http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/j ... -bbc-trust

I'd love to see you try and make that work.

I'm reaching the point now where I can see Aunty Beeb getting ill and I don't especially give a sh1t. The news is fast becoming whatever they can give an easy narrative to, with major stories like Snowden all but ignored. Good shows are killed in a ratings war that I don't think is part of it's charter. The ones that remain they seem determined to run into the ground. iPlayer is repeatedly fcuked about with when it should be used to drive interest in their programmes. And don't get me started on the self-promotion...

I'm surprised it's taken this long for them to think this one up tbh. Have anything that can receive broadcast programs or the means to use iPlayer - licence fee please.
If more and more people shift to online on demand service then the current licence fee system and therefore the BBCs funding is buggered so they have to try and keep the licence fee relevant to the way people consume TV output.

I think she makes a fair point about independence of the BBC - having them effectively tied into the Department of Culture, Media and Sport via licence fee negotiations means they're less free to criticise the government than they should be.

This isn’t the first time this subject has been discussed. The Telegraph reported this in April.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... onger.html

I expect this will happen, though how they enforce it will be interesting.

I imagine you'd have to enter in your TV licence number? Though no idea how you then couldn't share the details with other people?

Perhaps we'll have to set up a user account so they can tie the TV Licence to it? As far as I can see it, any way they want to police this adds unnecessary complexity.

But at the moment, you might have a family of say four people (two adults and two kids). There might be 6-8 devices between them (smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops) etc on which they can access iplayer. Would they need to have individual log ins? Would they all have the same log in? Would the devices be tied down (so if you changed device, you'd have to reregister)? Would there be a limited number of devices?

What happens when a friend comes round and wants to use your internet to access iplayer? Currently, they can watch BBC on your TV and access iplayer on your devices without requiring a TV license. So do you add your friend's device? What happens? It all seems farcical to me.

As I said, unnecessary complexity.

1) log in with a name/licence number to watch advert free, or
2) be forced to watch adverts like a commercial channel.

Sounds fair to me.

The license fee is a tax levied against households, so it is a property tax in disguise. It's a small and almost universal one, so it's very inefficient to collect. It also causes an absurd number of prosecutions, pointlessly wasting court time.

So the smart thing to do is abolish it entirely. Replace it with with a levy on broadband connections, or let councils collect it as part of the normal property taxes, or else go for some messy combination.

Probably like iTunes, 5 or so devices attached to the account/licence. If you want more, you pay extra for the extra devices...

Easy, I would stop using iplayer. There is no way that I will be forced to pay that ridiculous fee.

If they had a proper method to be able to pay month by month then fine. But they don't.

The only month by month payment they have had to be paid 6 months in advance and then you have to apply for a refund if you move house and don't have a TV which takes a couple of months.

You also can't transfer that payment to a new license. Etc...


It's all [LIFTED] up.

the BBC licence fee should be abolished (after all their fiascos) and move into the 21st century ...