News BBC admits to micro:bit delay, power problems

I'm still not sure why the BBC is using my licence money to fund an educational project.

 

In these days when Licence fee funding is being debated and when 200,000 were prosecuted as criminals for non-payment in 2012/2013 I would argue that this would be more properly under the remit of Dept of Education.

Just because they did it 30 or so years ago doesn't mean that it's still appropriate use of licence money today.

 

Lets be honest this is only costing a tiny fraction of the licence fee, it's probably costing you less than a chocolate bar. I'm happy that the BBC is taking the initiative to do something like this and would have loved one of these when I was in school instead of learning how to do google searches and making lots of pointless (low quality) powerpoint presentations...

 

Maybe we should have a Dept of Education TV channel then.

Although that then opens a whole new can of worms over whether their being impartial, that their not just a state sponsored propaganda outlet, if anything I would say having an impartial organisation responsible for educating & informing the public is even more important in today's world than it was 30 years ago.

 

The license fee is an optional tax isn't it?

 

take that

 

yes if you don't use any of their services (TV, radio, online - maybe more) - in reality this is very few people

why not check what makes you liable to pay the licence fee and see where you fit in with the law

 

As far as I'm aware, not having a license only precludes you from receiving a live TV broadcast (on any channel, not just BBC). You can use any sort of catch up/on demand services perfectly legitimately without one, including BBC iPlayer, digital radio and any other web-based service.

Woe betide you if you use iPlayer to watch a live broadcast though...

Essential reading material.

 

You don't need a TV licence to listen to the radio or to watch TV programmes using a "catch up" service such as iPlayer (although this was recently debated and could change).

Currently, you only need a TV licence if you watch (on any device) or record programmes as they are being shown on TV.

Edit: beaten to it by Shirty.

 

Normal radio/digital radio on any device listened to in anyway does not require a licence. Also, if you have a licence at home it will cover you to watch live programs wherever you go as long as you are watching on a device powered by battery. Say you've got staff at work watching live programs on their mobiles this isn't a problem. If they charge their mobiles at work this isn't a problem. However, if your staff charge their mobiles and watch live tv at the same time you need a licence at the workplace. Exciting stuff!!