First off I'm talking about the UK TV license - lots of different policies in lots of different places, so if you feel compelled to vote, there's a special option just for you at the end I've been into a discussion on AVF, and thought it might be interesting to see if the sentiment is any different here with a slightly different audience. Lots of misinformation out there, but to be clear... You are required to have a TV license to: - Watch or record live TV of any medium or device (broadcast or streaming) - Watch or record TV as it's being broadcast (e.g, traditional TV services like Sky, Freeview etc) - Use BBC iPlayer on any type of device You are not required to have a TV license to: - Own a TV - Own a device capable of displaying TV or using iPlayer - Use streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube - Use BBC online, radio, news etc The TV licensing fee also pays towards BBC worldwide, BBC online, BBC radio, and "contributes" towards the UK broadband rollout - the split for all but the last one are on the website, so suspect the last one is a drop in the ocean. I don't have a TV license and am not required to have one, nor do I use any other BBC services (or frankly give two poos about the UK broadband rollout, but that's another beef entirely) - three traditional TVs in the house (and many more screens), but they are used exclusively for Netflix, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, Gaming and owned local content.
We do have a licence, we watch BBC programmes, use the BBC website for news (I look at the news pages several times a day) and use the iPlayer. Although the mainstream BBC programmes are often no better than the drivel served up elsewhere, there are many good, interesting and informative programmes aimed at an intelligent audience, especially on BBC 4 and, if look for them, some good comedy programmes well above the standard aimed at the thick majority. The BBC, as do Channel 4, often show good European dramas that the likes of ITV and SKY don't go near. We rarely watch films and, if I do usually fall asleep, so Netflix and others, would be a waste of money.
We have Virgin TV, so it'd be pretty hard to justify not having a TV license. Rarely watch broadcast TV though, usually it's just background noise or mindless inoffensive pap while having lunch/dinner. We do occasionally watch BBC shows, so even if we didn't have TiVo V6 box we'd still need one. Of course that only answers the legality of needing a TV license to watch live TV or use iPlayer. The morality of the TV license is a totally different question altogether. Personally I think it's a f---ing scam. So I pay for a TV license, but lets say I don't watch BBC channels and don't use iPlayer; I watch Sky, or Virgin, or Channel 4, or whatever - basically anything that isn't BBC. Do they get a cut of my license fee? Not according to the breakdown on the website. So even if I choose not to watch the BBC I still have to pay the BBC in order to watch channels which I pay for through another provider like Virgin. Remind me: how is that fair? The actual amount you pay is almost irrelevant: it could be £10 a year or £1000 a year, the problem is the principle of having to pay the BBC when I can make the choice to not watch the BBC in the first place. I can choose whether I subscribe to Sky or Virgin, I can choose whether or not I pay them to watch the channels that they broadcast - but I cannot choose to not pay for the BBC even if I don't want to watch it. The worst part is that if I subscribe to subscribe to Sky, avoid watching the BBC or using iPlayer, and don't have a TV license then I am guilty of a criminal offence (albeit a non-recordable offence). Seriously? A criminal offence FFS?! I do think it's a point of national pride that we have a public-service broadcaster which is "free of advertising" (although "free of advertising" is debatable since there's nothing stopping the BBC from advertising its own channels, shows, merchandise, etc), but the way this is executed is just plain wrong IMO. Make the public-service stuff like BBC news and radio free-to-air, and charge a subscription equivalent to the current TV license cost for the rest of the BBC services/channels. I can't find the links now, but some research from a few years ago revealed that people would be just as happy to pay for the BBC on an optional subscription basis instead of the mandatory TV licensing, and a good percentage of people would be willing to pay more than the current TV license fee for more channels, services, programmes, etc.
While legally we require TV license due to having aerials connected, but we don't actually watch TV channels live anymore. We do watch a lot of on-demand stuff and this includes using iPlayer. So I chose the second option. I personally think the likes of Netflix, Youtube, Play store are the way forward. Catching a program while it's airing or be limited to watch a recording due to set-top box location is so backwards. The future is on-demand services.
Just having an aerial installed and connected does not mean you need to have a TV license - actually watching or recording a broadcast does. That said, if you didn't have a license and were to allow a TV licensing inspector into your house, you may have trouble with that explanation when the TV turns on to broadcast just by switching an input. Using iPlayer however, does require a TV license - so the first option would be most correct.
The license fee is little more than a tax and it is time they did away with it and made the BBC fund itself in some other way the better. It used to be a great service but now it is appalling with their news service being particularly bad. Watch any one hour on the BBC news channel and you will be lucky to see 20/25 minutes of actual news.
The License Fee pays for more than just the BBC itself, which is why it applies for all broadcasts that use shared national broadcast infrastructure. e.g. Channel 4's switchover to digital transmissions was funded out of the License Fee[/url].
the TV License is to TV what Line Rental is to internet... you grumble and pay it and mutter under your breath about 'wtf am i actually paying *for*?'
Wife watches BBC mostly, yes we pay for a TV licence. Most of it's recorded due to the time she works.
I maybe wrong on this but i thought the use of the license fee for broadband roll out stopped around 2017 in return for agreeing to pay for over 75's as the government wanted to reduce the benefits bill. Linky.
Is that inclusive of satellite or cable though? You're required to pay for the license for either of these of course, but AFAIK there's no funding to either of these services (apart from BBC channels of course) from the license. You can always opt out. Doing so righteously of course means abstaining from broadcast or iPlayer though. The model is archaic though, I'll give you that. iPlayer should be put behind a paywall for starters, and it would be pish easy - create account, associate it to a TV license reference number, done. Putting "free" to air behind a paywall in place of the license would take forever and be largely pointless though, by the time anything got through a thousand committees and was anywhere near implementation, OTA broadcast would be close-to-defunct anyway. Remember how long the digital terrestrial switch-over took, just because there were 3 people somewhere in the country that didn't want to buy a £7 freeview box. Could be - it's still stated on the TV licensing site though.
Well worth it for the documentaries, scandi dramas for me and coverage of big sporting events for me. The news is more like hello magazine now which is a shame.
Most of what I watch is on Channel 4. There's the odd documentary I'd miss from BBC Two but not enough to spend £150 a year propping up the whole beast. I'd rather the license fee was scrapped. Or that it was businesses only. Like they should be paying IFPI to broadcast music etc they should also be paying for a TV license, but not personal usage.
I dont use any BBC content, and dont use the iplayer just in case as that is now under the Licensing. I use on demand, youtube, netflix and other devices (ps3/bluray) I have never paid TV Licensing and never will. My mum has not paid for it after i convinced her to stop too. We dont get visits anymore ether as they know i wont answer the door to them. And they dont know my name. I have a friend who is the head of TV Licensing in wales and he tells me all the ins and outs. including there "detector" van, they have 4 in the Uk and only 2 are active. there super high tech detection method is recording light pollution from your window for a set amount of time to see if its TV like activity. He also said if you ple not guity in court and they dont have damming evidence (they have to gain access to your house, just dont let them in, they have no powers) they will drop the case every time as policy.
Personally, I think the BBC is great value for money and I'm quite happy to pay the license fee. But I appreciate that not everyone feels the same way and I do think that there must be a better way of doing things. One thing that does rip my knitting is when friends of mine complain that the license fee is too expensive but are paying £100+ a month to Sky or whoever for their TV package. Again, though, it's all about whether or not you perceive the service to be of value and if you don't then the fact that it's mandatory will stick in your craw.
It's a simple but effective technique: - Collect all broadcast TV channels - Average across screen to single global luminance and chrominance - Record 360 video around van - For each pixel run an autocorrelation with the averages for each channel, with a sliding window of ~+/- 1 second (to account for video processing equipment delays) Voila, you now have a heatmap of your 360 video highlighting pixels that match a broadcast TV signal. Because you're correlating over time, the static offset for actual room lighting levels is ignored.
I used to enjoy various bits of the bbc until it went full retard with its diversity and inclusion strategy a few years back by **** hammering it into every facet it could. Its TV was meh at most with some fleeting moments of greatness but now its unbearable and its news service is now akin to a fat militant feminist banging the EU war drums whilst autistic screeching random **** it finds on twitter to support its deluded agenda. Be a cold day in hell before I give the BBC money.
Yeah I pay for a TV license as I watch a decent amount of stuff on iplayer, nothing live, worth it for me.
We've always had a TV licence but we have discussed recently that we may get rid of it. Not much love for the BBC in this household!
