Why must I pay for the B.B.C

ok so the question bugging me is why am i paying or the B.B.C?

right a quick explanation for those of you across the pond or for those out there that dont know what the B.B.C is

The B.B.C or British Broadcasting Corproation as its also knowen has been on our T.V's since us (the brits) first got T.V back in the 40's/50's BBC 1 and BBC 2 are still the first two channels in our selection no matter what cable company you subscribe with sky/virgin of freeview.
However on top of our cable fee's which depend on what package you have we are also forced to pay a T.V licence fee (or face the threat of jail if we dont!!!!) this fee is £142.50 for a colour T.V thats about $216 dollars
The reason we are told we have to pay this is because the B.B.C dont show adverts during there broadcasting (personaly i think thats upto them if they choose not to advertise but i dont think we should be forced to pay because they choose not to) however they do advertise T.V licences the Radio Times (a monthly T.V guide produced by them) and party political broadcasts which is still a form of advertisment.
I always find the B.B.C news to be very much in favour of the goverment views as its them who make sure that the B.B.C carry on getting funded by the british public

But the biggest thing that bugs me about it is that the B.B.C then go on and sell the programs that were funded by the british public around the world programs like faulty towers/only fools and horses/david attenborough documentrys to name but a few.
These are sold to alot of countrys around the world now how much of that profit is handed back to the british public for funding production of them shows???? Yes you guessed it not a single penny.... why??? well thats what i would like to know after all if i put up capital to fund a bussiness venture then i would expect a return on that capital not for them to come back the next year with there hands open again expecting more money which i have to pay or yes i go to jail.

well iv said my bit but would like to hear what your views are on the matter???

I don't even try to pretend to understand England anymore.

Please don't take that wrong. I love the English people and I love your accents and the way you talk about things and I have no clue what you're saying. I believe the nation I live in is a result of the nation we came from. We may be separated by the pond but we're still family.

But a license for a TV?

Revolt for Gods sake. Throw the TV's out and refuse to pay. If enough of you stop watching they will rethink their extortion and come up with another plan. (Probably more dire.)

reply to post by mrwupy


no offence taken and yeah im with you on that one i think that if everyone did refuse to pay then the could'nt charge that anymore but the problem is people dont like to cause a fuss and extra stress as it will result in a court case and trust me they have imprisoned little old ladys for not paying there T.V licence's

But yeah its madness and i dont see why were being forced to pay

I always kind of laugh when it comes to you guys, and BBC, and all that stuff. As the other poster said, not even pretending to try understanding.

But still, the thing that makes me laugh....

Here, we need a license to drive. We need a license to run a business. We need a license to build properties.... For the most part, we need to prove skill or knowledge, in order to do it... thus the need for license.

And you guys, need a license to watch TV.

Dunno why you need to pay the fee, with the excuse that it goes to BBC for no commercials. It is my guess that it is being funneled somewhere. That is a LOT of cash!

Could it have something to do with socialization and the welfare state?

Everybody pays for everything that nobody pays for.

It is alot of money and i know a fair amount of it go's to paying the fat cats at the top very juicy bonus's for very little work
I saw a program a few years back where they saying that they were putting a massive percentage of the cash into the new B.B.C News 24 channel which as it turns out is only watched by a very small percentage of the viewers the reason why thay should funnel so much money into this venture is beyond me there are plenty of News 24 channels out there i dont see why they thought we needed another one!!

And no sorry it has nothing to do with the welfare state system yes if your unimployed they will pay your rent/dental fees etc plus you will be paid about $100 per week into your bank account for bills/food ect but they wont pay your T.V licence/car/hoiliday etc anything they class as a luxury item your on your own hence the reason why old people struggle to pay for a T.V licence on a state pension

Right and get this because people were detuning there T.V's in order not to get the B.B.C but watch the other channels it now doesn't even matter if you dont watch T.V at all aslong as you have a T.V in your house weather your using it just to watch DVD'S or just to have something to play your xbox on you have to have a T.V licence!!!!

[oops.... sorry


please delete this or something. Wrong thread !!!!!

[edit on 11-5-2009 by LostNemesis]

reply to post by The real world order


I couldn't agree with you more but i think you should check some facts. Once people reach a certain age they no longer have to pay a tv licence. I'm not sure how old you have to be but it is around state pension age.

What makes the licence worse is BBC DVD's. I have already payed for the shows once but if you want to own them on DVD you have to pay again. What a rip!!!!!!! Also how about BBC world service or BBC America? The rest of the world gets to watch/listen to the stuff we've paid for, for free!!!!!! Its a flippin outrage!

If you have sky (which most people do now), the BBC channels are literally 4 channels out of roughly 999 channels with no advertising, which means it costs £142.50 for the priveledge of seeing no adverts on just 4 channels that don't really show any good foreign shows (except BBC4 has flight of the conchords). Lost, House, The Shield, Star Trek's, Simpsons and more are all on other "free" channels.

A shake-up of the licence fee is long overdue.

The BBC is good for only a few shows:

Horizons, Question Time, BBC 24 news channel, Mad Men, Heroes, The Apprentice, University Challenge etc.

See the trend? The quality is unbeatable. I do like the fact that there are no adverts... but I would prefer to have an electronic system where adverts can be enabled/ disabled based on whether you pay the license fee or not. That would give people a choice between paying for their content, or having it paid for them via watching adverts.

The tech is there to make it work. The vision of the BBC management isn't.

reply to post by The real world order


The UK is an absolute rip off.

If you are lucky enough to have a job you get income tax and national insurance to come off your earnings. Double Tax!

If you dont have a job, income based jobseekers allowance has national insurance to come off (You already paid this money into the pot that was already taxed!!!!!!!!!)

You then have to pay rent or mortgage payments that are taxed.

Your home bills are taxed with VAT.

Council Tax has VAT on top of it. Double tax!

Any good that you purchase is taxed with VAT plus the company that produces them is taxed.

You have to pay TV Licence which by the way has an added VAT tax!!! double tax!

You have to pay road tax to drive a car.

You have to pay insurance premium tax along with value added tax on top of the insurance premium tax.

You have to pay fuel tax if you want to drive, along with VAT yet again.

If you put one finger outta place even if you are unaware of the new laws that change daily you then get a fine which gives them even more of your cash.

If you fricken die you pay tax!!! Any money you leave is taxed!!! ARGHHH tax, tax, tax, tax! I need to calm down now.

Come to think of it actually, around 95% or probably more of your money goes right back to the stinking fat cats that run the country, our roads should be paved with gold due to the amount of tax british people pay!!

Its gargantuanbollocks if there were such a word and this is the stuff they let you know, dont even get me started on stealth taxes.

Anyways I completely agree with the TV licence being utter nonsense but there is so much nonsense in this country now it is unbelievable.

I try not to get too angry at this place as its exactly what they want you to do but it is very hard to have patience in these times.

I am also waiting on the licence fee being increased when they switch to digital with the excuse that the picture quality is more expensive to produce. They will honestly use any sort of excuse to get more of your money.

They should just change the name of the country to TAX in big bold letters!

Phew, rant over.



[edit on 11-5-2009 by XXXN3O]

no harm to our cousins across the pond, but have you seen their television channels. i was staying at naples florida for a vacation some time back and their was a channel for star trek only. great i thought 24/7 trekkies, till the adverts started every ten minutes mean literally every ten minutes. if all i have to pay is less tan £1.00 per day not to watch adverts that's great value. also BBC produces some great period dramas and fantastic comedy shows i think the fee is great value for your money.... and oh at least its something that is still british " for now " loll

reply to post by foxhoundone


Oh yeah I can't stand live US tv... adverts every 5-10 mins! It's absurd... it's like their entire broadcasting network has ADD (pun not intended).

Still, an opt in/out system would be the best solution in my opinion.

you can watch BBC online through their own webpage, or alternatly free tv on line, I havent switched on commercial tv for 2 years, I watch live streams off the internet of all shows on demand whenever I want. I have a PC hooked up to my plasma, no ads !
Pay for TV? get real

For just under £12 per month ... a pittance ... folks have unlimited access to a vast range of BBC services, as follows.

Television

BBC1
BBC2
BBC3
BBC4
BBC News
BBC Parliament
BBC HD
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC Alba (Scots Gaelic language broadcasting)
BBC2 Wales (Welsh language broadcasting)
BBC World News
BBC iPlayer

available on analogue terrestrial, digital terrestrial, Freesat, Sky & Virgin Media.

with news & programming opt outs for the English regions, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland.

For Brits abroad you've got the following tv channels to choose from ...

BBC America
BBC Canada
BBC Kids
BBC Prime
BBC Lifestyle
BBC Knowledge
UKTV
People & Arts
Animal Planet

Radio

National
Radio 1 (pop rock)
Radio 2 (easy listening, jazz, folk, light classics)
Radio 3 (classical, drama)
Radio 4 (spoken word, news, drama)
Radio 5 (news, sports & discussion)
Radio 5 Xtra (live sports events)
Radio 6 (music)
Radio 7 (spoken word, drama, comedy, childrens)

International
BBC World Service, News & Audio broadcast live in 32 different languages to all parts of the globe.

Regional
BBC Essex
Radio Cambridgeshire
Radio Norfolk
Radio Northampton
Radio Suffolk
Three Counties Radio
Radio Derby
Radio Leicester
Radio Nottingham
BBC London 94.9
BBC Tees
Radio Cumbria
Radio Newcastle
BBC Radio Manchester
Radio Lancashire
Radio Merseyside
Radio Berkshire
Radio Oxford
Radio Solent
Radio Kent
BBC Surrey
BBC Sussex
Radio Cornwall
Radio Devon
Radio Guernsey
Radio Jersey
Radio Bristol
Radio Gloucestershire
BBC Wiltshire
BBC Somerset
Radio Leeds
Radio Sheffield
Radio York
Radio Humberside
Radio Lincolnshire
BBC WM (Birmingham and area)
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire
Hereford and Worcester
Radio Shropshire
Radio Stoke
Northern Ireland - BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle
Scotland - BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal
Wales - BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru

All that for just under £12 per month ?

And free from advertising in the UK, plus one of the most user friendly websites available ? And yet still people moan about the cost ? £12 would buy two packets of cigarettes or only 8 loaves of bread.

Think Rupert Murdoch would give you all that for nothing ?

Dream on .....

Wow..you pay that much in tax for the privilege of watching TV? I did hear about the riots in the UK when this was first brought in but I didnt realise you didnt succeed it getting it repealed.

My brother visited the UK some years ago and was quick to tell me how "the Brits dont take no crap" and I believed him and kind of admired your spirit as a people.

But with the amazing increase in the number of surveillance cameras in your country over recent years, and the fact their still there, my opinion of Brits has changed. Either your (mostly) very passive or just plain weak. And dont take that personally. Its a majority that allows government to enact laws. But being born in the UK, but having lived all of my life in Australia, Im saddened to arrive at this conclusion.

Cable subscribers in the U.S. get hit with "public access" fees in their bills so local churches can broadcast their sermons on TV or so stoned high school kids can sit on a couch and play video games and broadcast that at 1AM. We also get hit with cable related taxes and fees related to the assigned territories of the various companies. We also cant get cable ala carte and must pay up for channels we dont want to get the one channel we do.

That is all thanks to partial deregulation and government interference.

The kicker is that I would scrap the television and just hook my PC to my TV and watch what I like streaming but broadband alone is more expensive than broadband + cable. Seems they are onto those of us who would watch streaming shows.

We seem to be missed the whole point of the license fee.

The license fee is actually to be licensed to have a receiver (your TV) that can receive the signals broadcast by not only the BBC but all the current terrestial broadcasters.

So for the £12 pounds a month you get access to all the BBC output and the output of the other terrestial broadcasters.


So answer the OP's question. You do not have to pay if you can provide the the licensing authority that you are not using a receiver. (And yes there are people who can live their lifes without the moron machine in the corner!!!) The radio output of the BBC does not require a license like it used to. And as some posters have mentioned, with the online and iPlayer concepts on the BBC, you could watch some of the BBC's TV output via the internet.

The BBC is totally corrupt

Most of their employees have gone on the EU's secret Common Purpose courses at 5,000.00 a go (from our tax payers money) which gives them a totally biased agenda, focuses on Political Correctness stupidity combined with a lack of individual integrity.

They have been proved to be totally corrupt in connection with phone competition scandals

I wrote to the BBC & said that unless they could explain how their reporter told the UK audience that the second of the twin towers had collapsed minutes before it happened
and
Why they refused to provide any air time for aid in Gaza, when they had done so for countless other nations in need
then they wouldn't be getting my licence fee -

I have ha no reply
they can get f****d

The BBC have also received significant but undisclosed "grants" and "loans" from the EU

Some of this has been disclosed

LINK

Quotes from link:
"It also emerged that the BBC has received grants from the EU worth £1.4m over the past five years."........

"Spink said yesterday that he would be putting down a Commons motion condemning the BBC for accepting the cash: “I am concerned that the independence and objectivity of the BBC may have been improperly influenced by funding from the EU.”

The BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation - ha what a joke!

This goes against the entire constitutional charter of the BBC

The laugh is we can watch BBC TV programs here in the states (calif antenna signal) for free.

Not that it is any improvement over US channels.

great shows like.

Keeping Up Appearances.
Heddy Wainthrop
Mr. Bean
Monty Phyton Flying Circus
Masterpiece Theatre
MI5
How clean is your house?


Do the British have any good TV
Or are they still punishing us for kicking them out. and for our GIs during WW2