Abolish The TV Licence Fee

Guest Blogger – Stephen Roche

Christ knows why I did not turn it off, but I’ve just had the misfortune to watch a piece on The One Show all the way through. First time for everything I suppose!

I could not believe what I saw and heard, the BBC had the cheek and audacity to criticise the way breakdown operators and insurance companies do business in an attempt to retain customers. The BBC accusing other companies of acting in a less than honest fashion, the words pot, kettle and black spring to mind. 

Firstly, I love the way that The AA,who seemed to receive special treatment in this piece were not given the opportunity to reply. A bit more biased journalism from the BBC, that is if you can call Dom the mockney barrow boy a journalist. 

Whether you approve of what these insurance companies do, they have to do business in the real world. They have to attract and retain custom in a competitive market place. They don’t have to rely on an unjust law which states if you don’t pay us we’ll prosecute you, regardless of whether you use our service or not. Think of one other business that legally employs a private army of wannabe bailiffs who gain access to your property illegally and intimidate you into handing over your hard earned money.

Dom the consumer champion then went on to advise everyone to contact their insurers before their next policy renewal to try and get a discount and play on their customer loyalty. I wonder what would happen if we all contact the BBC and demand a discount when your licence comes up for renewal. See you all in court!

Guest Blogger – Stephie Dixon – Teesside Uni

In the SU bar we have been bombarded with adverts of bad excuses given to dodge out of paying the licence, done by the tv licencing. I just a few weeks ago was asked to record an excuse for them, which was not why i didn’t pay but when someone from the department came round asked why was my sheep wearing a tiara. I did this for free and hope it will never be aired. stupid thing for me to do i know but i’m going off track.
They are always harping on about excuses we give them of not paying well to be frank i’m tired of their excuses they give to make us pay.
“We realise that £139.50 is a lot of money on a student budget. So we’ve made sure there are lots of different ways you can pay.” …. oh how nice of them…how about if they introduce a discount scheme. i mean we get discount when we go to the cinema, in clothes shops, food outlets… we don’t pay council tax (thank god) so give us a discount at the very least. if they know that it is a lot of money then do something about it!!

then their next excuse is..
“The good news is you can apply for a refund if you find that you don’t need your TV Licence for any full three-month period of cover remaining on it” what if you haven’t got a full 3 months? why can’t they do a 9 month student package? saves so much hassel for the both parties, because whoever is wanting to cancel it has to write in and lord knows i’m terrible at getting down to the post office and im sure they know that many people are and it suits them fine. why can’t we call up and cancel? a simple student offer of a 9 month deal at a reduced price would make them more popular! i mean them stopping it would make them even more popular but lets get a reality check, they won’t so they should do a student offer. what do you think?

Guest Blogger – Sabrina Purchasse – London

Unfortunately I stopped paying by direct debit- was then told i’d actually paid for a year in advance and had to fill out a form for a refund. It took over a month to recieve the payment of 79 pounds.

The desision came after sky wanted us to pay 100 pounds to get a new sky plus box along with the 40 quid a month so that we could watch cbeebies all day with the kids! In milton keynes there is some freeview there is also a virgin (was ntl) cable service which u pay 1.75 a month for and recieve 4 channels.

As our last sky boxes lasted less than a month each time we decided we wouldnt renew our contract or buy a new box just to recieve freeview. As freeview isnt guarenteed for the area we couldnt see the point in buying an aerial (milton keynes dont allow them) and a box and a tv licence the grant total of whihc amounts to the same as buying a sky box and a years subscription.

Absolute insanity How do they expect people to swap over to digital if they arn’t going to help the poorest of us to afford it– bring back analog!!!!

Why did everyone else stop was it purely cos the bbc air rubbish or was it cos you stopped watching all tv?

Guest Blogger – Arthur Vesley – Bristol

The licence fee goes entirely to the BBC (presumably after VAT), so I’m told.

For many years, it was a “wireless licence” – telly started before the war, but it wasn’t available outside London – so everybody paid a “wireless licence”.

For that reason, you never heard the latest tunes on BBC radio – or rarely heard them – as they had to pay “needle-time” (copyright fee) and they were funded entirely by the wireless licence (for the benefit of our younger members, “wireless” was the old name for “radio”), which, in those days cost about ten shillings (50p) or less per household per year.

As telly grew in popularity, after the war, it became a joint TV and wireless licence – the wireless part was later discontinued – you no longer need a licence for radio – but the licence fee pays for the radio services as well to this day.

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Guest Blogger – Matthew Bell – London

I totally disagree with you on this. Yeah it is enforced but the BBC puts us in a massively priviledged position companred to the closed, controlled media of the USA. The BBC as a public service broadcaster is largely impartial and provides relaitve freedom of information the world over.

Freedom of information might not sound like anything special in our overly spoilt society where we just expect things for nothing but actually the movement or restriction of information by the state in other countries leaves people in the dark about things which really affect their lives and opinions.

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Kiefer Carlton Froggatt – Manchester
Funnilly enough you may think not using a TV means you dont require to buy or pay for a license, but as long as there is one television or screen in the household that can recieve a signal to watch television on you must pay for a license and watching Tele online or via your computer still counts as having a television and they can track you either way. dont be folled by people’s comments on using a computer for TV hoping you wont be prosecuted.

Alexander Thomas – Bangor University
Since everything I enjoy watching is either American, Japanese or non BBC, and even then its on the pc or DVD’s I really do hate the idea that I’m paying that much a year (well will be soon anyway) just to have a TV to plug the consoles into, it’s a bit daft.

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Guest Blogger – Michale Davidson – London

Yes, the detector vans are a laughable myth, and I don’t think anyone seriously believes they do anything.

TV Licencing simply assume every address has a TV and if you don’t have a licence, they plague you with junk mail. That’s it.

I’ve had a couple of encounters with their ‘enforcement officers’ in the past, and in one case one of them tried to push past me into my house when I opened the door – effectively he was an intruder and I would be entitled to repel him in the same way as any other intruder.

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Guest Blogger – Aaron Hill – Swansea

1. There are people still with 5 channels who can’t afford a digi box, these people pay to fund the rest of the shit channels the BBC have but they can’t watch them.

You can buy a digibox for £10 or less in some places. Now, if you can afford a TV, and the TV licence, you can afford that £10 digibox. Don’t accuse me of ignorance of people less well off than me, I live 3 streets away from an estate filled with abject poverty (and I mean families who can’t afford to put food on the table every week)…the same families with Sky dishes on the front of their house.

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Guest Blogger – Alexandra Maria Hollyoak – Halesowen

“Name your top 10 TV shows, past and present! Animated or reality TV does not count – Ha!”

Boston Legal
Will and Grace
The OC
Men In Trees
Criminal Minds
CSI
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson [streamed]
Reba [not shown in the UK, bit the bullet and ordered the DVDs from the US]
Two And A Half Men
Shark

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Guest Blogger – Aaron Overal – USA

I just learned about this today. I am very surprised to learn that the BBC is funded by taxation. I have enjoyed listening to the World Service on satellite radio on an almost daily basis. I feel quite differently about listening to it now after learning about it’s primary funding source.

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