KK wrote:Long term, I don't think a blanket 'TV License' fee as its currently implemented is any way sustainable (particuarly as over time more and more people will watch their TV online and on-demand).
It will be perfectly sustainable while the law says you will be fined/imprisoned for watching TV without one. That sort of threat keeps the subscriber numbers up.
The trouble is, how would you fund the BBC without the licence fee? General taxation wouldn’t work, governments would just slowly cut the funding off. Subscription models wouldn’t work as people would stop paying and that would in turn cut the funding off.
People might not like being forced to pay £12 a month to watch TV, but if we want to keep our national broadcaster in a decent state then it is also essential. It would be a sad day if Planet Earth 3 was forced to compete with commercial stations like Discovery and ended up being voiced by Chris Evans and featuring Duncan Goodhew racing a CGI shark…