[york]

Originally Posted by Nugget

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?

Its not about that, its about the principle of being treated like a criminal on your own doorstep if you dont let them in, as i said before i do pay for a tv licence so this wont happen to me again but you just have to read some of the stories about how people have been treated by the licencing officers like mine below

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...

Its an issue for the BBC for people who dont have a TV licence and dont use thier TV for recieveing broadcasted channels, the letters they send you are borderline threats. They assume you are watching a TV without a licence, they Assume you are breaking the law and until you prove otherwise they will continue to assume these things, thats my problem.

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?

Road Tax is completly different, you pay road tax to allow your car to be on public property, its the fact that they assume that 3 people down burton street own a TV and use thier TV illegally to recieve broadcasted channels, there was no other reason to show the adverts, they tried to cause social problems within a community by using that community against itself based upon that assumption, the adverts were banned by the local council btw.

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?

You should work for the BBC cos they think that too. Why is it so hard to believe that i dont use any BBC services? You make it sound like were in 1960's were the BBC is the only provider of media services, but just to clarify, i dont watch any BBC channels, I dont listen to any BBC radio stations, I dont use any websites thats related to the BBC or ever bought any DVDs that have been produced by the BBC. You see in regards to that i have a choice and id rather listen to my own music CDs, watch my own films on DVDs ive bought and visit the billions of other websites that are available, oh ive never even heard of this Live Lounge album until you pointed it out.

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

Surely success would be 100% wouldnt it? and your right 2/3rds are happy, so what about the other 3rd? they just arnt important?

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...

Im 26, i think my generation and those younger are starting to use other avenues of entertainment that does not involve a tv, computers and new internet technology is creating a viable alternative to TV, the BBC recently tried to change the law regarding the TV licence and streaming media content, they wanted to be able to licence all streaming media in the UK, the government obviously refused.
Also recently the BBC were having a spaz attack because they didnt get the unreasonable rise in the fee that they wanted, im pleased they dont set thier own fee, if they did we would be paying a hell of a lot more than we do now.

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

Your absolutly right, it is about choice, the ultimate choice, i can lose my very enjoyable services i recieve from Virgin media (aka NTL) if i dont want to pay the BBC. Great Choice!!
Telling me to get rid of my £1000 TV because i dont want to recieve broadcasted channels is plain retarded, the BBC do not own my TV, i do, i paid sony alot of money for it, why should i get rid of it because i dont want to watch broadcasted channels, your statement is a pristine example of how the BBC think.
Im not going to write a 4000 word bibliographied essay on why i dont want to pay the BBC to recieve my paid services from Virgin, it really should be common sense to work out.

Note: You might be shocked by this but I agree that the BBC do provide a good standard of services, thats never been my problem its just i think other companies provide and equally good standard of service and i dont believe thats down to the BBC 'setting the standard' either, we as customers are forever demanding, if the TV was crap we stamp scream and shout about it, if it was as awful as is being stated on this thread noone would pay for it.

Oh Chris T, my point about your car... your using the BBC, i think thats great you should have that choice and your well within your rights to defend the BBC, but i dont use the BBC, i dont want to pay for something i dont use. Why would anyone want me to do that? I dont use my neighbours flat and i dont pay his rent, this is common sense.
We adopted an open market policy which everyone has to live with, yet the BBC is the only company that doesnt, its unfair to have a set of rules for everyone else but the BBC are exempt. Communists follow those kinds of rules.

To point out a personal experience i had regarding the BBC, about 3 years ago i was working away from home alot and thus because i wasnt at home i wasnt using my tv so i cancelled my TV licence, the letters i recieved were appauling, they were very threatening, I responded to thier threats and told them my situation but they just ignored me and kept sending threatening letters, about some 4 months later there was a knock at the door with this huge guy standing there asking me if i own a TV.
I said I did,
he said I have to buy a tv licence and that if I dont that I will be fined or even jailed,
I said I wasnt using my TV to watch broadcasted channels,
He then asked to inspect the TV set
(I want you to remember, I dont know this person, he is a complete stranger and he wasnt being nice about anything)
I refused
He put his foot on my door step preventing me from closing my door, leant in really close to my face and said if i didnt let him into my home he would return with more licencing officers like him.
I told him if he didnt remove his foot off my property that i would call the rest of my family like me.

At this point my father (who was luckily visiting me at the time and who was of equal size to this huge man stood at my door, not to mention hes a prison officer and had come straight from work to my house, still with his uniform on) came and took over the situation and told the licening officer to p**s off.
Since that day my opinion of the BBC was set in stone, id hate to think what would have happened if my dad wasnt there (im not very tall or big and quite frankly wouldnt hurt a fly)

Just to clear up, i try very hard to be very polite and be a friendly person with anyone i meet cos at 5ft 6in it would be just plain stupid of me to go about being an a***hole to everyone i meet.