Tv licence

[Knewmee]

My New Years resolution is to stop funding the bbc through my tv licence, because I think it has become an organisation that is now actively harmful to women.

This is partly because of its astonishingly unbalanced approach to the trans issue. But also because of the impact criminal proceedings, for unpaid licence fee, have on women who are already economically disadvantaged, and who face criminal proceedings and fines for what should be a civil debt.

(Also, my mother, almost 90, is continually harassed by threatening letters about not having a tv licence, and was recently visited by a young male enforcement agent who insisted on coming into her sitting room. She found the experience terrifying. She has never, in her life, owned a television. And at her age she’d presumably not have to pay for a licence anyway, so why they are terrorising her I have no idea.)

Penalising poor women and frightening the aged isn’t something I want to fund, hence the New Years resolution.

I wondered if anyone else who had given up their tv licence had any practical tips or things to avoid. Deleting iplayer, obviously, but any other apps? I’ll still have Prime and Netflix but my understanding is that so long as I don’t use iplayer, or watch any live TV through Prime or YouTube or any other source, I don’t need a licence.

Is there anything I can do to prove I do not watch live tv? That I genuinely don’t need a licence? Any advice appreciated!

This is FWR most of us don't really do party politics here scaffold.

If I could wean DH off the BBC I would happily ditch my licence.

It's utterly disgraceful that people can be sent to prison for non payment of TV licence whereas if they failed to pay their sky bill (or any other media provider) this would just be a civil debt.

It's even more disgraceful when you consider the vast sex disparity in prosecutions and how much BBC champion TWAW.

BBC are sending women to prison and then cheerfully championing male people's 'right' to be incarecerated alongside them, in the same spaces.

Fuck them.

I have CCTV so I can see who is at my door before answering. And if I were to see TV licence people (or Jehova's Witnesses or anything like that) I just wouldn't answer

Knewmee you should consider raising a complaint on your mother's behalf and escalating it as far as necessary. All BBC complaints procedures are designed to make you lose the will to live, this one especially seems to have a ridiculous number of stages, but keep plugging away until you get a response you are happy with.

www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/making-a-complaint-AB7

I can't stand the BBC, it's one of these rich companies that have greedy fat-cats at the top who don't care about anything other than money.

I opted out of having a TV licence 4 years ago. Very simple online form to complete on their site. I don't like the BBC, & that having a TV Licence is touted as compulsory as if its a tax.

As long as you don't watch live TV its fine. You can watch Catch Up, although I never do. I have Netflix and Amazon Prime.

What ever you do DO NOT WITHDRAW THEIR RIGHTS OF ACCESS this flags you up for getting a search warrant. For more info please visit www.tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php#c1

Aaaah, "TV Detector Vans."

Two theories:

1. A complete hoax. See Thunderbirds and their "Automatic Camera Detector.^

2. They might just possibly work at point blank range if you had a huge 1970s CRT directly under the window and there were no TVs in any of the neighbouring houses.

There were at least two of them, perhaps as many as four to cover the whole country, but one or more of these may have been mock-ups (see (1))

"We don't really do party politics here"

I must have fallen into a parallel universe, one where oodles of threads never actually existed, and discussions of political parties and their policies isn't found in FWR

(Try looking back threads from every GE campaign, not to mention threads on abolishing the tampon tax and UKIP, or indeed anything a right wing party promotes. That's why I'm surprised to see a right wing party's policy being praised in this topic - it doesn't happen often, even when the GE election results suggest level of support ought to be high)

Why?
1)The majority of the public voted for him

That's just plain wrong, Captain Kirk's Ghost. More people voted for the other parties than for the Tories.

And though I'm no great fan of the BBC these days I wonder where all of you who'd bring it to its knees expect to get your news from in future? Fox? The Sun? The Guardian?

As for the assertion that it's a 'rich company' it's suffered massive cuts in the last few years which is why it can't afford to compete with the really rich companies, Amazon and Netflix, which you are all so thrilled with. Do you really want a world where there's nothing but commercial TV, where only the most popular things survive?

Cancelled mine just before Christmas. Never ever watch normal tv as we have Netflix and Amazon and that is all we need. The BBC can fuck off. I would not miss it if it went.

And though I'm no great fan of the BBC these days I wonder where all of you who'd bring it to its knees expect to get your news from in future? Fox? The Sun? The Guardian?

The Times is a pretty good newspaper.

Do you really want a world where there's nothing but commercial TV, where only the most popular things survive?

TV is dying, there are a million ways to get non commercial content and stuff made for a really niche audience now.

I wonder where all of you who'd bring it to its knees expect to get your news from in future?

Probably a similar range of mixed sources as i currently get my news from.

I’ve never been overly hassled by TV Licensing after notifying them I do not need a licence. Although I did complain about the wording and frequency of the reminder letter when it arrived this year. Possibly they can’t be bothered to send someone out to the very rural location I live in to check.

You can still pay per view some BBC programmes if there is ever anything you want to watch. I usually just wait till they appear on Netflix, but did buy His Dark Materials recently. I use an Amazon Firestick to watch prime, Netflix and ,occasionally, none BBC channels catch up services.

Yes BBC news is really poor anyway. Channel 4 used to be the best for news although I have not seen it for years.

As for the assertion that it's a 'rich company' it's suffered massive cuts in the last few years which is why it can't afford to compete with the really rich companies

It's a billion dollar company, it has commercial channels all over the world including the UKTV networks in the UK.

Of course it can compete, It owns the majority of the channels that are broadcast over Freeview, most completion on that platform is with its self.

competition*

Privately owned media companies can feed you whatever they want. There were times when the Times was just a blatant Thatcher-loving Tory rag and even though at the moment it's running a more neutral editorial policy it can turn whichever way it wants in the future. If the Sun had come out for Corbyn in November then Labour might well have won the last election. It was Murdoch's decision to back Blair back in the 90s that was a major step to Labour winning in 97. Perhaps you're too young to remember how influential the private press barons have been.

The BBC is hamstrung by its public service remit. It can't supply you with an endless diet of superheroes and zombies. It's required to support a huge range of broadcast and news services, it's required to fact-check, required to show balance, required to educate and inform – not just entertain. I'm not saying it gets it right all or even most of the time and when this trans madness turns the corner I hope there'll be heads on poles come the enquiry. But it's accountable in a way that privately-owned media empires aren't.

The NHS and the BBC are two things that Britain's envied for. I know people who are paying the best part of £100 a month on Sky, Netflix, Amazon and other packages. The BBC is £13 a month and I'm happy to pay that for Radio 4 and Radio 3, let alone the TV and news content. The BBC's finances have been massively cut by the Tories who want to limit its influence so that they can control the media via their cronies. I'm paying my licence fee to support democracy as much as anything else.

Of course we discuss political parties and their policies scaffold. What I mean is most posters here don't do the mindless party loyalty thing. None of them represent women's interests.

During the recent GE campaign there were loads of threads on here where women from the left and right and centre were discussing the shit choices before us. Many of us spoilt our ballots. Every so often a corbyn bot would pop up on one of these threads and tell us if we didn't vote labour we were voting for dead children or some other hyperbole. They went down like a lead balloon. That's what you sound like. 'Oh no, you mustn't support abolition of the licence fee or decriminalisation of non-payment because that's what Boris thinks.'

Why would I care if this is a 'Boris policy' or a 'Jeremy policy' or whatever? They're all shit.

Privately owned media companies can feed you whatever they want

And the BBC can influence public opinion, covered up a peadophile ring and has tried it's hand at social engineering in the past.

They have a majority on media in the UK, no company should have this.

majority monopoly on media

I had a visit a couple of weeks ago, I said he couldn't come in, he circled on his form that my TV was on standby. He hadn't even seen a TV in my home. Got him to cross it out. At no point did he caution me etc so look forward to any letter saying they are taking me to court.

As soon as I moved into my new apartment this creep quietly slid a note through my letterbox and tiptoed away from my front door. I watched him the entire time.
"We called". No you effing didnt!
Since the first piece of war propaganda fell on my mat in September I've had two more from their arse-nal. I phoned to complain. I don't have a TV set. I can't abide by their authoritarian, supreme-being, cake-or-death ways. So I said my piece and was put on hold to speak to someone in complaints.
Twenty-nine minutes later I hung up. Angrier than I think I've ever been!
I can't hold a pen to write a letter. Polymyalgia Rheumatica, amongst other things has ruined that for me. I tried finding an e-mail address......... Cul-de-sac!!!!
So I did what any computer savvy tech-head would do. I complained on every single leading program that I could find. That relieved a lot of tension I can tell you.
Unbiased? The BBC!!!???? BOVINE FECES.

Do not remove their Right of implied access!!! This can be used to obtain a warrant. If they come knocking, just close the door and DO NOT engage in any conversation. And just throw the letters in the bin. Please take some time to check out refusal videos on YouTube.