TV licensing...

[mercalia]

Hi MickF, Your "Stick it where the sun doesn't shine" shocks me to the point of embarrassment , no sitting on the fence with that stance!
As a young old man the chance of you being in a position to get a free Tax Licence for TV when you reach 75 start at vestigial and move to "You must be joking"! I'm creeping towards "Freebie Day" but even I can see that Nelson will get his eye back before I see the free piece of paper from Auntie!
I respect your free choice, but sadly the BBC have made it far worse for themselves with all of their obsessions with making the service tech heavy for the "Snowflake Generation", must keep establishing new "Viewing Platforms", which would test the analytical powers of Einstein to work out the legal status of the need for their viewing ticket.
If they had kept their provision strictly along aerial & cable direct provision you would no doubt even bother to try to hook up through the web.
The cutting off of Teletext & regular Red Button platforms hits the elderly & lesh techno savvy folk, that definitely includes me, so with the upcoming cuts I too will resent having to pay their Tax whilst some folk employ workarounds to view stuff I have to pay for.
We should put the Genie back in the bottle, revert to just BBC TV, ITV , radio with just Home & Light Service, everything else to be provided by subscription. John Reith must be spinning in his grave at a speed that would bore a new channel tunnel! MM

I use teletext frequently.

eh is the date on this contribution say 2008. I thought teletext was dead and gone?

[merseymouth]

Yippee, If it goes subscription I will be able to watch my DVD's with a clear conscience and and extra £156 in the bank MM

[mattheus]

just wait until some of these folks find out about the opera subsidy that their taxes pay for ...

[Oldjohnw]

Yippee, If it goes subscription I will be able to watch my DVD's with a clear conscience and and extra £156 in the bank MM

How much will the subscription be?

[Oldjohnw]

joked to ms that soon it will be a waste of time getting to 75 for a free licence as it's gonna be scrapped altogether. Though the way things are going, neither of us will probably see a free bus pass, I'd wager that will be become a victim of cost cutting soon enough

We'll have to surrender the bus pass to pay for that other form of transport: HS2.

[Oldjohnw]

Hi MickF, Your "Stick it where the sun doesn't shine" shocks me to the point of embarrassment , no sitting on the fence with that stance!
As a young old man the chance of you being in a position to get a free Tax Licence for TV when you reach 75 start at vestigial and move to "You must be joking"! I'm creeping towards "Freebie Day" but even I can see that Nelson will get his eye back before I see the free piece of paper from Auntie!
I respect your free choice, but sadly the BBC have made it far worse for themselves with all of their obsessions with making the service tech heavy for the "Snowflake Generation", must keep establishing new "Viewing Platforms", which would test the analytical powers of Einstein to work out the legal status of the need for their viewing ticket.
If they had kept their provision strictly along aerial & cable direct provision you would no doubt even bother to try to hook up through the web.
The cutting off of Teletext & regular Red Button platforms hits the elderly & lesh techno savvy folk, that definitely includes me, so with the upcoming cuts I too will resent having to pay their Tax whilst some folk employ workarounds to view stuff I have to pay for.
We should put the Genie back in the bottle, revert to just BBC TV, ITV , radio with just Home & Light Service, everything else to be provided by subscription. John Reith must be spinning in his grave at a speed that would bore a new channel tunnel! MM

I use teletext frequently.

eh is the date on this contribution say 2008. I thought teletext was dead and gone?

It's live on well on my Freeview terrestrial service.

[al_yrpal]

Thats not the proper teletext that MM was thinking of. Where are the holiday ads?

Al

[merseymouth]

Hi Al , Me want "Holiday" ads? Only Potters would appeal to me, Indoor Bowls.
Any other holiday is priced out by the Travel Insurance Premiums, cost more than a world cruise for me to have a week in Calais with proper cover!
TTFN MM

[carpetcleaner]

just wait until some of these folks find out about the opera subsidy that their taxes pay for ...

I don't particularly mind my taxes paying for opera, ballet, theatres, art galleries etc. These things are not popular but are an important part of our culture and probably could not survive without subsidy.

Nearly all of the TV licence is used to fund pop music radio, and on TV soap operas, quiz shows, chat shows, celebrity dancing competitions, formulaic dramas, lifestyle programmes about antiques, house decorating etc etc. These are not an important part of our culture and in any case the commercial broadcasters produce them in huge quantities and all of them will survive quite well without state intervention.

There is no need for the state to duplicate them, ensuring the funding of this duplication with the criminal law system.

[al_yrpal]

Hi Al , Me want "Holiday" ads? Only Potters would appeal to me, Indoor Bowls.
Any other holiday is priced out by the Travel Insurance Premiums, cost more than a world cruise for me to have a week in Calais with proper cover!
TTFN MM

Mmmm, I just paid about £150 for a years travel insurance for me only covering Europe and Morroco etc and I have type 2 and high cholesterol according to the quack. You must be riven with the plague and ague then MM? I think the ferries might baulk at trikes!

I think folk are asking the right questions about the Beeb but I think the old folk might find life unbearable without Flogit, Homes under the Hammer and Ripoff Britain. The remaining Beeb recipes are pretty good too. Its a conundrum....

Al

[Oldjohnw]

Thats not the proper teletext that MM was thinking of. Where are the holiday ads?

Al

Wasn't that the ITV version? Ceefax? Or have I got it the wrong way art?

[peetee]

My local radio station had a phone-in today on the subject of the licence fee. Almost without exception it turned into comments about what state the world would be in with/without the BBC. A few made a point of how important it is to have an independent news organisation free of political bias and sponsor revenue. A few others pointed out that, in reality, those days are long gone. There was very little comment on the questionable practice of allowing one broadcasting company a financially beneficial controlling interest in the public’s accessibility of other broadcasters material. The rise of satellite, cable and online subscription makes that cost a very strange shaped pill to swallow.
To me the question is not whether people should pay for the TV licence as much as should it be replaced with another, fairer system?

[Mick F]

I don't particularly mind my taxes paying for opera, ballet, theatres, art galleries etc. These things are not popular but are an important part of our culture and probably could not survive without subsidy.

Nearly all of the TV licence is used to fund pop music radio, and on TV soap operas, quiz shows, chat shows, celebrity dancing competitions, formulaic dramas, lifestyle programmes about antiques, house decorating etc etc. These are not an important part of our culture and in any case the commercial broadcasters produce them in huge quantities and all of them will survive quite well without state intervention.

There is no need for the state to duplicate them, ensuring the funding of this duplication with the criminal law system.

Very well put.

Why do the TVL payers even tolerate the vast expenditure of programmes like EastEnders?
Why don't the BBC sell it lock stock and barrel to a commercial company?

[[XAP]Bob]

Because they make a profit from some of their shows using the “worldwide” arm - and that helps fund their less profitable businesses.

[Mick F]

So ............ the TVL payers are investing most their payments to make more money to make more programmes to sell.

If they didn't have to invest in these programmes in the first place, the TVL would be cheaper.