T.V Licence - Up to 3.7 million pensioners will now have to pay for it.

[simon12]

I think the idea of any means tested charges are ridiculous unless you think everything you buy should have a price based on income. But the status quo is equally ludicrous, I think sky and others should be allowed to offer TV packages that exclude the BBC and require no licence. But even funding it through general taxation is better than what we have now. As for pensioners it's a similar thing to the winter fuel allowance (ie many don't need it) but I don't see how watching TV has any equivalent to keeping warm.

 

[jceg316]

I think the TV licence is ridiculous, and whilst you don't have to pay it whenever I've moved house I've had a ton of angry letters demanding payment, despite not owning a TV. BBC need to modernise their business plan, either become a fully subscription service like Netflix and Hulu or have ads. If it has ads then pensioners can enjoy for free.

 

[MmmBeer]

Whilst once a year I resent paying for the TV licence, I believe it is a better system than showering their TV stations, national and local radio stations and website with adverts. How much extra would we as consumers each have to spend on the advertisers' products to justify them spending £3.3 billion with the BBC? My mum falls into the group who will lose their entitlement to a free licence, but £12.50 per month is a tiny fraction of what she currently spends on her cable subscription.

We can all pick out parts of the BBC that we would personally like them to reduce their spending on, for me it would be costume dramas, (could save a fortune) but I doubt you could get consensus across the board. The viewing figures for the recent Anthony Joshua fight demonstrated how many people now use the internet to watch TV rather than pay for it, I can only see this increasing.

 

[Gunge]

If someone dropped a tonne of coal outside your pad, even in these days of fantasy climate change, and you had no use for it, you'd not be best pleased and would presumably refuse to pay. So why does anyone have to pay the BBC if they don't watch or listen to any of its offerings? It's crazy. The over 75s can do as they please but the principle stands.

 

[Clint]

Anybody not pay??

 

[dad_of_jon]

Anybody not pay??

My daughter doesn't - she's of the youtube & netflix generation. anything she would watch, e.g. strictly come dancing is recorded at our house and she'll come over and watch it here. Mrs DOJ loves doctors so I need a licence. If it were up to me I wouldn't have a licence and i'd spend the money on netflix.

 

[Gunge]

Mrs DOJ loves doctors

Mrs. Gunge can't stand uniformed types. So me, who wouldn't go near a uniform or a suit, is the exact opposite and as such am constantly on the receiving end of sexual attention. It gets tiring sometimes tbh but you know what they say about not looking gift horses in the mouth, or summat like that, and is just one of a million more entertaining things than watching yet more climate change crapola or summat about antiques, and it's free.

 

[strange-steve]

I think the "eye rolling" smiley was designed specifically for that post

 

[Oneflewover]

I think the "eye rolling" smiley was designed specifically for that post

Yup. I nearly fell about laughing. But not quite. Eye roll it is.

 

[Alex.mc]

I think the BBC has always gone about business with a sledgehammer, rather than a carrot. And this behaviour will drive people further from them.
Why did they not introduce a discounted fee for the over 75's? It would have been far more palatable to most.
The BBC's pursuit of "it's" license fee has also always been bullying and badly handled. When my father hit 75 years back, he stopped paying quite correctly... and I arrived one day back at his place to find a TV licence guy being quite aggressive and unpleasant and unreasonable to him on the doorstep. I soon sent him on his way. Even the old adverts they used to play were all along the lines of "big brother's watching and will catch up with you".
That kind of approach rankles with people, rightly so in my opinion. The BBC for too many decades has taken it's "Corporation" moniker too seriously, and because of it's licence fee money arriving without any problem has failed to see the competition and shift in viewing, and failed to compete.
I think it does make some great programming, but I also think it's on it's last legs, although it's size and government backing will probably see it's downfall be a slow and long and tortuous one.

 

[Dutto]

It is not fair, ......

Of course it's not fair - it's the "age of austerity" for the poor but not the rich!

The problem with TV Licensing is that any refunds have to be "approved" by the TV Licensing Authority and for somebody like us (we are out of the UK for up to six months each year) paying weekly takes the payment from £154.50 a year up to about £312 a year!

The real irony of the situation is that we will now have to pay for a BBC License when we are in the UK, but when we are in France we get the BBC (and many hundreds of other TV and Radio Stations) for free via "Free Sat" so "Beam me up Scottie!" has never seemed so pertinent! (TBH, if a transporter beam actually existed, you have to believe that this current outfit in government would tax it to the hilt!)

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/pay-f...MIlsS8mtLn4gIVFuDtCh1ZQQ3pEAAYASAEEgI_YvD_BwE

BTW ...

........... The next thing that will happen is to remove free bus passes

Where I live they just remove the buses! The reason given by the bus company (Brylaine) was "The roads are so bad that they are damaging our buses!" and they had a point!

 

[Alex.mc]

Never.... a truer word spoken! "Of course it's not fair - it's the "age of austerity" for the poor but not the rich!"

 

[Justin Dean]

Jonathan Ross Salary = 18m per annum, plants in reception for a new building = 33k. You could not make it up. If the BBC could focus on efficiency rather than be a gravy train then they might have a point

 

[Ghillie]

Have the option to opt out of having BBC channels and get TV for free.

Paying the BBC, who are nothing more than a wet fart of nostalgia from the imperialistic empire days, is a farse given the huge range of channels that are now available completely FOC due to advertising.

 

[MmmBeer]

I usually mute the TV when the adverts come on, or head to the garage to grab a bottle of home brew, or whizz through them if it's recorded. The only moderately funny ad recently was the Specsavers one with the white cat trying to reach the cat flap, although this has probably now been banned following complaints from disability campaigners for mocking myopia. There is also a racist advert doing the rounds, which shows a family where both parents were the same colour. There are new laws coming into force today banning any form of gender stereotyping in advertising.

£154 does't seem so much now.

 

[Linalmeemow]

Jonathan Ross Salary = 18m per annum, plants in reception for a new building = 33k. You could not make it up. If the BBC could focus on efficiency rather than be a gravy train then they might have a point

Jonathan Ross hasn't had a show on the BBC for the best part of 10 years. It appears you COULD make it up.

 

[Rodj]

There are new laws coming into force today banning any form of gender stereotyping in advertising.

Ye gods!!!! Do you mean that women will no longer be allowed to have exclusive adornment with ****???

 

[Hoppyland]

Anybody not pay??

I don't.
I'm a pensioner, although not 75, and the new rule will not affect me at all.
I've lived in my present house for just over 3 years, and I must have had 30-40 threatening letters from Crapita (sorry, "TV Licensing").
If the early ones had been reasonable, then I would have registered online as not needing a licence. But, no, they were extremely unpleasant and threatening. So I thought "sod you" and have ignored them all. I find it quite amusing to see the same cycle repeating itself again and again: "We Know, You Know" then "Investigation Authorised" then "We visit Thousands of Households Every Day" then "Will You Be In on 26th June? An Enforcement Officer (may) Visit" then "We're Giving You 10 Days To Get Licensed Otherwise You Risk Prosecution". Then reset and start all over again. They help me to light the woodburning stove.
For the avoidance of any doubt, I do not need a TV licence. The only "TV" I watch is the odd Netflix film or series. But there seems to be a tacit assumption that this is not the case - all of the letters could have been penned by one T. May whilst creating her "hostile environment".

 

[Clint]

I suppose it's like those parking firms trying to get money out of you for "not getting a ticket" or "over staying". They have to take a private prosecution against you...they send threatening letters to frighten you into paying.
This is a big problem in Wrexham at the moment at Island Green shopping centre...the parking company is issuing fines for people dropping off,taxis picking up and even the company who trade there delivery vans! They even leave three out of four ticket meters "out of order" so some people give up trying to get a ticket.

 

[simon12]

I don't have a licence and even though I don't think I should have to I say online I don't need one every 2 years and they leave me alone.