Reply to: Free BBC from the licence fee?

[SueEllen]

A sofa with a built in toilet! Fantastic idea! I shall start work on the design tomorrow.

Yep though I think you would make more money inventing and patenting the tea/coffee making, food and alcohol bringing robot who doesn't break things.

[xoggoth]

it's harder to time toilet breaks etc

A sofa with a built in toilet! Fantastic idea! I shall start work on the design tomorrow.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Private companies like Sky already obtain voluntary subscriptions, but they do retain ads - plenty of 'em in fact.

One thing is for sure - it's totally insane to tax TV owners for the benefit of one corporation and even more so to use hard tactics that even tax office does not use.

I wonder if it's all just to keep people in jobs enforcing all this stuff. If 99% of people are happy to see people prosecuted for dodging tv license then presumably those 99% would be happy to just pay more income tax instead.

[SueEllen]

My impression of US TV is, it's either good or utter crap and nowt in between. Mash, Cheers, Friends (just occasionally if one is being detached but I have a thing about Jennifer Anniston - Growl!) great, but as for the rest! Gordoneo Benuteo!

US TV is fine if you watch it on a box-set or on UK TV as you don't get to suffer the frequent and randomly placed ad breaks.

Commercial TV in the UK is limited to 12 mins of ads per an hour there as in the US there is no limit so you can end up watching as many adverts as the length of the show. The fact that they are random in the US rather than at a certain time means it's harder to time toilet breaks etc

[xoggoth]

Go on holiday to the States or Canada and watch their TV -it's tulipe.

My impression of US TV is, it's either good or utter crap and nowt in between. Mash, Cheers, Friends (just occasionally if one is being detached but I have a thing about Jennifer Anniston - Growl!) great, but as for the rest! Gordoneo Benuteo!

One thing I have noticed about US TV, how come every little US town has strip joints? An online acquaintance in the US says it isn't true. Darn it!

[AtW]

Sure. So *if* people in general did happen to be happy paying the license fee because they liked the product (regardless of whether they had a choice or not), then there's no reason why a private company couldn't obtain the same revenue via voluntary subscriptions.

Private companies like Sky already obtain voluntary subscriptions, but they do retain ads - plenty of 'em in fact.

One thing is for sure - it's totally insane to tax TV owners for the benefit of one corporation and even more so to use hard tactics that even tax office does not use.

[SpontaneousOrder]

They get hefty guarantees revenues that are collected in such a way that I consider being close to extortion.

Sure. So *if* people in general did happen to be happy paying the license fee because they liked the product (regardless of whether they had a choice or not), then there's no reason why a private company couldn't obtain the same revenue via voluntary subscriptions.

People pay a premium for advert free services on the internet all the time.

I personally wouldn't pay for it (BBC). But if people actually valued the service the BBC provides then why would they be happy to pay for it via a license, but not a subscription?

If lots of people wouldn't buy the product, then obviously they'll have less revenue and perhaps the quality would suffer unless the price was increased - but if that's your argument then it simply boils down to you wanting to force people to buy a product that they don't want just so that you can get the associated economy of scale.

[SueEllen]

You mean like sending letters demanding payments with threats of fines to people who don't owe them squat?

Debt collectors learnt a lot from crapita.

However the informed know how to deal with them.

[AtW]

It's not close to extortion, it's extracting money with menaces which IS extortion.

You mean like sending letters demanding payments with threats of fines to people who don't owe them squat?

[TykeMerc]

They get hefty guarantees revenues that are collected in such a way that I consider being close to extortion.

It's not close to extortion, it's extracting money with menaces which IS extortion.

[AtW]

Do the BBC employees work for free and out of the goodness of their hearts?

They get hefty guarantees revenues that are collected in such a way that I consider being close to extortion.

[SueEllen]

Considering the sales of their programs and spinoffs (don't they get paid for use of The Office etc?) they ought to do quite well. Maybe, unlike a proper commercial company, they have too many overpaid staff, too many free broadcast services to the world etc.

Yes they should decrease some staff wages but that's mostly at the upper end. They have sacked most of the low paid lackeys so that lots of people who now do work for the Beeb are contractors, freelancers and temps.

The only reason that British commercial TV isn't that bad is due to them having to compete with the Beeb.

Go on holiday to the States or Canada and watch their TV -it's tulipe. All the Americans and Canadians I've met who then go back remind me to stop moaning about repeats etc on British TV.

The world service is actually British propaganda. It helps people in other countries think we are wonderful and that includes some wealthy countries. And yes I've met foreign people who have mentioned the world service.

[CheeseSlice]

good point, the SBC? has Alex realised they would lose Sherlock and Dr Who?

Just look what happened to Irish TV.
Independent Scotland will basically have this kind of crap.

[KackAttack]

You can't just turn them away, you miss a massive opportunity to have a dig:

HOW TO DEAL WITH TV LICENCE GOONS! (BBC, CAPITA, TV LICENSING, RTE) - YouTube

When they came around to my house, they started asking lots of questions - which I ignored and asked them who they were and they refused to tell me. I got the video camera out at this point and revoked the scumbags rights of access and filmed him trying to escape sharpish.

A week letter I got a letter in the post from Crapita advising they acknowledged my rights of access and would not disturb me for 2 years.

Getting rid of TV was the best thing we did in the house last year - hopefully the BBC will go bankrupt soon - I think it has less than 5 years to go in its current format.

[xoggoth]

Considering the sales of their programs and spinoffs (don't they get paid for use of The Office etc?) they ought to do quite well. Maybe, unlike a proper commercial company, they have too many overpaid staff, too many free broadcast services to the world etc.