality of both is so denuded I find I use less and less of them. I kept paying the licence because I do believe in public broadcasting. That said, in recent years I’ve wondered WTF I’m paying for.

If Birt is angling to make the licence fee a mandatory tax for access to media services then I can see a lot more opposition than it faces currently. Its easily the most expensive subscription month by month and I get the least out of it.

@Choux if you watch the news on ITV+1 its not considered " live" TV so you don't need a license to watch it

MILLIONS of people can live quite happily without LIVE tv or using Iplayer

My guess is that most people under 35, and maybe even under 40, consume most of their media through a streaming platform of some sort, and generally on an 'on-demand' not live basis. They more likely than not also consume most of it via some sort of mobile device. So it's entirely possible that more people have a licence than actually need one, and that a household based licencing model is obsolete. It's quite interesting talking to people in their 50s/60s (and I am one of them), many of whom just won't believe that people just don't watch TV in the way they used to.

Conversely I don't live in the UK but would like to access iPlayer t consume some BBC content, and would be happy to pay on a subscription basis. But I can't.

What I will never understand is why the BBC gets paid if I want to watch QVfuckingC. Why any live TV? I know someone who paid a subscription to watch a sport thing on one of the ITV channels and wasn't allowed to watch it live because she didn't have a TV licence.

And I think the BBC should admit to themselves that many ex viewers have stopped watching because of their output, not just because 'times change'.

ITV+1 watching would need a licence. As it is broadcast on live tv, even with an hour delay. If you watched a news report on ITVX player on demand rather than streaming, after the fact it wouldnt need it.

MIL hasn’t had one in 8 years, she watches live tv all day. She gets a threatening letter once every 4 or so months and ignores it.

I watch live TV and wouldn’t pay for one but DH pays it from his account so I just accept his irritating compliance.