The BBC licence fee is obsolete and unfair and should be scrapped a think tank said in 2010. The growing use of the internet for viewing has made licensing TV sets outdated, according to right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute. But the new Government has said the licence fee will remain in place until at least 2016 showing that they are as out of touch as the BBC itself.
What the Law and the BBC says about the licence:
"You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it's being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder."
Great but what do they mean "watch TV as it is being broadcast."
This means you only need a licence if you watch or record TV without any significant delay in transmission. In this age of multi media TV most of the time you use a television you wont even need a licence because you'll be watching DVDs/ Blu Ray/ catch up services like BBC iPlayer/ or playing games on a console and you are NOT required by law to have a TV licence do do any of these. You only need one on the odd occasions you might watch a program that is being transmitted without any delay. This is madness would you be expected to pay for a toll bridge when you never had any plans to drive across it? No of course you wouldn't, just like you don't pay Sky TV for all their channels and you don't even own a satellite dish or cable box.
For many years licence inspectors has mislead thousands of people around the UK into thinking they need a TV licence for owning a TV when in fact you don't.
Inspectors will ask wheres your licence and try to bully you into buying one without even bothering to check if in fact you really need one. I myself paid for a TV licence for years before i realised i didn't need one and was paying for nothing without any chance of ever getting my money back. The BBC is become very poor value for money and not buying a licence leads to many letters and cold callers knocking at your door which, under any other circumstance, would be construed as harassment. Despite usage you either buy a TV licence of your branded a criminal. This is wrong!!!
In his Lib Dem News column way back in October 2008 , reprinted on his Liberal England blog, Jonathan Calder wrote
"How can you justify financing the BBC through the licence fee in a multi-channel, multi-platform, multi-everything world? Increasing numbers of people rarely watch its programmes and the fee is the nearest thing we have to a poll tax. If the BBC has its way, it will cost us all £180 a year by 2013."
A former Panorama producer called for the BBC’s compulsory licence fee to be replaced by a voluntary subscription back in 2010. David Graham, who worked on the flagship current affairs programme made the suggestion in a report for the Adam Smith Institute think tank.
The report argued that the growing use of the internet for viewing has made licensing TV sets outdated. And it said it was unfair viewers pay to watch free channels like ITV because they cannot see them without the £145.50-a-year payment to the BBC.
One reason is that if you are just downloading or streaming a TV programme from the internet, then you don’t have to pay the fee. This means what you do and don’t have to pay for is becoming confusing. The BBC has come under fire in April 2014 for spending over £11 million of taxpayers' money a year on printing and sending TV licence letters to households. Read Story
The Daily Mail said on the 20th March 2012 "Time for a change? 140,000 people received a criminal record last year for failing to pay the TV licence fee. And yet you can steal goods worth £200, or cause £500 worth of criminal damage and be handed a fixed penalty notice by the police for the sum of £80. Licence Fee evasion is the most prosecuted of all 'crimes' in England and Wales, with all the costs in court time that uses up". Read full story
The people passing sentence in these cases, the lay magistracy, have been calling for TV licence evasion to be decriminalised for two decades.
For an act of criminal damage like smashing up a bus shelter, or painting a graffiti or stealing from a business you walk away with your name intact and a small fine.
How can it be that if you commit an act of criminal damages like mashing up a bus shelter, or painting graffiti on a wall or stealing from a business you walk away with your name intact and a small fine. Yet not owning a TV licence you are hunted down and harassed with letters and callers, taken to court and branded a criminal for life.
Former BBC boss George Entwistle who resigned after a Newsnight report led to former Tory treasurer Lord McAlpine being wrongly accused of child abuse has been given a £450,000 severance payment. Gorge Entwistle worked in the job for only 55 days yet this wasn't enough for Entwistle who wanted more money.
It also emerged in November 2012 that Entwistle walked away with his £450,000 year's salary, a year's private healthcare and tens of thousands of pounds for legal advice and to help handle the media. Who are the real criminals?
BBC get it wrong again over the Bedroom Tax protests
Nationwide protests against Bedroom Tax have been downplayed by the BBC March 2013. The protests even though a major headline were simply ignored as much as possible with very little reporting.
Protests were organised simultaneously at 1.00pm in 52 towns and cities across the country on Saturday 16 March, with more to follow on 30 March. The BBC has chosen to downplay the campaign, claiming that demonstrations had taken place in "at least 10 towns and cities", when the true figure was five times that number. Yet again the BBC has shown they aren`t up to reporting the facts correctly. Read full story.