[Nugget]

Originally Posted by york

You know YOU have to prove to THEM that your not using your TV to recieve broadcasted channels?
If you murder someone THEY have to prove that YOU committed the murder.

Probably because murder's a criminal offence which you want to be found innocent of, whereas not having (or requiring) a TV licence would actually save you money, so why shouldn't you provide the evidence?

You HAVE to let them into your own home so they can see for themselves that you are not using a TV to recieve broadcasted channels.

You don't have to let anybody into your house. Having said that, if you have a licence, why would it be a problem? Surely it would only be an issue if you didn't have a licence but were watching TV, which would mean you were breaking the law...

This attitude they have is appauling, i remember 3 years ago seeing an advert on the side of a bus in Doncaster, it said '3 people living on burton road do not own a TV licence'.

And Chris T, i 'dont use' your car, should i have to pay for it?

They do / did the same thing with road tax, but no-one complained. For that matter, certain tabloid newspapers do the same with peadophiles, but no-one complains. What's the difference?

The BBC do not provide ANY content that interests me, NONE! You say they have set the standard? reeeallly? thats because they were the only ones setting any standard when the draconian licence fee was introduced.

As is said every bloomin' time this comes up, I refuse to believe that you don't use any BBC service. You might not watch the channels, but do you listen to the radio? Use the internet (clicked on any of the hunderdes of links to the BBC on here?). Bought any DVDs that may have been produced or distributed by the BBC? How about bought the Live Lounge album that Radio 1 released?

In a recent BBC poll (yes thats right a poll by the BBC) to find out how many licence fee payers would continue to pay for the licence if it was based upon a subscription, the result was 65% would still pay the fee, that 35% of almost this entire country that do not want the BBC service.

So two thirds of those surveyed were happy to continue to pay a fee for the BBC in some shape or form? That's pretty good - I wish everything that I did had a 66% chance of success

The BBC is on borrowed time, my generation have grown up with the era of commercial TV, now ondemand is getting more popular, websites like youtube.com and other similiar providers are becoming more popular through convenience and instant choice, soon my generation will be in charge of things at the top and the BBC will find themselves without any support due to thier mightier than thou attitude.

I will be throwing a party on that day in support of choice and freedom.

What toot! I'd be interested to know how old you are - I'm fairly sure that we're of the same generation, and I have no inclination to drop my support for the world-class services that the BBC provide. Oh, and I don't believe for a moment that the BBC have a 'mightier than thou' attitude - as Chris said earlier, they aren't actually responsible for setting the licence fee anyway. They know that they have to maintain a certain level of output, or the government would be in a position where the charter wouldn't be renewed anyway...

If the BBC believe they are providing a world class service then they should put it to the test and become a subscription based service and if they were responcible with the money they recieve they would not be spending millions of pounds on changing thier logo (if i remember rightly they changed thier black BBC logo to a coloured BBC logo with a line underneath, then they changed it back) or spending millions of pounds paying for taxi's for thier staff.

Oh and this dribble about how TV would be so much worse without the BBC ... we will never know, cos the BBC were the only service available and quite frankly if everyone was on an level playing field, us the customer would be able to CHOOSE the best of the TV services available, like Sky or Virgin who both provide services that I want, not what im MADE to have or pay for.

Here, I have to say that I agree with you - it is all about choice. If you don't like paying the licence fee, you have the choice not to pay it - simply get rid of your TV (and anything else that may receive the signal), and sit back and enjoy your moral victory. Get yourself a copy of the Mail while you're at it - they do a good line in unresearched piffle as well