//BBC confirms viewers will have to fork out more for their TV licence as the cost rises to £154.50 from April 1.
Dozens of people have complained about the price hike on Twitter, saying that the licence already costs too much and asking if it is now time to 'scrap' the system.//
Having got rid of Sky when I moved house, and got BT TV (only £5 per month), I don’t mind paying the licence fee.
If they scrapped it and started showing adverts, then I would do what I do with every other channel with adverts. Record and forward through the ads.
I admit the system is anachronistic but it seems to work. And it’s cheap. And the main reason some don’t seem to like it is because they’re forced to pay it.
As for the BBC being biased I’ve always thought that people think that because compared to the right wing tabloids it probably seems a bit left wing :-)
television manufacturers would make a killing if they could block bbc
imagine buy with or without, id sell mine asap, as bbc is antiquated
...err listen to my wireless says it all.
Economies could be made though.
Cut out all those walking towards the camera set-up shots, cretins staring at ceilings in dodgy terraced houses, The One Show, soaring piano music when the worst is over, filler shots from drones, diversity consultants, did I already mention The One Show?
Did anyone ever NOT complain about a fee rise for anything? No one likes that.
A few years ago the government, in what seemed nothing more than an act of spite, made the BBC pay for the over 75s out of the licence fee and no longer out of tax. That had a huge impact. Hopefully that will be reversed some time.
its an out of date entertainment license, i do not watch anything bbc
except occasionally the brussels broadcasting news, so i can have a titter at the bias. netflix is better as i have a choice to cancel.
"I admit the system is anachronistic but it seems to work. And it’s cheap."
But it doesn't work - not properly anyway. In 2016-17 some 185,000 people had action taken against them for not having a licence. One hundred and forty thousand were prosecuted in the criminal courts and 102,000 were convicted and fined. Ninety of them finished up in prison for non-payment of fines and three quarters of those charged were women. No organisation should have the option of taking a customer to the criminal court - from where they may eventually end up in custody - for what is essentially a civil debt. And of course for each one prosecuted you can bet there were probably ten more not detected.
Calling it a "licence" is disingenuous. It is simply a way of funding the State broadcasting organisation by forcing those who want to watch other broadcasters' output (and not want to watch the BBC) pay for it. It's like having to pay for the Times to be published when you only want to read the Sun and the Mirror. If the State wants to run a broadcasting service it should be funded from general taxation but personally I don't think the State has any business running a broadcasting organisation. It should be a subscription service then people can choose to buy it or not.