The Dibb BBC licence Referendum

[tspill]

Originally Posted by mr-paul

This, this, this.

The BBC isn't meant to cater to all of your tastes. You're not meant to want to watch everything on it. It is meant to cater to ALL tastes - providing something for everyone. It's public service broadcasting, and I think overall it does a very good job of it. There are a lot of programmes on it that wouldn't be commercially viable on other channels, yet provide something for a subset of the nation.

I've had some gripes with its news service lately on the political side, but on the whole it is great to have a news outlet that isn't influenced in any way by commercial interests. I think it's also very important that they fund local news - local newspapers are struggling these days and the BBC being able to fund investigations on local stories that may not have a national interest is still of great value to people's lives.

A healthy BBC also means a healthy TV industry as a whole - a large amount of their output is made by independent production companies which would go out of business without BBC commissions.

Broadcast innovations developed at the BBC help the industry as a whole, on our shores and beyond. Just one example - back in 2012, the BBC, alongside the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, had the first public showcase of 8K television at the Olympic Games. 8K sets are only just reaching retail now 7/8 years later, but I believe that it's important that we as a nation have a broadcaster that is willing to lead the world globally on new technologies such as this.

Saying all of this, I don't believe that the TV licence is a very good system, and the way they go about enforcing it is very heavy-handed. Personally, I would prefer it to be funded through general taxation. I truly believe if it was funded this way and you didn't have to actively 'pay' it there would be less fuss and we wouldn't have the split in this poll.

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Excellent summary. The beauty of the BBC model is that they can make fantastic programmes that would not otherwise be made.

[wanye]

those of you with kids... surely cbeebies/cbbc and bbc bitesize are worth the licence fee alone?

for me, it's bbc6music. it has its faults, but it is the only radio station i will even tolerate nowadays

[Tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by mr-paul

This, this, this.

The BBC isn't meant to cater to all of your tastes. You're not meant to want to watch everything on it. It is meant to cater to ALL tastes - providing something for everyone. It's public service broadcasting, and I think overall it does a very good job of it. There are a lot of programmes on it that wouldn't be commercially viable on other channels, yet provide something for a subset of the nation.

I've had some gripes with its news service lately on the political side, but on the whole it is great to have a news outlet that isn't influenced in any way by commercial interests. I think it's also very important that they fund local news - local newspapers are struggling these days and the BBC being able to fund investigations on local stories that may not have a national interest is still of great value to people's lives.

A healthy BBC also means a healthy TV industry as a whole - a large amount of their output is made by independent production companies which would go out of business without BBC commissions.

Broadcast innovations developed at the BBC help the industry as a whole, on our shores and beyond. Just one example - back in 2012, the BBC, alongside the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, had the first public showcase of 8K television at the Olympic Games. 8K sets are only just reaching retail now 7/8 years later, but I believe that it's important that we as a nation have a broadcaster that is willing to lead the world globally on new technologies such as this.

Saying all of this, I don't believe that the TV licence is a very good system, and the way they go about enforcing it is very heavy-handed. Personally, I would prefer it to be funded through general taxation. I truly believe if it was funded this way and you didn't have to actively 'pay' it there would be less fuss and we wouldn't have the split in this poll.

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Here in Spain its included within your local taxes

[Pino_Spetzberg]

Originally Posted by wanye

the problem is, both netflix and amazon aren't priced competitively, they are priced to knock out the competition.

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My Amazon Prime was free, my Netflix was £3 per month.
Both had little appeal after watching the few programmes of interest.
I think Amazon Prime was set to be £79, whilst Netflix would rise to £100. Not worth it for us.
Our Sky monthly bill is £35 which is OK value for the moment but others pay less than us yet receive more channels which is annoying.
BT Sport was free, then £3, then they wanted another £3 for HD, we cancelled when it went up further.
Premier Sport was just a mess.

There will be good value for us paying £150 for a BBC subscription.
So long as they don't send us to prison if we decide to cancel it.

[kcanderson]

Needs to go ,scrap it

[Do5-BaG]

I read someone the other day comparing it to Netflix, saying that if we want the BBC for free next we'll be wanting online subscription services for free, I piped up and said that if the BBC had half the content that services like Netflix / Amazon Prime provided then the TV licence would be worth it, but you'll be lucky if I watch 2 shows on BBC and they are Have I Got News For You and Louis Theroux, is that really worth the cost of a licence?

Scrap it in my opinion, the only worry I have is that they'll claw it back some other way either through Digital TV subscriptions such as a price hike in Sky, Virgin or NowTV going straight in BBC's pockets/

[riversider2014]

Originally Posted by Do5-BaG

I read someone the other day comparing it to Netflix, saying that if we want the BBC for free next we'll be wanting online subscription services for free, I piped up and said that if the BBC had half the content that services like Netflix / Amazon Prime provided then the TV licence would be worth it, but you'll be lucky if I watch 2 shows on BBC and they are Have I Got News For You and Louis Theroux, is that really worth the cost of a licence?

Scrap it in my opinion, the only worry I have is that they'll claw it back some other way either through Digital TV subscriptions such as a price hike in Sky, Virgin or NowTV going straight in BBC's pockets/

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What do you mean my content though ?

Yes, there’s shedloads of programmes on there but vast majority aren’t worth watching.

I subscribe to Netflix yet the only series I watch on there are stranger things and better call Saul with the odd documentary thrown in so I sometimes wonder why I bother with that 😊

Same with virgin tv as well. Its my mission this month to work out what I actually watch as I could likely cancel all sorts, save some money and not miss out.

[Do5-BaG]

Originally Posted by riversider2014

What do you mean my content though ?

Yes, there’s shedloads of programmes on there but vast majority aren’t worth watching.

I subscribe to Netflix yet the only series I watch on there are stranger things and better call Saul with the odd documentary thrown in so I sometimes wonder why I bother with that 😊

Same with virgin tv as well. Its my mission this month to work out what I actually watch as I could likely cancel all sorts, save some money and not miss out.

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Yes, but if you decided to stop Netflix, then they wouldn't send people round your house asking for payment just because you owned a television and had the ability to receive the internet (TV Signal in BBC terms), you can opt in and out of Netflix whenever you want, I know people who abuse the free trials whenever they want to watch a new show and just make a dummy e-mail address.

But I would also say you are probably in the minority regarding Netflix users, I'd say I watch Netflix / Amazon more than I watch anything on Live TV / Sky, I'm also aware the same applies to all my friends and family.

[riversider2014]

Originally Posted by Do5-BaG

Yes, but if you decided to stop Netflix, then they wouldn't send people round your house asking for payment just because you owned a television and had the ability to receive the internet (TV Signal in BBC terms), you can opt in and out of Netflix whenever you want, I know people who abuse the free trials whenever they want to watch a new show and just make a dummy e-mail address.

But I would also say you are probably in the minority regarding Netflix users, I'd say I watch Netflix / Amazon more than I watch anything on Live TV / Sky, I'm also aware the same applies to all my friends and family.

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I know.

I’m just saying there may be more ‘content’ but a fair amount of it is garbage that isn’t worth watching.

[Greyfriars]

You have all been to the USA. How do you feel about having that as your TV service. The fact is that the BBC does produce quality programme instead of the lowest common denominator! As for the accusation that they are biased, both the SNP and the current government accuse them of this. That tells me they are getting it just about right. £154.50/ a year or £12.80/month is peanuts compared with Sky, Virgin etc.