deuces wild Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 THE BBC licence fee should be replaced by a tax on the ownership of a personal computer instead of a television, ministers said yesterday.Tessa Jowell told the BBC that the licence fee would be retained for at least another ten years until 2017 in return for abolishing the Board of Governors. But the Culture Secretary conceded that technological advances would mean that a fee based on “television ownership could become redundant”.More than six million households have access to high-speed broadband connections and the BBC has begun experimenting with broadcasting video clips over the internet.A legal loophole highlighted by the communications regulator Ofcom means that viewers could watch television and listen to radio over the internet and mobile devices free, potentially costing the BBC millions of pounds in licence fees.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1508650,00.htmlCould someone explain? :blink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvw Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 We have to buy a licence if we have a television, one licence per household.Costs about £120 per year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted March 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 £120 per yearThats for colour receivers !Some cheapskates still use black and white - which is 90% cheaper ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Its the UK law - detector vans and big fines if no licence ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvw Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Why?It's the Law. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel=UK= Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 So we can have quality programs without adverts. If you dont buy a licence youll get caught out by the vans that go round Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvw Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Deuces, the licence authorities have the address of every household in the country, and also every household that does not have a current licence.Inspectors visit you to check you don't have a TV. They also have detector vans that can check if you are watching a TV without a licence.They trained the KGB I believe ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 They have ray detectors and spy on our activities conducted in private. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boris Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Thats GCHQ ! - only 25 miles from me + even closer to Craig ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted March 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Wow! Glad to be in the States. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 The BBC does not earn any income from advertising, so we can see whole programmes without interruption. This is why there have been many complaints about the BBC dumming down to the lowest possible tastes by chasing ratings, with rubbish like make over programmes, soap operas etc. Programmes are paid for by the TV licence, and sales of BBC programmes abroad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artist Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 The BBC does not earn any income from advertising, so we can see whole programmes without interruption. This is why there have been many complaints about the BBC dumming down to the lowest possible tastes by chasing ratings, with rubbish like make over programmes, soap operas etc. Programmes are paid for by the TV licence, and sales of BBC programmes abroad.Totally agree.Just because we pay for the privilage of watching BBC - for the most part the tat is the same as any other programme. Also - they have 'adverts' between each programme - for themselves - and these are taking up more and more time!We have a digi box for the extra progs - don't know what we would watch without it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel=UK= Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 Yeah id be lost without Sky Digital, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 To enlarge a little for overseas people. The BBC does not advertise except as Artist says, between programmes, and only then advertising forthcoming programmes etc. The independent companies rely for income on advertising, and as such they have to put out programmes with mass appeal, and unfortunately these are in many cases very mundane, and require little or no intelligence or concentration to watch. They just have to maintain viewing figures to attract advertisers. A digital box can be purchased to give reception of additional channels, other than those supplied free to air. I am not sure how many additional channels are available on these boxes, but I believe that it is about a dozen. You can also subscribe to Sky TV or cable TV, and hundreds of programmes are available. A basic package of probably fifty or so channels is the cheapest. More channels can be subscribed to for extra cost, up to as I said, several hundred. People who do not watch BBC programmes complain because they still have to pay the licence fee. It would however be very difficult to waver this charge and prove that BBC is NEVER watched. On the other hand many BBC viewers complain that the BBC is trying to impress the powers that be, by putting out low quality programmes to attract a mass audience. The recent decision to extend the BBC's licence, comes with a government warning that this should stop, and that the BBC should return to their original remit of supplying quality programmes. I hope that this helps to explain the reason for the licence fee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark2 Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 We used to have 4 channels and nothing reasonable to watch, with the advent of Sky, cable and digital we now have 50+ with nothing to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scuzzman Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 This is very messed up.Here, we simply buy a television and can get broadcast stations free (about 5 or 6), we can also buy Cable or Satellite TV (digital) and recieve upwards of 900 channels for about $150/month (this can of course be stepped down to just a few - about $20 - with a lot less channels).Then again though, I do not watch television, so this doesn't really concern me much, except for how much my British friends are geting ripped off... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deuces wild Posted March 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 I guess in a round about way we are paying for our equivalent to the BBC...the Public Broadcast Systems (PBS) which are also commercial free are funded by tax payer dollars (ours) and donations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 We have exactly the same system (as the BBC) in Japan with NHK. The difference is that there is no law to enforce the payments; no vans and no fines. Elderly inspctors go from household to household, and practically beg you to pay.After the recent NHK scandals, hundreds of thousands now refuse to pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 We have exactly the same system (as the BBC) in Japan with NHK. The difference is that there is no law to enforce the payments; no vans and no fines. Elderly inspctors go from household to household, and practically beg you to pay.After the recent NHK scandals, hundreds of thousands now refuse to pay.I like this a lot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellie2 Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 The problem is we have no choice, which ever way you look at it it is just another tax. I would quite happily have my bbc programs disabled so that I could save myself the license fee... I hardly ever watch it anyway. But that is not an option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankus Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 No detector vans these days ......All retail outlets that sell TV's and related products ,have to supply names and addresses of the purchaser by law , They just match up to the licencing addresses database , and see if you have not got one ...... I think the fine is now around £4,000 One of the options considered for the beebs future funding , due to the increasing connection speeds and online real time multimedia streaming , is PC licencing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikeychris Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 so this doesn't really concern me much, except for how much my British friends are geting ripped off...No ones being ripped off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nellie2 Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Spikeychris works for Auntie, he's biased! :ninja: I've got to be fair and say that the BEEB has provided us with quality entertainment over the years, both on TV and radio...... but there is still no choice, we have to pay the license fee regardless of whether we just use our TV's to watch DVD's or whether we watch BBC all day long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted March 7, 2005 Report Share Posted March 7, 2005 Spikeychris works for Auntie, he's biased! :ninja: I've got to be fair and say that the BEEB has provided us with quality entertainment over the years, both on TV and radio...... but there is still no choice, we have to pay the license fee regardless of whether we just use our TV's to watch DVD's or whether we watch BBC all day long.Fair enough, over the years the BBC has provided much quality TV, but the tripe is slowly taking over these days as the BBC dums down. Even what should be quality programmes are being ruined these days by clever d ick producers. So many excellent programmes are totally spoilt by inappropriate so called music. It is extremely irritating to be looking at a beautiful garden or countryside scene, accompanied by weird banging and crashing noises, or some mindless pop singer. Why the hell does everything have to be so noisy. Last week we watched a fifty minute long programme about wild life, that was ruined by it's sound track. This was followed by a short ten minute film about owls, it was a treat there was not a single sound on it apart from the odd comments of the presenter, and the countryside background sound. Music can add to a programme, but spoils it if it is not appropriate to the subject. No one can complain about war like music in Star Wars, or The Two Towers etc, but please not anything like that on a rural scene.By the way, the filter on this forum is quite silly. I have had to edit d ick, which cannot by any stretch of the imagination be called swearing, because it come out as d*** after posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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