Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

And why was it justified back then? The USA has never had a licence fee. Why was there a time when it was ok for us to have one and for the USA to not have one?

Yes, given that you have posted in this thread 14 times (that's more than anyone else except me, and I'm definitely interested).

And thus spake the man down the pub, so he must be right. :banghead:

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

Hmm, you raise an interesting point. "If you don't want cable you don't pay for it."

What is cable? Cable is a means of distribution, just as Satelite is. Both require maintainance and support, as do the numerous broadcast transmitters that send the terrestrial signals around this country in such high quality. Who should pay for those? The users of those signals, or everybody? Part of your licence fee goes to pay for the transmission of all the terrestrial signals, ITV C4 five, and all the DTT broadcasts also.

You buy road tax to use the roads, why not TV tax to pick up the VHF broadcasts?

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

So now TV is risk free? No government support is needed? If it is risk free, why have Grananda and Carlton merged?

And maybe try new televisual approaches, would startrek have come to be without Dr Who forerunning it or would SciFi have been too risky for a commercial outfit. Would the UK be a place where people come to make movies without the skills and training that the BBC provides? Would the private companies carry out as much training?

At least with the licence fee, it does what it says on the tin, you pay a fee, it goes (less collection costs and enforcement) to the BBC who spend it relatively well on television, radio and multimedia. In addition they capitalise on their archive to supplement this income and promote the past present and future of british television.

Now petrol tax and road tax, if only this all went on transport solutions (not just road, but rail, busses etc, we would not have the congestion we do, we would have a reliable consistently financed rail infrastructure (probably building maglev trains to glasgow).

If only national insurance all went to pensions and healthcare, we would have a state pension scheme that we could be proud of on the world stage.

Instead these are alternate revenue generation schemes, be gratefull that your licence fee does not go partly to central govt coffers.

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

Kronas,

When you look at the (compared to just about every foreign country) HIGH QUALITY output of all of our terrestial tv channels (include Freeview) then the small sacrifice of £121 a YEAR (that is only £2.33 a week) that restricts the advertising for the majority of people in this country to the small number of commercial stations, means that

a) the cost of advertising on TV is relatively low (but is set so that ITV and the other commercial stations just earn enough)

b) We get impartial news cover (remember that) - listen to BBC radio news on Radio 4 or on 5 Live or watch the news on BBC 4- Instead of Murdoch's populist xenophobic drivel.

c) We get 8 TV channels that provide a public service (with the possible exception of BBC parliament.)

d) We get 8 National Radio stations and countless local radio stations (all without advertisements)

e) There are high quality documentaries and informative programmes (eg Panorama and Horizon)

This is bloody good value for money. Especially as they pay for $ky, NTL and Telewest have them on their service.

The TV licence isn't a tax, because the BBC is NOT a government department (which leads me back to their impartiality)

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

Look at sky, you pay a subscription much more than £121 a year AND they have plenty of advertisements.

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

The Beeb **is** part of the UK infrastructure - they fund the TV transmitters (except NTL's) and radio transmitters and own most of Crown castle (who maintain said transmitters)

BTW is £2.33 a week a con for just BBC1 and BBC2??

Also yes you pay for a train ticket, but most of the money ends up as profit for the long distance operators like Richard Branson.

I could get into a long debate about renationalising the railways but I'm :notopic: already

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

Defiant

You don't like spam....

What is spam - it is adverts. And you want to scrap the licence fee so the bbc can introduce...... more TV SPAM! I don't ask for the channels and the product manufacturers to make adverts and put them on, but they do and I end up PAYING (by buying products and food etc) for them - just like spam.

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

:notopic:Erm, no, you don't! Road fund licence was abolished after WWII. You pay "vehicle excise duty", ie a tax on owning a car. :notopic:

Re: tv licence guess what ?
 

And the £100 million they spend on websites plus the £650 million they spend on all there radio stations. Who knows what else they spend on