UK TV License is an unfair tax

Ok, the subject says it all.
Discussing Television shows elsewhere on ATS it occurred to me that UK residents are forced to pay for content that they never watch.
Have a television pay the tax. Don’t watch the BBC, pay the tax. Over 75 years old, keep paying the tax.
Apart from the very infrequent shows, the BBC churns out utter dross.
Its time to axe the tax and let viewers choose what to pay for.
Rant over

a reply to: Cymru

I agree the BBC is supposedly providing a public service and is not beholden to advertisers which is a good thing. But by charging everyone who owns a tv a license fee it’s taking the mic. It should fund itself by some other means. I think a subscription for its services like what Netflix and others do would be much fairer people at least have the choice then, where as now we are paying for it wether we watch/listen/stream or not to any bbc productions.

a reply to: Cymru

I agree. Same here. 17€ a month for brainwashing I do not want to subscribe to. They make millions on top, yet the price does not go down.

It was so bad once, they had like detectives who would trick you into answering questions about having a TV or radio. When they go your word, they said they are "from the state" and if you answered like...

"Oh I have this TV since 5 years" and you did not pay, they let you payup all those 5 years. Even if you did not watch it, just because you had the ability to do so. And they do not make it encrypted like Premiere or Sky, because "everyone needs access to this".

That is 200€ per year for nothing!

a reply to: Oleandra88

I take whatever device your posting on doesn’t let you do the £pound symbol?

I have seen some good YouTube vids of people standing up to tv license enforcers, apparently if you know the law and your rights they can’t do snip. I’ll not be renewing my license this year.

a reply to: surfer_soul

We had a serious illness in the Family and oddly enough renewing the tax was not top of our agenda.
Within 3 days some dick was banging on the front door.
The best part is, they subbie enforcement out to Capita cutting further into their farcical revenue stream.

a reply to: surfer_soul
Different place, same s##t, € is correct

We can not do anything legaly against it.

Here it even goes that far that if someone, wherever on the world, uploads a YT video, it get´s scanned by GEMA, then disabled for every user from my country. If there is any kind of music in it, the author of the video in theory has to pay a fee to GEMA who then reimpurse the artists. By default they are not liable by law because they live in a nother country. So they just block you from seeing it.

The only way to circumvent this is using a VPN that I learned recently I have a lifelong account made for me.

This way I can, too, surf to US sites that will always have "technical issues for viewers in Europe".

a reply to: Oleandra88

A quick click on Companies House is interesting reading ....

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk...

The direct link failed so feel free to explore the various BBC entities.

You need a licence to watch television? What?!?!?

@BuckyWunderlick
see surfer_souls first message in this thread.

btw, "wunderlick", haha love it!

a reply to: BuckyWunderlick
Strictly speaking, it is a licence to operate a device capable of receiving television pictures. Which is why "I don't watch" has never been a legal excuse.

a reply to: Cymru

I dont have a problem with the license so much as the political garbage they push in their shows.
Just watch dr who...

a reply to: Bluntone22

Its because of Dr Who I made this post.

Utter PC garbage.

a reply to: Cymru

Yeah, I would want to pay for that garbage either

a reply to: Bluntone22

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Technically your paying for the infrastructure to receive a signal and to help fund the bbc so saying you don’t watch any bbc channels isn’t a defense. I agree that it sucks I would rather just be able to pay my cable tv provider the fee.

a reply to: OtherSideOfTheCoin

That is how it was like here... since a few years they threw away that ideology. Now it is just upfront a "you subscribe to it as soon as you have an own household".

Watch out for that trick in the future..

Turn the BBC off of free to air, and have a referendum to turn it back on.

2013/14 BBC budget £4.7Bn, cost of Brexit referendum £130M.

If yes, the do as is done.
If no, restrict to public information and radio only.

All other BBC output by Internet and subscription only.

Short term - stop broadcasting to Belgium and Holland for free.

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: BuckyWunderlick
Strictly speaking, it is a licence to operate a device capable of receiving television pictures. Which is why "I don't watch" has never been a legal excuse.

Good god.

a reply to: BuckyWunderlick

Yep. Even getting a specialist desolder the part that is responsible for external signals. Like, if you do not have a TV but an old analog stereo system that has a tuner integrated, even desoldering the tuner would not help you.

The ability counts (counted here) to get the signal, not the intention. This got me in trouble when I had living in Berlin.

I am assuming that there is no competition for the BBC over there across the pond?

Do they have advertising in their programming?

What about a cable or satellite system? Is there nothing but BBC broadcasting? Sounds like a monopoly if there is no other network to view.

Well I can at least catch some British shows on PBS for free, although the choices are limited and the shows are 5 years old. I use to watch BBC programming for free on Canadian broadcast TV when I lived in Detroit.

I must admit, other than Dr Who, Monty Python, Benny Hill, the Goodies or occasionally Doc Martin, I'd rather not watch British programs. They are usually lame productions IMO, but given the lack of exposure to new programs, what do I know? I hear the BBC has some naughty bits and language, I could live with that I suppose.