TV tax on the TV tax
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV Not everyone is happy with the TV licence, but until now many people have been content to pay the fee because it has all been put to funding the programming (and transmission systems) that they watch, view or read.
However, the new 'settlement' includes a stealth tax. Because Ofcom wants 14 TV frequencies C31-C40 and C63-C68 to sell off to the highest bidder, during digital switchover many people are going to have to get a new TV aerial and everyone will have to get a Freeview box.
The sale of these frequencies by Ofcom is going to raise billions of pounds which will go to the treasury, and to make way for this the BBC has been forced to put aside 600 million of programme budgets to fund set-top boxes for the over-75s.
This means the licence fee will be:
April 2007, 131.63 plus 3.81 'tax' making 135.45
April 2008, 135.57 plus 3.93 'tax' making 139.51
April 2009, 138.29 plus 4.01 'tax' making 142.30
April 2010, 141.05 plus 4.09 'tax' making 145.14
April 2011, 143.87 plus 4.17 'tax' making 148.05
April 2012, 146.75 plus 4.25 'tax' making 151.01
See also BBC licence fee agreed for six years