If the TV licence was optional would you pay it?

Last edited by Jenuall on Thu Feb 06, 2020 7:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Really interested how most people's responses in here have largely been personal and about whether the BBC output benefits them individually enough to warrant the fee.

Not saying that's wrong, in any way, but I've always evaluated it as a public service and whether the totality of the output to everyone is worth the level of cost to me personally. Just like I don't watch most of what the beeb offers I also don't really use loads of other services I fund, that doesn't mean I think they should be ditched!

Probably not, tbh. I don't listen to the radio ever and the only TV stuff I watch is Doctor Who (though I did fairly recently watch Flea Bag.) Most stuff I can buy on Blu-ray or something like that.

Balladeer wrote:(HIGNFY )

I used to enjoy that, but then it stopped being funny.

Jenuall wrote:Really interested how most people's responses in here have largely been personal and about whether the BBC output benefits them individually enough to warrant the fee.

Not saying that's wrong, in any way, but I've always evaluated it as a public service and whether the totality of the output to everyone is worth the level of cost to me personally. Just like I don't watch most of what the beeb offers I also don't really use loads of other services I fund, that doesn't mean I think they should be ditched!

I'm surprised as well. If members of GRcade won't hypothetically pay for the BBC I can't imagine the rest of the country will if non payment is decriminalised.

Rip the BBC

Meh, i still haven't forgiven them for ditching live F1 at the start of 2012 which allowed Sky to get their grubby paws on it.

I don't watch anything on BBC, so no I wouldn't pay if I could get away with not paying. I also pay for Sky (Entertainment, Movies and their Ultimate on Demand) and watch strawberry float all on it. Download most things I watch and Netflix for the rest (And the odd thing on Amazon Prime)

Jenuall wrote:Really interested how most people's responses in here have largely been personal and about whether the BBC output benefits them individually enough to warrant the fee.

Not saying that's wrong, in any way, but I've always evaluated it as a public service and whether the totality of the output to everyone is worth the level of cost to me personally. Just like I don't watch most of what the beeb offers I also don't really use loads of other services I fund, that doesn't mean I think they should be ditched!

Yep, this. I view the licence fee as a tax to keep a neutral (relatively speaking) broadcasting force and entertainment service live. I would've thought that our bunch of liberal hippies would have been all over that sort of thing.

...where's the Tafsignal picture?

Yes I would absolutely pay for it, the BBC is great.

Balladeer wrote:...where's the Tafsignal picture?

Actually, come to think of it, i've not seen Taf on here for ages.

Vermilion wrote:
Balladeer wrote:...where's the Tafsignal picture?

Actually, come to think of it, i've not seen Taf on here for ages.

Yeah we had this discussion in the AWOL thread, think he's taking a break.

He's still all up on twitter if you want a fresh batch of Tag goodness :toot:

rinks wrote:The Unbelievable Truth justifies the licence fee. Everything else is a bonus.

I get that without a TV licence

I don't pay it now, this has zero effect on me unless they start applying it to Netflix and such.

Jenuall wrote:It's 12 years old (and a long read!) but I still think Stephen Fry's essay/speech regarding the BBC and funding is a good read: The Future of Public Service Broadcasting - Some Thoughts

The end sums up most of my feelings on the subject:
You know when you visit another country and you see that it spends more money on flowers for its roundabouts than we do, and you think … coo, why don’t we do that? How pretty. How pleasing. What a difference it makes. To spend money for the public good in a way that enriches, gives pleasure, improves the quality of life, that is something. That is a real achievement. It’s only flowers in a roundabout, but how wonderful. Well, we have the equivalent of flowers in the roundabout times a million: the BBC enriches the country in ways we will only discover when it has gone and it is too late to build it up again. We actually can afford the BBC, because we can’t afford not to.

I don't believe there is a service that we could fund to the same sum that could achieve as much wide spread benefit as the BBC currently does.

Would like to add another thing from a clever man

Plus this random fact no one would have considered-

twitter.com/PhilippeAuclair/status/1225401490552037376

Balladeer wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Really interested how most people's responses in here have largely been personal and about whether the BBC output benefits them individually enough to warrant the fee.

Not saying that's wrong, in any way, but I've always evaluated it as a public service and whether the totality of the output to everyone is worth the level of cost to me personally. Just like I don't watch most of what the beeb offers I also don't really use loads of other services I fund, that doesn't mean I think they should be ditched!

Yep, this. I view the licence fee as a tax to keep a neutral (relatively speaking) broadcasting force and entertainment service live. I would've thought that our bunch of liberal hippies would have been all over that sort of thing.

It should be funded directly from general taxation (and its profit making arms) rather than an increasingly outdated and outmoded licence model.

OrangeRKN wrote:
Balladeer wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Really interested how most people's responses in here have largely been personal and about whether the BBC output benefits them individually enough to warrant the fee.

Not saying that's wrong, in any way, but I've always evaluated it as a public service and whether the totality of the output to everyone is worth the level of cost to me personally. Just like I don't watch most of what the beeb offers I also don't really use loads of other services I fund, that doesn't mean I think they should be ditched!

Yep, this. I view the licence fee as a tax to keep a neutral (relatively speaking) broadcasting force and entertainment service live. I would've thought that our bunch of liberal hippies would have been all over that sort of thing.

It should be funded directly from general taxation (and its profit making arms) rather than an increasingly outdated and outmoded licence model.

The trouble with that is the government would cut it to shreds. Can you see a Tory government wanting to fund the BBC? Plus the BBC comes under enormous political pressure from the government (the Blair/Brown governments as much as the Tory ones), if they were funded by general taxation then they would soon become GovernmentTV.

I agree there is a need for legal protection and separation to prevent state/government interference and bias. I don't see how funding through taxation is fundamentally different from through a licence mandated by law though - the government have the power to change either.

OrangeRKN wrote:I agree there is a need for legal protection and separation to prevent state/government interference and bias. I don't see how funding through taxation is fundamentally different from through a licence mandated by law though - the government have the power to change either.

It fundamentally different because funding through general taxation is far easier to raid than a specific licence fee that people have paid.

Hence the need for safeguards/protections/ringfencing/whatever of the BBC budget

The licence fee model is increasingly untenable, so maintaining the status quo in the long term is not possible

OrangeRKN wrote:Hence the need for safeguards/protections/ringfencing/whatever of the BBC budget

The licence fee model is increasingly untenable, so maintaining the status quo in the long term is not possible

I dont think the licence fee will survive much longer.

But I don't think the BBC will survive if it is paid for by general taxation. Safeguards/protections/ringfencing will not last long before being removed.

Equally though any government could have already removed the licence fee, but they haven't.

If the TV licence was optional would you pay it?

If the TV licence was optional would you pay it?

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