6 ms·

This is such nonsense. In my opinion the BBC should be paid for by a proper tax, as an informed public benefits everyone, or they should just give up on calling

This is such nonsense. In my opinion the BBC should be paid for by a proper tax, as an informed public benefits everyone, or they should just give up on calling it a license. The people going around houses just send threatening letters, and act as though they have some right to enter your home and inspect it (they don't). They go around terrorising people who don't know their rights, but don't watch TV anyway. I routinely get threatening letters from them despite not having a TV on the premises.

excalibur 7y ago
The British government has a legal obligation to conduct all business in the least sensible manner available. It's in the Magna Carta.
- lordnacho 7y ago
  In fact the system of government is derived from strange ladies lying in lakes distributing swords.
  - switch007 7y ago
    If I went around saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
  - celeritascelery 7y ago
    Given that the parent posters user name is Excalibur, I think they are okay with that.
pstuart 7y ago
Then there’s the issue of the cost to enforce licensing.
groundlogic 7y ago
Swedish public service transitioned from a per-household fee (for households that held devices capable of showing RF broadcast TV) to a per citizen tax January 1st this year. Of course, they go to great lengths to avoid calling it a tax, but... well, it is a tax. I don't really like it. There's no opt-out any longer. And the content is predictably all-consuming leftist.
- NeedForSweede 7y ago
  Socialism is fun.
- mikepurvis 7y ago
  Canada's national broadcaster (the CBC) is funded out of general tax revenue, which I appreciate. Extremists on both sides complain that it leans too far the other way, which is probably a good sign overall. Certainly the CBC coverage pulls no punches when discussing our famous Liberal government scandals. Other than as a news organization, another part of why it exists is to purchase and stimulate the developments of home-grown content (Little Mosque on the Praire, Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience, etc). For this reason, it has sometimes raised eyebrows in the past when it has purchased licenses to air mainstream Hollywood films, especially if doing so competes against private broadcasters like CTV.
- notvplez 7y ago
  Norway is doing the same thing starting next year, and I really like it, even though the content is increasingly getting predictably all-consuming right wing as each year goes by. ;) I actually bought my very first TV (since I discovered I was able to download South Park and The Simpsons and watch it on my computer in the early 2000s) a few months ago hoping to make the cut off so I would be able to say I'd paid the old license at least once in my lifetime (the license is divided into two payments per year), but it seems like the webshop I bought it from was nice enough to not supply my address info to the licensing office in time as I haven't received any bill. Oh well.
  - djsumdog 7y ago
    A Norwegian friend told me this a few years back; how the licensing people can just go into your homes when they show up and check for the presence of TVs. Crazy.
    - notvplez 7y ago
      Well your Norwegian friend was wrong about that. All they could do was knock on your door and ask you if you had a TV, and you could more or less politely tell them you didn't and that would be the end of it, even if you did own one and it was on and both you and the license guy was able to hear it playing in the background. :)
jfindley 7y ago
I very much enjoy the right to opt out of paying for the BBC, whose programming I no longer have any interest in watching. I'm extremely glad that it's not paid for by a compulsory tax.
- DanBC 7y ago
  But you have to opt out of watching all live tv for your method to work.
  - noir_lord 7y ago
    Not been an issue for about 7 years, Netflix and Amazon Prime about cover me for anything I want to watch when I do decide to watch.
  - gambiting 7y ago
    I haven't had live TV at home for the last 9 years. We spent a week at a cabin few weeks ago which had a TV and my wife put it on out of curiousity - I think I was mostly just shocked that people pay for this crap, you get like 15 minutes of whatever programme followed by 5 minutes of ads? In 2019? And people still pay a licence for this? Insanity.
    - KaiserPro 7y ago
      "5 minutes of ads" thats not the BBC then is it.
      - gambiting 7y ago
        It was ITV or Dave or whatever the channel was called. Doesn't matter though, still requires a paid TV licence.
madeofpalk 7y ago
This is one of the reasons why I make such a point to not pay for the TV license (apart from, you know, not watching broadcast TV). I'm all for my tax to be increased marginally to pay for the operation of the BBC, but I am very much against these additional taxes added on top. Just send me one tax bill a year and I'll pay that.
bcaa7f3a8bbc 7y ago
It's not only the UK. After the war, Japan used BBC as a model for the national broadcasting media, and the NHK essentially copied the same BBC TV license policy, including its aggressive attempts to collect TV fees (although the NHK doesn't have TV detector vans...) It has been challenged in courts but the verdict, just like the BBC, is that the fee is mandatory if you watch TV.
- throwaway456zzy 7y ago
  In Japan you only have to pay if you have a device with a working TV tuner, this includes car navigation systems with broadcast TV tuners (there are lots of these in Japan!) However, the BBC rule of watching live TV on any device appears to be a completely different test of legality to Japan. Interestingly enough ‘NHK Kara Kokumin Wo Mamoru Tou’ (The ‘Protect Citizenry from NHK’ Party) won a seat in Japanese parliament at the recent national election! Be it Japan or UK, it is quite the anachronism to mandate enforcement of even a government broadcaster’s business model. Doing so regardless of how much use or benefit you get, makes it a sort of regressive tax.
umvi 7y ago
Wait what, this is still going on today? I thought this was a historical thing. What if you buy a TV for "offline" use only (i.e. Nintendo Switch)?
- jjbinx007 7y ago
  You need a TV licence if you watch or record TV as it's broadcasted (or shortly afterwards) or if you use iPlayer.
- DanBC 7y ago
  You need a licence if you receive live tv as it's broadcast, or if you watch BBC iPlayer (a video on demand "catch up" service). You don't need a licence if you don't watch live tv as it's broadcast.
- gambiting 7y ago
  You go on a website, enter your address, confirm like 3 times that no, you don't use your TV to watch live programmes and that's it, you won't get another letter for a couple years at which point you just need to re-confirm that again.

excalibur 7y ago

The British government has a legal obligation to conduct all business in the least sensible manner available. It's in the Magna Carta.

lordnacho 7y ago
In fact the system of government is derived from strange ladies lying in lakes distributing swords.
- switch007 7y ago
  If I went around saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
- celeritascelery 7y ago
  Given that the parent posters user name is Excalibur, I think they are okay with that.

pstuart 7y ago

Then there’s the issue of the cost to enforce licensing.

groundlogic 7y ago

Swedish public service transitioned from a per-household fee (for households that held devices capable of showing RF broadcast TV) to a per citizen tax January 1st this year. Of course, they go to great lengths to avoid calling it a tax, but... well, it is a tax. I don't really like it. There's no opt-out any longer. And the content is predictably all-consuming leftist.

NeedForSweede 7y ago
Socialism is fun.
mikepurvis 7y ago
Canada's national broadcaster (the CBC) is funded out of general tax revenue, which I appreciate. Extremists on both sides complain that it leans too far the other way, which is probably a good sign overall. Certainly the CBC coverage pulls no punches when discussing our famous Liberal government scandals. Other than as a news organization, another part of why it exists is to purchase and stimulate the developments of home-grown content (Little Mosque on the Praire, Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience, etc). For this reason, it has sometimes raised eyebrows in the past when it has purchased licenses to air mainstream Hollywood films, especially if doing so competes against private broadcasters like CTV.
notvplez 7y ago
Norway is doing the same thing starting next year, and I really like it, even though the content is increasingly getting predictably all-consuming right wing as each year goes by. ;) I actually bought my very first TV (since I discovered I was able to download South Park and The Simpsons and watch it on my computer in the early 2000s) a few months ago hoping to make the cut off so I would be able to say I'd paid the old license at least once in my lifetime (the license is divided into two payments per year), but it seems like the webshop I bought it from was nice enough to not supply my address info to the licensing office in time as I haven't received any bill. Oh well.
- djsumdog 7y ago
  A Norwegian friend told me this a few years back; how the licensing people can just go into your homes when they show up and check for the presence of TVs. Crazy.
  - notvplez 7y ago
    Well your Norwegian friend was wrong about that. All they could do was knock on your door and ask you if you had a TV, and you could more or less politely tell them you didn't and that would be the end of it, even if you did own one and it was on and both you and the license guy was able to hear it playing in the background. :)

jfindley 7y ago

I very much enjoy the right to opt out of paying for the BBC, whose programming I no longer have any interest in watching. I'm extremely glad that it's not paid for by a compulsory tax.

DanBC 7y ago
But you have to opt out of watching all live tv for your method to work.
- noir_lord 7y ago
  Not been an issue for about 7 years, Netflix and Amazon Prime about cover me for anything I want to watch when I do decide to watch.
- gambiting 7y ago
  I haven't had live TV at home for the last 9 years. We spent a week at a cabin few weeks ago which had a TV and my wife put it on out of curiousity - I think I was mostly just shocked that people pay for this crap, you get like 15 minutes of whatever programme followed by 5 minutes of ads? In 2019? And people still pay a licence for this? Insanity.
  - KaiserPro 7y ago
    "5 minutes of ads" thats not the BBC then is it.
    - gambiting 7y ago
      It was ITV or Dave or whatever the channel was called. Doesn't matter though, still requires a paid TV licence.

madeofpalk 7y ago

This is one of the reasons why I make such a point to not pay for the TV license (apart from, you know, not watching broadcast TV). I'm all for my tax to be increased marginally to pay for the operation of the BBC, but I am very much against these additional taxes added on top. Just send me one tax bill a year and I'll pay that.

bcaa7f3a8bbc 7y ago

It's not only the UK. After the war, Japan used BBC as a model for the national broadcasting media, and the NHK essentially copied the same BBC TV license policy, including its aggressive attempts to collect TV fees (although the NHK doesn't have TV detector vans...) It has been challenged in courts but the verdict, just like the BBC, is that the fee is mandatory if you watch TV.

throwaway456zzy 7y ago
In Japan you only have to pay if you have a device with a working TV tuner, this includes car navigation systems with broadcast TV tuners (there are lots of these in Japan!) However, the BBC rule of watching live TV on any device appears to be a completely different test of legality to Japan. Interestingly enough ‘NHK Kara Kokumin Wo Mamoru Tou’ (The ‘Protect Citizenry from NHK’ Party) won a seat in Japanese parliament at the recent national election! Be it Japan or UK, it is quite the anachronism to mandate enforcement of even a government broadcaster’s business model. Doing so regardless of how much use or benefit you get, makes it a sort of regressive tax.

umvi 7y ago

Wait what, this is still going on today? I thought this was a historical thing. What if you buy a TV for "offline" use only (i.e. Nintendo Switch)?

jjbinx007 7y ago
You need a TV licence if you watch or record TV as it's broadcasted (or shortly afterwards) or if you use iPlayer.
DanBC 7y ago
You need a licence if you receive live tv as it's broadcast, or if you watch BBC iPlayer (a video on demand "catch up" service). You don't need a licence if you don't watch live tv as it's broadcast.
gambiting 7y ago
You go on a website, enter your address, confirm like 3 times that no, you don't use your TV to watch live programmes and that's it, you won't get another letter for a couple years at which point you just need to re-confirm that again.