BBC to end free TV licences for most over-75s

[Still Waters]

The BBC is to end free TV licences for most over-75s after a two month-delay because of coronavirus, it has been announced.

The licence will be means tested from next month, the corporation announced.

Around 1.5 million households could get free TV licences if someone is over 75 and receives pension credit, and 450,000 of them have already applied. And critically it is not the BBC making that judgment about poverty. It is the government who sets and controls that measure.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/09/bbc-to-end-free-tv-licences-for-most-over-75s

Quote

That means more than three million households will be asked to start paying the £157.50 fee from 1 August.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53347021

 

[Piney]

Greedy tossers!!! 

[spud the mackem]

1 hour ago, Still Waters said:

The BBC is to end free TV licences for most over-75s after a two month-delay because of coronavirus, it has been announced.

The licence will be means tested from next month, the corporation announced.

Around 1.5 million households could get free TV licences if someone is over 75 and receives pension credit, and 450,000 of them have already applied. And critically it is not the BBC making that judgment about poverty. It is the government who sets and controls that measure.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/09/bbc-to-end-free-tv-licences-for-most-over-75s

 

Well I guess that they are going to have to find me ,as I live on a boat and I'm constantly moving ,so unless they can predict where I'll be in 2 days time that's tough .I never watch their crap service.

[+OverSword]

If the TV detector man catches you eating the TV remember to tell him "It's a toaster"

[Setton]

Can anyone give a good reason why it shouldn't be means tested?

I appreciate the elderly need things to do but I don't see why multi-millionaire 75 year old should be entitled to a free TV licence but a single parent with 4 kids on minimum wage isn't.

[Susanc241]

40 minutes ago, Setton said:

Can anyone give a good reason why it shouldn't be means tested?

I appreciate the elderly need things to do but I don't see why multi-millionaire 75 year old should be entitled to a free TV licence but a single parent with 4 kids on minimum wage isn't.

I couldn’t agree more.  My husband and I are comfortably off, but a million miles away from being wealthy, but we can pay our bills with no problem.  We use our winter fuel payment for our favoured charities for a start, and had the free licence still been in effect when we got to 75 we would no doubt have done the same with that saving (to us).  As it stands we will just keep paying as we have done every year for all of our adult lives.

I don’t want to get into the politics of whether the BBC is still the neutral and balanced organisation it started out as,  but I don’t see why the licence can’t be dropped and a subscription system used instead.  The lack of takers might just give them a real wake up call.  Failing that, why not operate as a commercial broadcaster?  We are all so used to adverts would it make any difference? Just record everything and whizz through the ads if they bother you too much.

[Setton]

44 minutes ago, Susanc241 said:

I couldn’t agree more.  My husband and I are comfortably off, but a million miles away from being wealthy, but we can pay our bills with no problem.  We use our winter fuel payment for our favoured charities for a start, and had the free licence still been in effect when we got to 75 we would no doubt have done the same with that saving (to us).  As it stands we will just keep paying as we have done every year for all of our adult lives.

I don’t want to get into the politics of whether the BBC is still the neutral and balanced organisation it started out as,  but I don’t see why the licence can’t be dropped and a subscription system used instead.  The lack of takers might just give them a real wake up call.  Failing that, why not operate as a commercial broadcaster?  We are all so used to adverts would it make any difference? Just record everything and whizz through the ads if they bother you too much.

Of course, if that's what people do anyway, they can just not pay the licence fee and watch on catch up.

[L.A.T.1961]

The BBC will be loath to give up their premiership position and are looking at all sorts of methods to extract money from the UK public. 

 "The BBC has given its response to the UK Government’s (DCMS) consultation on their proposal to decriminalise TV licence fee evasion, which among other things includes a suggestion that the fee could be replaced by a levy or tax on consumer broadband bills. The BBC has also said that they’re willing to consider alternative funding models, such as one linked directly to an existing household bill." 

The BBC think if they hide the cost in other bills the problem will go away. Do we really want to continue to support folks who think like this? 

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/04/bbc-suggests-broadband-isp-levy-to-replace-uk-tv-licence-fee.html

I expect a subscription service will be the eventual outcome.

Edited July 9, 2020 by L.A.T.1961

[+OverSword]

1 hour ago, Setton said:

Can anyone give a good reason why it shouldn't be means tested?

Here we have commercial television that you can watch for free save the time that the commercials are airing which you pay by sitting through them.  We also have public broadcasting with quality educational programming  which is supported through viewer donations. There are also cable, satellite, and internet based options in which you pay a fee.   There is actually no good reason that you have the viewer licensing system IMO when you could have the alternative which we utilize.  Too much government.

[spartan max2]

Seeing how people more and more just pay for streaming services, this makes sense.

The amount of people only using streaming will increase each couple years.

[Setton]

1 hour ago, OverSword said:

Here we have commercial television that you can watch for free save the time that the commercials are airing which you pay by sitting through them.  We also have public broadcasting with quality educational programming  which is supported through viewer donations. There are also cable, satellite, and internet based options in which you pay a fee.   There is actually no good reason that you have the viewer licensing system IMO when you could have the alternative which we utilize.  Too much government.

One could retort with something about US healthcare, gun control, education, policing...

You get the idea.

Anyway, we have all those things here too. Except our public broadcaster is supported by the licence fee instead of donations. That's the only difference.

However, what I asked for was a good reason over 75s should have an automatic free licence. You seem to be answering a different question.

[+OverSword]

5 minutes ago, Setton said:

Anyway, we have all those things here too. Except our public broadcaster is supported by the licence fee instead of donations. That's the only difference.

However, what I asked for was a good reason over 75s should have an automatic free licence. You seem to be answering a different question.

Yeah the question I answered is why should people be required to pay a license fee when the free market subsidizes television very efficiently?  Answer, they shouldn't.

Quote

 

One could retort with something about US healthcare, gun control, education, policing...

You get the idea.

 

I get the idea if the idea is to sidetrack the discussion in order to avoid justifying paying an unjustifiable licensing fee. 

Edited July 9, 2020 by OverSword

[Setton]

1 hour ago, OverSword said:

Yeah the question I answered is why should people be required to pay a license fee when the free market subsidizes television very efficiently?  Answer, they shouldn't.

I get the idea if the idea is to sidetrack the discussion in order to avoid justifying paying an unjustifiable licensing fee. 

Not interested in justifying its existence.

The current reality we inhabit is one where the licence fee is a thing.

Given that fact, why should people over a certain age have it for free?

By the way, nice job editing the quote to help your argument. Keeping it classy. Shame it's an irrelevant one.

[+OverSword]

29 minutes ago, Setton said:

Given that fact, why should people over a certain age have it for free?

They shouldn't.  I'm a free market guy so as far as that type of question goes that will be my answer 99.9% of the time.  Being a free market kind of guy though the license shouldn't exist so it shouldn't be a question.

Question: do the channels that require a license to view show commercials as well?

[Setton]

35 minutes ago, OverSword said:

They shouldn't.  I'm a free market guy so as far as that type of question goes that will be my answer 99.9% of the time.  Being a free market kind of guy though the license shouldn't exist so it shouldn't be a question.

Question: do the channels that require a license to view show commercials as well?

It's a bit more complicated than that. You need a license to watch any live TV. The licence fee funds our public broadcaster, the BBC. The BBC doesn't show adverts but other channels do. You still need a licence to watch those other channels live but not on catch up.

You also need a licence to watch BBC content on catch up.

With me so far..?

[+OverSword]

1 minute ago, Setton said:

It's a bit more complicated than that. You need a license to watch any live TV. The licence fee funds our public broadcaster, the BBC. The BBC doesn't show adverts but other channels do. You still need a licence to watch those other channels live but not on catch up.

You also need a licence to watch BBC content on catch up.

With me so far..?

What's catch up?  

[spartan max2]

43 minutes ago, Setton said:

It's a bit more complicated than that. You need a license to watch any live TV. The licence fee funds our public broadcaster, the BBC. The BBC doesn't show adverts but other channels do. You still need a licence to watch those other channels live but not on catch up.

You also need a licence to watch BBC content on catch up.

With me so far..?

Wait, I clearly don't understand what this license is.

You need a license, to watch T.V? Lol

[+OverSword]

11 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

Wait, I clearly don't understand what this license is.

You need a license, to watch T.V? Lol

Yeah, I think it stems from the old days when you had no option but to watch one of the three BBC channels and a TV license was where they got the money to run the state broadcasting system.  Totally out of date system I'm thinking.

[Setton]

27 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

Wait, I clearly don't understand what this license is.

You need a license, to watch T.V? Lol

If you want to watch it live, yep.

[Setton]

1 hour ago, OverSword said:

What's catch up?  

When you watch it online after the initial broadcast.

[Setton]

14 minutes ago, OverSword said:

Yeah, I think it stems from the old days when you had no option but to watch one of the three BBC channels and a TV license was where they got the money to run the state broadcasting system.  Totally out of date system I'm thinking.

It also goes back to our idea of fairness which is pretty important to Brits.

By having a broadcaster that doesn't take adverts, they can remain independent and unbiased. There's all kinds of rules to keep the BBC fair. They have to give equal coverage to all political parties and aren't even allowed to focus on branded products in programmes.

It's a weird system but it does mean we don't have the problem you guys do with everything being politicised and kowtowing to wherever the money is on offer.

[+OverSword]

9 minutes ago, Setton said:

There's all kinds of rules to keep the BBC fair.

Well good luck with that, they are definitely left leaning.  

[Setton]

10 minutes ago, OverSword said:

Well good luck with that, they are definitely left leaning.  

By your standards, sure. But then the whole of the US is right wing by ours.

You'll find plenty of posters here who'll agree with you. If you went and spoke to left wing Brits you'd also find plenty accuse the BBC of right wing bias. They were officially reprimanded for biased reporting against the Labour (left wing) party.

[+OverSword]

33 minutes ago, Setton said:

By your standards, sure.

Many many times in these forums I've seen people from England complain about the BBC's liberal bias so it's not just my right leaning American perspective.

[Setton]

6 hours ago, OverSword said:

Many many times in these forums I've seen people from England complain about the BBC's liberal bias so it's not just my right leaning American perspective.

Do you want to read the rest of that post instead of editing out what you can't argue with?

7 hours ago, Setton said:

You'll find plenty of posters here who'll agree with you. If you went and spoke to left wing Brits you'd also find plenty accuse the BBC of right wing bias. They were officially reprimanded for biased reporting against the Labour (left wing) party.

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Setton