Do you pay your TV license fee?

[stavros]

There are many long-standing British institutions which should be abolished - the monarchy, the honours system, the undemocratic electoral system, the Institute of Directors, Arsenal FC etc etc - but the BBC certainly isn't one of them.

I 100% echo this point. The BBC is a wonderful organisation which done remarkably well to survive all the revolutions of media with satellite and now digital and still it, for the most part, doesn't toe the populist bullshit agenda of the other channels. It is also, for the most part, wholy unbiased politically due to it not being dependent on the forces of the advertisers or some wankstain like Murdoch. I believe the commercial-free template to be the best one to get the best programmes, because if you look at the closest thing America has to the BBC in HBO, they produce what have to be considered the best shows in the likes of the Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

And the licence fee price really isn't that much when you think about how much BBC TV you watch.

 

[big footed fred]

no.

don't watch telly

Glad I'm not the only one without a TV.

 

[Santino]

Pay it, happy to pay it. One of the great socialist institutions.

 

[laptop]

no problem with any of that, I just don't use any of their services.

Those World Cup qualifiers in full "Note how I provide a far more comprehensive service than BBC1"...

Reign of Fire, BBC1 now

And of course you never use the website...

 

[Dubversion]

when i move house i happily avoid council tax and all the rest of the bills that piss me off. But i sign up for the licence fee straight away. BBC radio alone gives me more pleasure than £120 a year could cover.

 

[JTG]

And of course you never use the website...

hardly ever

can't believe you actually searched my posts for something from last year to make a point.

 

[laptop]

can't believe you actually searched my posts for something from last year to make a point.

Only took a couple of seconds.

Couldn't believe you'd make such a blanket assertion within a couple of seconds of the means of disproof.

 

[mango5]

I never watch tv but I'm with Dubversion on value for money Radio. Worth it imo. And I use the website too.

 

[JTG]

Only took a couple of seconds.

Couldn't believe you'd make such a blanket assertion within a couple of seconds of the means of disproof.

big deal. You've proved I watched the BBC last september. Well done Rumpole

should people with no TV who use the BBC website pay a licence fee?

Given that I do not watch television these days unless it is on at somebody else's house, why should I pay a licence fee?

 

[mhendo]

There are many long-standing British institutions which should be abolished - the monarchy, the honours system, the undemocratic electoral system, the Institute of Directors, Arsenal FC etc etc - but the BBC certainly isn't one of them.

However, eventually it will happen - for political rather than commercial reasons - and when it does it'll be one of those 'you don't know what you got til you lose it' moments.

Ain't that the truth.

And i can tell you what you'll be missing, because here in the US there is just no equivalent to the BBC, and it sucks. PBS does some good shows, but it can't hold a candle to the Beeb. If you have cable you can choose to get BBC America, but it's not the same as the real thing.

And even in Australia, where the ABC is still ad-free and does its best to be a BBC equivalent, lack of people and funding means that there aren't as many channels, or as much original programming.

No, the BBC is unique, and the world will be a lesser place if/when it gets shut down.

 

[huckster6]

The BBC is one of the greatest achievements of mankind.
Radio 4 alone is worth the money
So is
*"The Day Today"
*"Little Britain"
*Michael Crick questioning Jeffrey Archer
*Jeremy Paxman questioning Michael Howard
*or this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/4805050.stm
*or Emily Maitlis' peculiar dress sense: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4741142.stm
*and a thousand other things.
*...and it's also worth every penny for not having to give ANYTHING to Rupert Murdoch, who has polluted every culture he's contacted.

 

[JTG]

The BBC is one of the greatest achievements of mankind.
Radio 4 alone is worth the money

But you don't have to pay for the radio

 

[Orang Utan]

But you don't have to pay for the radio

No, but the TV license funds it.

 

[girasol]

I didnt' used to pay when I couldn't afford to, but now I can, so I do (also when my very old telly blew up after I moved houses, I had to give them my address when I bought a new one - I would have paid anyway but I was really annoyed that they would only sell it to me if I gave them my address )

 

[dolly's gal]

i pay it but really i'd rather not. like i'd rather not pay the gas bill or my phone bill or my rent.

however i'd rather pay it than get busted so hey ho there you have it.

do i think it's worth it? no, not really. although i would cite eastenders as one of my primary reasons for being.

 

[JTG]

No, but the TV license funds it.

As do the BBC books, DVDs etc I do spend money on.

My point being that you can't criticise someone who listens to BBC radio, uses the website etc but doesn't have a licence. My aunt loves Radios Three and Four but doesn't own a TV. Is she sponging off everyone else?

 

[lighterthief]

As do the BBC books, DVDs etc I do spend money on.

My point being that you can't criticise someone who listens to BBC radio, uses the website etc but doesn't have a licence. My aunt loves Radios Three and Four but doesn't own a TV. Is she sponging off everyone else?

Effectively, yes - from people who pay their TV licence fee. Not saying this is a Bad Thing or anything, but somebody paid for those programmes to be put together, and it wasn't your aunt. Unless she buys all those Blue Planet box sets

 

[ddraig]

and how much do thy spend on those patronising scaremongering ads that scare trashpony?!?! plenty that's what. and don't get me started on the criminalisation and locking up of single mums

you know where i am do u? well COME ON THEN!

it is worth it yes but i have only ever paid it in a shared house where everyone else is too chicken to front it out.
in approx 15yrs i only almost got caught once when they came to the door. so minus a couple of yrs chipping in and a few yrs in squats i reckon i've saved approx £1000 so meh!

also they don't charge for the website so if u just had a pc and still used bbconline they wouldn't come after you would they?
excellent website with stuff on nearly everything but that's their choice. and can u seriously tell me it cost ££££millions to expand their site last year? bloody cheek.
so no, they can whistle for it....for now.

 

[strung out]

As do the BBC books, DVDs etc I do spend money on.

My point being that you can't criticise someone who listens to BBC radio, uses the website etc but doesn't have a licence. My aunt loves Radios Three and Four but doesn't own a TV. Is she sponging off everyone else?

Just a small point, but our aunt (myself and JTG have the same aunt surprisingly enough) has a TV license even though she doesn't own a TV. She was fed up of people telling her she was sponging off license fee payers by listening to BBC radio.

 

[lighterthief]

Just a small point, but our aunt (myself and JTG have the same aunt surprisingly enough) has a TV license even though she doesn't own a TV. She was fed up of people telling her she was sponging off license fee payers by listening to BBC radio.

Ah, that simply wasn't clear from JTG's post. If your aunt didn't have a licence she would, objectively, be using a service that she hadn't contributed towards. I wouldn't call it "sponging" though; just a basic economic fact. And again, as I said earlier, I'm not suggesting it would be a Bad Thing either.

 

[stavros]

and it's also worth every penny for not having to give ANYTHING to Rupert Murdoch, who has polluted every culture he's contacted.

So OTM it's unbelievable.

 

[Crispy]

they got around that by letting the kids from the neighbourhood keep them - but they must have been findin them for weeks! we've got some cool footage that never made it to the ad.

A Sony Bravia promotional CD fell out of the newspaper on saturday, with making of shots of this. Looked like great fun, those balls were moving FAST

 

[JTG]

Just a small point, but our aunt (myself and JTG have the same aunt surprisingly enough) has a TV license even though she doesn't own a TV. She was fed up of people telling her she was sponging off license fee payers by listening to BBC radio.

Really?!

Oh well, makes up for my lack of one then

 

[editor]

I'd have paid a tenner to see Life On Mars alone.

But I definitely get my money's worth out of the Beeb: I use their website every single day, listen to their radio stations every day and watch some of their quality TV stuff regularly.

And the joy of not having shit adverts shoved in your face every 15 minutes is pretty priceless too.

 

[Orang Utan]

As do the BBC books, DVDs etc I do spend money on.

My point being that you can't criticise someone who listens to BBC radio, uses the website etc but doesn't have a licence. My aunt loves Radios Three and Four but doesn't own a TV. Is she sponging off everyone else?

Not at all!

 

[elevendayempire]

I pay it, but I don't like it. Mainly because of the scaremongering ads, and the fact that when my flatmates moved out and I was moving out a month later, the CUNT on the TV Licensing phone line said I had to pay for 3 months. And I said, well I can't get my landlord to remove the telly. And he said, "Oh, just unplug it, and if a detector van comes round you can say it's the landlord's and you don't watch it."

Yeah, right. Because that excuse would work with those perpetually-suspicious, Big-Brother unable-to-accept-that-people-might-not-want-to-watch-telly twats who run the detector vans. Christ, I wish I'd taped that bloke on my dictaphone so I could use it as evidence...

SG

 

[stereotypical]

yeah I pay it and bloody well resent it aswell

BBC = great yeah rite

Good on current affairs and thats about it, hardly any football matches, pretty shit films and loadsa wank dramas

 

[Belushi]

I pay it and I'm happy to, imho at just over a tenner a month its a bargain for what you get.

And in a world dominated by the 'market' I'm glad theres still somewhere left where it isnt just about commercialism.

 

[May Kasahara]

I definitely get my money's worth out of the Beeb: I use their website every single day, listen to their radio stations every day and watch some of their quality TV stuff regularly.

And the joy of not having shit adverts shoved in your face every 15 minutes is pretty priceless too.

Exactly. Paying for enjoyment - not such a strange idea. And knowing that some of my money goes towards the Humphrey Lyttleton Smutty Wisecrack Fund makes me

 

[mhendo]

And the joy of not having shit adverts shoved in your face every 15 minutes is pretty priceless too.

Every 15 minutes? What commercial TV paradise do you live in? Here in the US, the amount of programming between commercial breaks, especially in prime time, rarely exceeds seven or eight minutes, and is often as low as four or five.