The Flooding

[ukdodger]

Gives me a warm feeling they are spending my licence money wisely.

It gives me a warm feeling that I don't pay for a licence ............. and you lot do.

I know the license fee is mindboggling value for money but that's quite a deal you've got there Mick.

[Mick F]

Yeah,
No telly.

We have everything else ............. iPlayer, ITVPlayer, digital radio, FM radio, BBC News online, BBC weather forecasts, BBC everything, YouTube .......everything except live television.
So what?
What are we missing?

I reckon that this is the future. The licence fee is going to be dead and buried in the next few years, and we will all be paying per (live) view instead.

[ukdodger]

Yeah,
No telly.

We have everything else ............. iPlayer, ITVPlayer, digital radio, FM radio, BBC News online, BBC weather forecasts, BBC everything, YouTube .......everything except live television.
So what?
What are we missing?

I reckon that this is the future. The licence fee is going to be dead and buried in the next few years, and we will all be paying per (live) view instead.

Jesus I hope not. If the best news org in the world goes. Murdoch takes over. That's what he wants. The deal of his lifetime before he dies. Replace the BBC with Sky. Imagine what you'd pay him for the service the BBC gives. Anyway if it does go so will everything associated with it. World's best forecasts, iplayer etc etc. All the stuff you like as well.

All the programmes worth watching are on the Beeb. If it was allowed to charge a reasonable fee for the service it gives it's TV would improve. Herr Blair did his chum Murdoch a favour in the wake of the 45 minutes scandal by capping the fee effectively hobbling it.

It isnt until the light goes out we realise it was on.

[Geriatrix]

Jesus I hope not.

Nor me. Not a big TV fan but I think R4 is the best radio station in the world and I can't see that surviving privatisation.
The TV that I do watch is mostly BBC2 & BBC4 which is unlikely to attract enough viewers to keep it going without a license fee.

[ukdodger]

Jesus I hope not.

Nor me. Not a big TV fan but I think R4 is the best radio station in the world and I can't see that surviving privatisation.
The TV that I do watch is mostly BBC2 & BBC4 which is unlikely to attract enough viewers to keep it going without a license fee.

+427

[kwackers]

Jesus I hope not.

Nor me. Not a big TV fan but I think R4 is the best radio station in the world and I can't see that surviving privatisation.
The TV that I do watch is mostly BBC2 & BBC4 which is unlikely to attract enough viewers to keep it going without a license fee.

+427

The first obvious thing to do is make a chunk of the beeb stuff available only to license holders. You register on their site and if you're a valid license holder then you gain access. Put a stop to the freeloading if nought else...

[ukdodger]

A good idea. But the problem is without everybody paying there wouldnt be the enormous savings of scale. The US has it's own BBC the PBS (Public broadcasting service) financed as you suggest but it doesnt generate enough revenue to come anywhere near the BBC.

[FarOeuf]

you realise the BBC has a commercial arm, BBC Worldwide ? with a turnover of £1bn+ and profits of £100m+. BBC Worldwide makes most of the programmes (and owns the brands of Lonely Planet and BBC Magazines), and makes money by selling them abroad (US main market) and back to the BBC. The license fee is only one piece of the jigsaw, and a small one at that.

[Mick F]

Well I ain't paying the licence fee.

No doubt it's worth every penny, but not having a telly for the past few years hasn't made much of a difference in our lives.
Even when we had a telly and paid the TVL, we didn't watch it much. So now we don't have a telly and we don't pay the TVL, we're happy to use all that the BBC put out (non live) ................... without paying a penny. And why not?

In the old days, we paid a Radio Licence.
Would you pay to have a radio these days?
If not, why do you pay for a telly?

How about the taxpayer paying, instead of using an anachronistic licence fee?

Dog licence renewable annually?
7/6d and after we went decimal it went to 35p
That died a death, and right too.

[kwackers]

but not having a telly for the past few years hasn't made much of a difference in our lives.

Why would it?

You're simply using a computer as a TV and freeloading the watch again stuff so I don't follow that anything has really changed for you... Now if you weren't watching anything at all - then that statement would have some meaning.

To all intensive purposes I'm in the same position, I never watch live stuff so the only difference is I pay for a TV license, if I did what you did instead then it wouldn't actually make any difference to me either.

[Mike Sales]

I've just finished "Dial M for Murdoch", M.P. Tom Watson's account of the corruption by News Corp of the British Governments and the Metropolitan Police. It is an appalling story, not all of which has been widely told. Various trials are in progress.
The Murdochs were/are attacking the BBC for obvious reasons. I think it would be very bad for Britain for News Corp to achieve the media domination they want. Fox News and their other media are an evil influence in the USA.
The Licence fee gives the BBC a measure of independence which would be lost if it was paid more directly by government. Anyone who follows these matters will be aware of the attempts by various governments to make the BBC more malleable.
With all its failings I think the BBC is very well worth its place as a source of information beholden neither to the government nor the power of finance. This country would be worse for any loss of BBC independence.

[Edwards]

Meanwhile the floods are getting worse due to the rise in ground water level (as reported by the BBC).

[Mike Sales]

Meanwhile the floods are getting worse due to the rise in ground water level (as reported by the BBC).

Not the least of the reasons for the inaction of the British and American governments in tackling climate change is the dominance of News Corp media.

Readers of their newspapers have not been very well informed about the corruuption by News Corp of our politicians and police, either.

[ukdodger]

Well I ain't paying the licence fee.

No doubt it's worth every penny, but not having a telly for the past few years hasn't made much of a difference in our lives.
Even when we had a telly and paid the TVL, we didn't watch it much. So now we don't have a telly and we don't pay the TVL, we're happy to use all that the BBC put out (non live) ................... without paying a penny. And why not?

In the old days, we paid a Radio Licence.
Would you pay to have a radio these days?
If not, why do you pay for a telly?

How about the taxpayer paying, instead of using an anachronistic licence fee?

Dog licence renewable annually?
7/6d and after we went decimal it went to 35p
That died a death, and right too.

'we're happy to use all that the BBC put out (non live) ................... without paying a penny. And why not?'

Bit immoral innit.

[Mick F]

'we're happy to use all that the BBC put out (non live) ................... without paying a penny. And why not?'
Bit immoral innit.

I don't think so.

You can live anywhere in the world, and listen to the BBC and not pay a penny. No doubt there are many countries you can watch on-line too.

Why should only people who own a TV in UK pay £150 per year even if they never watch it, or only ever watch Sky Sports?
Why should a family of six with a TV in every room pay the same as a single person in a bedsit with only one small telly?
We've chosen not to have a TVL and if and when we watch BBC stuff we watch it on the big computer. TBH, we don't watch much at all and I can't remember when we last did.

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Any road up, Edwards has started a good thread off, and I'm very guilty of hijacking it.
Sorry.