Not paying the TV Licence fee.

During live broadcasts, like the Olypmics, iPlayer did pop up and say “Did you know you need a TV license to watch this programme?”

Same for News 24 I think?

The BBC produces some fine TV, particularly the wildlife stuff however I stopped paying my license fee about 5 years ago when a friend of a friend who works for the BBC described the systematic waste of resource and money that allegedly happens at the BBC. Far worse than even the public sector I was told. So until the BBC appears to have gotten it’s house in order then I’d rather my money wasn’t swallowed up in some BBC black hole or given to some, established overpaid presenter when there’s so much young talent that doesn’t even get a look in. 5 years and counting and I’ve not gone to prison yet ;o)

Waste of resources?

Like Chris Moyles and Clarkson’s salaries? Yup!

a friend of a friend who works for the BBC described the systematic waste of resource and money that allegedly happens at the BBC. Far worse than even the public sector I was told. So until the BBC appears to have gotten it’s house in order then I’d rather my money wasn’t swallowed up in some BBC black hole or given to some, established overpaid presenter when there’s so much young talent that doesn’t even get a look

I’ve done bits of work for bbc shows, and other channels, and I would describe the bbc as pretty tight to be honest. They are way less profligate than any commercial company I’ve worked for in terms of rubbish like expenses etc. Very very professional too, compared to a lot of companies. If you want to see profligate wasting of money, you should meet some ad / pr companies.

Profligate does sound a lot more fun to work for, it has to be said…

Grow a beard, tell them you don’t recognise democracy or the British government in any legal capacity and that you live in a sovereign republic. When they ask for your name tell them “I’m told it’s x of the family x” They’ll leave.

(don’t take any of this seriously, but it might be fun if you’re into pissing people off).

During live broadcasts, like the Olypmics, iPlayer did pop up and say “Did you know you need a TV license to watch this programme?”

Same for News 24 I think?

Sure, but that’s a live broadcast. Different bucket of whelks.

I think we’ve just encountered the middle of this conversation.

LHS – Member
haven’t paid for a TV license since i’ve lived in the uk. Don’t watch BBC, only Sky channels so not paying for the crap TV i don’t watch.

Such an odd concept having no choice of what you pay for!

POSTED 8 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

I put it to you, that 8 months ago you watched the BBC Horizon show

Bang to rights. Take him down.

There’s a government mole in the thread.

1. News, newsnight, question time, this week and subsidised ITV and C4 news broadcasts
2. Two full channels broadcasting high quality childrens TV with no adverts
3. BBC4
4. Some very popular quality drama and entertainment
5. A program about railways
6. Programming in welsh via S4C
7. A load of stuff I will have forgotten

At the same time as the BBC is broadcasting this week, Dara’s science club and the culture show, ITV is showing Jackpot247 so we can gamble on our TVs, C4 is showing “Embarasing Fat Bodies” and C5 is showing Super Casino just in case Jackpot247 wasn’t to our taste. Meanwhile Sky1, Watch, Gold and Dave are broadcasting shows made by and originally broadcast on the BBC, thus subsidising the licence fee.

You choose to ignore ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4, the various additonal channels put out by Channel 4 and 5. Likewise ITN is not subsidised by the taxpayer, it is funded by ITV and Channel 4.

The BBC is pretty good, but it should be as it is the biggest broadcasting company in the world by number of employees. That in my view is its fundamental problem as big organisations can struggle with innovation and I think the BBC suffers both from this and complacency.

I remember people used to say BBC football coverage was second to none, then Sky came on the scene and blew everyone’s socks off with the quality of their coverage, the same happened with cricket and Channel 4. I therefore urge caution when we assume it is the best in the world.

I would give it a C-, could do better.

I think we’ve just encountered the middle of this conversation.

So what is it?

OP, I don’t think people are stressed at you not wanting to watch live TV.

I was accused of being a ‘thief’ and a ‘parasite’.

I’ve not paid for a license for about 3 years, I get letters every couple of weeks, got a visit last week actually. Well when I say visit, I mean a personally delivered letter through my door, good luck to them trying to get through it to see if i’ve a TV or not.

Probably costs them more to send out letter and people round than they would get if they collected all revenue from dodgers.

I was accused of being a ‘thief’ and a ‘parasite’.

Aye, philosophically speaking, not legally. If you make use of something, whilst not contributing towards it, even though your peers do, is parasitic behaviour. IMHO, of course.

Hopefully the BBC’s days are numbered. Im not a fan of them or this erroneous tax

v8ninety – Member

Aye, philosophically speaking, not legally. If you make use of something, whilst not contributing towards it, even though your peers do, is parasitic behaviour. IMHO, of course. When the technology is there for the BBC to limit viewers that don’t pay, and they don’t utilize it, then it’s their own stupid fault for not collecting license revenue.

It was easy to rip off cable and sky years ago, they wised up and made that much more difficult.

The BBC should take note.

Why, the law in this country is that you need to pay a tax to watch TV. To live in this country you need to follow the laws of this country, simple as.

In some country’s you can join in with ‘legal’ stoning-to-death, does that make it right though?

Can you cite me a country where participation is mandatory?

Can you cite me a country where participation is mandatory?

Rather not, could end up getting sentenced to a stoning

nedoverendsmole – Member
Hopefully the BBC’s days are numbered. Im not a fan of them or this erroneous tax

thankfully you are in the minority !

iplayer is just a platform but its been a game changer proving that the bbc is cutting edge and relevant
they also led the way with digital radio

The enabling technology, the web, was the game changer. Due to the fact we have 4Od, ITVPlayer, and others, I assume there was nothing novel (patentable) with the iplayer concept. Just allowed more bandwidth for the BBC to repeat more crap.

Rather not, could end up getting sentenced to a stoning

So, “no” then. Ok.

So, “no” then. Ok.

Yawn

I’ve never owned a TV since i moved out of my parents house in 1993 and i used to get warning letters with big red writing on the envelope threatening legal action every so often but for the past few years i’ve not had anything, perhaps it’s because i used to attach the prepaid payment envelope to a very large box with a single letter in the bottom from myself saying i did not own a TV at present, I have never owned a TV and never will own a TV but i would be more than happy to pay a small fee for the excellent BBC radio service as long as they could guarantee it would only be spent on World Service broadcasts. I never heard anything by return despite sending dozens of boxes of various sizes back to them over the years.

I’ve never had them call at the door either, but even if they did they have no right of access, that is reserved for customs and excise, and police with a warrant.

I do listen to the radio for hours every day and i’d be more than happy to pay for it as long as all the money raised would be spent on radio programming, as for iplayer or suchlike i could count with one hand the amount of hours i’ve watched this month, TV is an incredible waste of time, D’ya think you’ll ever say “i wish i’d watched more TV” on your deathbed?…… I doubt it so switch it off, read a book, listen to the radio, make time to listen to music, sit and stare at the fire for hours whilst clearing your mind of shite.

To be fair, on my deathbed I probably won’t say

“I wish I’d spent more hours staring into the fireplace” either.

funnily enough i manage to fit in the radio before work, some music on the way to work, some tv in the evening and a book in bed,oh and a bike mag on the bog

sadly i dont have a fire which explains why my head is full of shite

sadly i dont have a fire which explains why my head is full of shite

Get yourself a “fireplace” DVD.

Shite free head in one easy step.

Hours of fun for all the family.

That’s a good idea for a new channel, “The Fireplace Channel”, for all those folk who don’t own a real fire or log burner, tune in and see stuff being burnt – LIVE!.

I bet i could sell it to SKY?, on a monthly subscription service where you get your own virtual logs to burn, upgrade to our seasoned hardwood option for an extra £4.99 a month, or take our value bundle package of seasoned hardwood including peat brickets for only £7.99 (introductory offer).

Here’s a taster of what you are missing, 😉

I bet i could sell it to SKY?

Bloody hell, you’re young. The Germans have already done it, back in the day…
For the OP, just cancel the Direct Debit and wait for the Beeb to cut the service like most subscription providers do.

Get yourself a “fireplace” DVD

Don’t you need a TV license for that?

Xiphon – I would personally like to thank you for your post. I wrote a letter to TV licensing with what you had posted. I have today, received a reply back. Basically, my letter has been registered as a complaint, they have apologised for making me unhappy, they have updated my records and I will not receive any more letters from TV licensing for almost 2 years! They are sorry that they cannot make an appointment to visit! hey ho, never mind! Interestingly, their letter says “although we’re grateful for any information we’re given, customers are under no legal obligation to reply!

Edit: I did add in at the end of my letter that if they continued to harass me with their letters I would complain to my MP.

I don’t pay a licence fee – the TV is really only used for DVDs, and for the Wii, and rarely, at that.

The way that TVL treat people who legitimately do not require a TV Licence ensures that I will NEVER have a TV Licence.