By law all UK residents are compelled to fund the BBC and no one can opt out; only if you do not have a device capable of receiving a TV signal do you not have to pay. Failure to pay is a criminal offence.
You need to be covered by a TV Licence to watch or record live TV programmes on any channel, and download or watch any BBC programmes on iPlayer – live, catch up or on demand. This applies to any provider you use and any device, including a TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, games console, digital box or DVD/VHS recorder.
There are various problems with this poll tax funding system. In a World with so many alternative media providers, being forced to pay for one (the BBC) if you want to watch any other, for example, Sky Sports or a movie channel, or National Geographic is as anti-democratic as it is inefficient. This model of funding the BBC in indefensible.
Because the BBC is not subject to commercial pressures, and no one can can use ‘price signals’ to indicate they don’t like the BBC’s output (ie, unsubscribing from the BBC and to watch another provider's output is not possible), the BBC is liable to produce average output. Some of the BBC’s output is good, but there are many repeats and a good deal of the BBC’s output is terrible.
The funding model of the BBC has seen the BBC put it’s fingers in too many pies: It’s output spans almost every conceivable media type and format. Why should someone who only likes nature and gardening programs also be forces to pay for popular entertainment shows, Radio 1, and other BBC produces programs? The BBC crowds out private sector providers, to the detriment of the quality of UK TV.
Lastly, the BBC funding model is a regressive tax on the poor. Why should the less well off pay the same for the BBC as the rich?
The funding model should move to subscription service. Then, we will be free to choose.
You can watch Sky sports, a movie channel, Nat Geo all without a TV licence through services such as Now TV.
And despite the, supposed, lack of commercial pressure which apparently results in average output the BBC still churns out worldwide hits such as Sherlock, Luther, Planet Earth, The Office, Top Gear, etc.
A subscription model would no doubt be more complicated to administer, would need new set top boxes or TVs and would no doubt end up more expensive for the viewer.
I like BBC America
Planet Earth is one of the best shows you are not watching
What about television, the world wide web, desalination, the submarine, the steam engine, the jet engine, tinning food, the iron bridge, Hydraulic press, Incandescent light bulb, Electric motor, Cement, Sewage system, Steam turbine, Electronic programmable computer, Carbon fibre, ATM's, the railway, theory of the Higgs boson, DNA profiling, discovery of Graphene, Radio, Gas turbine, Two-stroke engine, dishwasher, Smallpox vaccine, anaesthesia, the Tank, Radar, Cinematography, Faraday cage , Calculus, Newtonian telescope, discovery of hawking Radiation, Newton's laws of motion, The Law of Gravity, Electromagnet, Periodic Table, Splitting the atom, Theory of Evolution, Mass spectrometer and The theory of electromagnetism to name but a few of British inventions and discoveries. Most of what you experience in modern life was invented by the British.
Not personally, but my gf loves BBC.
No, You need a TV license to watch ANY live broadcast, through ANY device. NowTV included - https://help.nowtv.com/article/do-i-...o-watch-now-tv
It's more complicated than that. A lot of these series are produced and/or distributed by "BBC Worldwide", this is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that does have the same commercial pressure and goals. A lot of these big shows are produced with the intention of selling them to larger markets.
BASIC CAMPFIRE for WARCHIEF UK Prime Minister!
Not really since (It seems)80% of what airs on BBCA is Star Trek.
the bbc is a left wing, anti british, cunt of a company.
The beeb is pretty good all in all. Its docu's are pretty dece (planet earth etc), panorama is cutting, its dramas are alreet, radio service is pretty good and its coverage of sport and music is outstanding.
Does employ a few donuts though (alan shearer).
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is it fuck
Double entendre....
I completely approve......
/thumbs up
/fades into the shadows
Right? And? There is no need with the technology available today to watch live broadcasts and I would have thought that waiting an hour or so to watch a program in order to not have to pay the licence fee would appeal to those who dislike the BBC.
So what? The reality is that the BBC consistently makes critically acclaimed TV programs which cost the UK viewer roughly 40p to watch.
Once you go black, you never go back, is a saying for a reason.
As a foreign person, I like many of their older documentaries, Horizon, etc. - but I can't help notice a decline in quality over the past 10 years or so.
I also like some of their sports event coverage, like the Snooker World Championship. They have good commentators, usually former World Champions.
Unfortunately they make it impossible for me to pay for their content, everything is geo blocked. I'd be happy to pay for it as I already pay for the Eurosport coverage, but I'd rather hear the commentators who are actually at the event. And you can't do that legally at the moment. Except on YouTube a day later. Which is stupid.
BBC news, I suppose, is like everywhere else. At least they've made their fair share of mistakes (WTC 7 *cough*).
Last edited by mmoc1848483d5d; 2017-08-29 at 08:30 PM.