BBC: your tax dollars at work

originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
a reply to: Teej1980

Never paid for a tv licence and never will.

Yeah but you're supposed to by law aren't you? Don't you have guys come around to your door if you don't pay it?

They can do as they please. I also do the same. I will not bow to forced communism.... whatever the "law" here says.

originally posted by: nonspecific
a reply to: ChaoticOrder

It is not a mandatory tax though is it?

It is an optional licence to watch live streaming television broadcasts that funds the BBC in it's entirety from entertainment and news on TV to it's website and radio stations that are all adver free.

Do not get me wrong I do not endorse the BBC but you are misinformed as to the nature of the TV licence and many other things in the UK by what I can see.

So can I watch ITV, ITV2, Channel 4 and Channel 5 without paying a licence fee then?

a reply to: ChaoticOrder
I created a thread not long ago about the BBC Pay Scandal which you may find interesting.

I think some people are being a bit disingenuous saying if you don't pay the license fee you won't get fined or no one will come knocking on your door, as it does happen.

It's true that we're not forced to pay the license fee but if you want to watch live TV regardless whether it's on the BBC, you have to pay the fee or risk getting fined up to £1000. People have even been to prison for refusing to pay the fine for not paying their license fee. In 2015 around 180,000 people were prosecuted for not paying it and one in ten criminal prosecutions in the UK were BBC television licencing charges...
www.telegraph.co.uk...

As for the BBC's politics and news propaganda I find it horrendously relentless. I'm not sure they are doing it on purpose though, most of them are just completely out of touch with the majority of the UK population. It seems the only diversity they don't care about is social class as it's stuffed full of middle and upper class people from the same backgrounds.

I think the worst thing the BBC has ever done is covering up the Jimmy Saville scandal.
No one can defend that, surely?

The BBC licensing fee is an outdated draconian tax on the British people. If everyone refused to pay it there would be nothing the government could do. Why should I pay extra for a sh#t channel that I never watch so that I can enjoy the channels that I do want to watch. Some day a generation will look back and laugh at our gullibility. Surely a fairer system would be to have an option to opt out of BBC Channels.

I'm not sure you understand what the BBC does. It's not just a news service, that is actually a very small part of what it does. People mainly watch it for documentaries, dramas, comedies, soaps, sports etc. There are also multiple radio stations, mainly music based, as well as the iplayer, which gives you the 'on demand' service so you can watch catchup or watch old shows. Yes, to get the live service you pay a subscription, but for that you get all those services, in HD and mostly, high quality programmes. A lot of probably say the David Attenborough wildlife shows are worth the subscription on its own.

As for some other points, as others have said, you pay per household not device. Is it a perfect system? No, but not much is. However, for the most part it is a great service. No adverts, a good amount of variety, HD, loads of good radio stations..

I think this is a classic case of someone from afar reading online resources and believing everything, instead of listening to the people who live here and who use the service.

a reply to: bluesilver

I am aware of what the BBC does and I know much of it is very high quality, that doesn't change my point, people should not be forced to pay for it regardless of how good it is. You can sit there are all day long telling me how great it is but it wont change the principle of the matter. Also the U.S. by far produces the best television shows and a great deal of them, and they do it without forcing people to pay for it. The BBC probably does produce the best documentaries but I've seen plenty of good documentaries produced with money that wasn't taken from tax payers. But yes I may have misinterpreted the part of the Wikipedia article which says "a TV licence must be obtained for any device that is installed or used", that just means you need a license if you have any such device, not a separate license for each.

originally posted by: bluesilver
I'm not sure you understand what the BBC does. It's not just a news service, that is actually a very small part of what it does. People mainly watch it for documentaries, dramas, comedies, soaps, sports etc.

In the 21st Century we have things called SKY and NETFLIX and VIRGIN TV where weirdly I can also watch great documentaries, dramas, comedies, soaps, sports etc advert free. The only difference is I have a choice as to whether I subscribe to these things.

As a UK resident I believe the BBC is a rip off and a con that should be run like any other business opposed to surving on handouts from the UK population.

originally posted by: Elvis_Is_Dead

originally posted by: bluesilver
I'm not sure you understand what the BBC does. It's not just a news service, that is actually a very small part of what it does. People mainly watch it for documentaries, dramas, comedies, soaps, sports etc.

In the 21st Century we have things called SKY and NETFLIX and VIRGIN TV where weirdly I can also watch great documentaries, dramas, comedies, soaps, sports etc advert free. The only difference is I have a choice as to whether I subscribe to these things.

As a UK resident I believe the BBC is a rip off and a con that should be run like any other business opposed to surving on handouts from the UK population.

Yes, but you have to pay for those as well. A lot more than you do for the BBC, especially for the volume and diversity or content the BBC provides. Yes, you don't have to have those other services you mention , or be forced to pay for them simply by purchasing a tv, but surely the fact remains that most people would pay a few pounds per month for the BBC 'products' than not have them. Unless you are saying you won't listen to any BBC radio, watch any BBC programmes for the small amount they charge?

Ultimately, the BBC gives you a huge range of content for a wide spectrum of people, with the idea that some programmes which may not be hugely popular still get made. This means they dont have to make just populist content, but can make programmes that are more niche but still valid. A tiny example would be historical documentary programmes, science programmes or even late night music programmes. They might not get huge viewing figures but they are still worthwhile and as they get a relatively guaranteed income they can do that.

So yes, you have to get a license to watch TV, that ultimately pays for the BBC, I dont really see the problem with it when you look at it as a cost vs content (volume and diversity and quality) compared to every other service.

a reply to: bluesilver
Cost vs content?
Do you work for the bbc?

TV is the opium of the masses ....

a reply to: Elvis_Is_Dead

Interesting ...

wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk...

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk...

a reply to: bluesilver

That plus it back up as the catagory one emergency broadcast system - central to MOD/UK defence and security. It's the only other place, apart from phoneboxes, the public can access information in the event of major catastrophe where all other TV., phone lines and radio etc... would be cut off. The liscence fee is pretty cheap for the millions of lives it can save.

a reply to: bastion

So if Kim Jong Mentalist unleashes nuclear death and you're watching Dave, you don't get to kiss your ass goodbye?
Seriously?
Then again if you watch Auntie BEEB you can hear Building 7 come down before the event. Maybe I should binge watch Strictly noncelebrtity for a heads up on impending doom ? Then again, nuked is better than watching that brain-dead cr8p.


Another thought, if the preverbial sh1t hits the fan, you're telling me that the UK's terrestrial TV network will block all but the BBC? What about Households with Sky Satellite, Virgin Media cable or IP based Telly like BT, Now TV etc etc?
Sky one can't play Jericho back to back in our last hours/minutes?
Mobile phone providers will shut down? No Armageddon SMS alerts?
No landline automated calls?
Just the BBC playing Threads?
Bless you, you are a bit of a tit.

a reply to: Lucius Driftwood

I work in media but not for a corporation and nothing to,do with the BBC. More cinema.

a reply to: Cymru

Yup, obviously can't go into detail because of national security but they're transfered over (not sure about IP TV though), declassified examples such as Royal Observer Core four minute warning system is publicly available now. The general public don't tend to have the phone numbers for nuclear power station alert system emergency broadcasts (Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant is 01946 775 254 - give it a call if you think it's bollocks, it's perfectly legal, probably even in the phonebook but not the kind of information or monitoring the publicwould bother to hold as it's pointless info until required).

SMS systems, phone calls and email warnings are opt-in for some strange reason - honestly, you have to ring all the 1000s of emergency protocol/ disaster scenario lines to recieve any contact/warning of a disaster via phone, SMS or email. The opt in form for Sellafield is available here - www.gov.uk... .

Then the public are given broadcasts revealing emergency contingency plans and location(s) of their nearest evacuation point. MOD, Home Office and BBC all work closely together in this system (150+ monitoring stations across UK) and keeping the emergency backbone going. If TV/Radio is inaccesible and mobile phone networks are down (via overload or atack) then the message can only be obtained via public telephone booth (1000 left in UK aprox.)

I know where the nuclear bunker is in my area so can skip the queue

Seperate to that would be the military warnings but they're all relayed via the BBC .

I've heard rumors of British TV's having spy cameras in them. Would anyone care to verify?

originally posted by: ADSE255
I've heard rumors of British TV's having spy cameras in them. Would anyone care to verify?

Yes and no. Some tv manufacturers had weaknesses in their smart platform protection which meant they were vulnerable to being hacked. I believe wikileaks pointed towards the CIA and MI5. So yes, potentially TVs could spy on you, but it is likely to be widespread throughout the world. I believe it was Samsung and Vizio tvs which were involved. I would assume people aren't particularly interested in listening or watching me moan at the football results and are more interested in particular individuals. I'm certainly not losing sleep over it.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

# the BBC and everything those pedo cultists stand for ,and # anyone who supports them

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

its an act of parliament , in order to force the citizens of the UK to pay for their own brainwashing

originally posted by: sapien82
a reply to: ChaoticOrder

# the BBC and everything those pedo cultists stand for ,and # anyone who supports them

Firstly, not sure cultists is accurate. As far as I'm aware the BBC is not a cult and secondly I don't know anyone who follows them like a cult. If you are talking about the personnel at the BBC, like any company, people move on so the people there are not necessarily the people who were there when Jimmy Saville was. I don't think anyone would disagree with you that there seems to have been a cover up by those in charge at that time, but we are talking decades ago, so not sure why you feel it is still relevant to todays' BBC.

If you are going to put statements up like that you really need to explain things in actual detail and facts about how they are relevant now, rather than in the past. I'm not diminishing their responsibility, they are responsible for not investigating things, but you are painting a whole organisation (with thousands of workers) with one brush and that is a pretty simplistic view of the world. Make a fully formed argument that relates to today. Otherwise you may as well say you hate all Social Workers, Nurses, Teachers because of a few bad ones. Unless your view is that if a couple of people in an organisation do something bad at some point in time, that organisation is then bad forever?