TV licence fee could be replaced by broadband levy, says BBC
Told you so. Photograph: Shutterstock
The BBC has said the television licence fee could ultimately be replaced by a monthly levy on broadband connections, in response to the UK government’s proposals to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee. From - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/mar/31/tv-licence-fee-could-be-replaced-by-broadband-levy-says-bbc
Well Auntie finally worked it out.
I worked this out for her in 2014, but better late than never I guess! See https://ukfree.tv/article/1107052191/BBC_2017_Tell_me_about_the_16_options_to_collect_t
Funding method: Broadband bill tax
- How it works: Tax on having a broadband
- Who pays: 21.7m households pay £14 per month (or £11.50 per month if 5m mobile broadband also pay)
- Who uses: Everyone
- Collected by: BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk and others
- Pros: Easy to collect from small number of private companies
- Cons: : Basically the TV Licence by another name. Could slow down broadband take-up.
This will be revenue neutral for most homes. For most people it would just have the added convenience of making the payment on an existing communications bill. There is certain logic to having the BBC services linked to broadband, especially going forward.
Read more here https://ukfree.tv/article/1107052191/BBC_2017_Tell_me_about_the_16_options_to_collect_t
Tuesday, 7 April 2020
The best thing about the BBC is that the programmes are not stopped for 3 to 5 minutes of advertising every few minutes and one can watch a programme or film uninterrupted. I cannot envisage a better system in which the vast bulk of the nation can listen or watch uninterrupted programmes although a way will have to be found to restore free licenses for over 75s as is the wish of the government.
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Wednesday, 15 April 2020
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Pete B9:35 AM
Nicholas Anderson: Yes, the government can pay for it as part of social policy (like they used to) instead of forcing this burden on to the BBC (along with paying for the World Service) out of licence fee income. If this ultimately happens, everybody else who pays their licence fee will receive a much reduced service since there will be less money available to actually produce the programmes.
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Thursday, 23 April 2020
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Lesley 3:52 PM
I'm a bit annoyed with this idea, as I don't have a TV and have never watch the BBC, so what about me and all those other people, I'm not paying extra for my broadband if I stuck in the same boat as everyone else. Surely there has got to be exceptions.
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Wednesday, 29 April 2020
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RogerF4:11 PM
We deliberately do not have a TV at our holiday home - better things to do than wTch TV! but we do have broadband for Facetime & school work.
I would feel it unfair if there was a surcharge on broadband. If it also applies to unlimited mobile data packages, those users would be paying twice
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Wednesday, 6 May 2020
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Richard H.8:26 PM
Typical BBC mentality - thinks itself itellectually superior and entitled to tax everybody regardless of whether or not they watch the BBC (quote to Mary Whtehouse: 'If you don't like the programme you can switch off'). Removing the licence fee (or its substitute) would bring it back down to earth - 3,000 to a (male) presenter for 15 minutes in front of an autocue on Points of View (female presenter on similar format 'Newswatch' received 440), participants on 'Have I Got News For You' 20,000 per episode; the list goes on. Would our lives be ruined if they were removed from our screens? Who is more important; a 10.00 per hour supermarket shelf stacker whose work ensures we can eat or a celebrity? There are quite a few people out there who have had more than enough of the BBC...
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Saturday, 16 May 2020
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Trevor Harris9:33 AM
An outrageous idea. The BBC has also proposed linking the licence fee to the size of your house. The BBC is now getting desperate as many households are not willing to pay for the rubbish and political bias from the BBC.
It is time to scrap the licence fee all together.
One consequence of the licence fee is that those who have cut the the cord are not getting access to much of the covirus information from the government.
My view is that the government should finance a single public service channel for the parlament channel and the BBC should then be free to fend for itself.
Households should be free to to buy the services they want and we should break free from this Marxist ideology.
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Wednesday, 20 May 2020
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Trevor Harris11:36 AM
As the BBC is failing to provide a decent service during lockdown we should get a refund of part of our BBC tax.
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StevensOnln112:45 PM
Trevor Harris: In what way are the BBC not providing a good service? I've personally been enjoying many of the programmes shown across BBC 1, 2, 3 & 4 over the last couple of months. There is no chance of anyone's licence fee being reduced or refunded because they don't like the programmes, as it isn't a subscription (nor is it a tax and it funds other things apart from the BBC). Or did you have another reason?
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Thursday, 21 May 2020
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John martin10:00 AM
Make it take in advertising and pay its own way. Stop paying these prima Donna like linear so much for so little. Stop being so bias.
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StevensOnln11:45 PM
John martin: There is only so much advertising budget to go around. If the BBC took adverts it would put ITV out of business, hence why ITV and the other commercial broadcasters don't want that to happen and the idea has never been seriously considered.
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