I understand Eddie's point about paying for something you don't use - that's a pointless exercise.
I watch very little TV to be honest, in a week about 10 hours or less but I do enjoy the nature programs on the BBC, they are second to none. I also like the fact there are no commercial breaks although some of the ads these days are actually better than the TV shows themselves!
I live in a house where the TV licence is slipt 5 ways.
Do I need a licence? You need a TV Licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top boxes, video or DVD recorders,
computers or mobile phones to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV.
If you use a set-top box with a hi-fi system or another device that can only be used to produce sounds and can't display TV programmes, and you don't install or use any other TV receiving equipment,
you don't need a TV Licence... Think about it... ::)
BBC good value for money? Not according to the viewers and listeners. The data the BBC hoped you wouldn't notice.
The source for this table is an annex to the ‘Delivering Public Value’ report the BBC submitted to DCMS in 2005.
For the first time it puts a figure on the gap between what the public might be willing to pay for the BBC, and the £3 billion it actually pays via a tax that makes it a crime to watch any TV unless you pay the BBC. By the BBC’s own figure this gap is £1.8 billion. A high price for a ministry of truth.
The culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, has announced another outrageous increase in the licence fee. This follows a completely phoney so-called consultation on the licence fee, which has utterly ignored viewers and listeners.
We can reveal that the BBC’s own research shows that far from considering the BBC good value for money, 58 per cent of viewers WOULD PAY NOTHING FOR IT, IF THEY HAD THE CHOICE.
Under Jowell’s latest hand out to the BBC, viewers of any television station may go to prison if they do not pay the £131.50 tax to the BBC.
The BBC board is appointed by the government and its income is controlled by the government, making its claims to independence ridiculous.The fee, recently reclassified as a tax by the National Statistics Office, is monopolised by the BBC, which uses the proceeds to launch services for which there is no public demand. The BBC unfairly monopolises broadcasting spectrum and unfairly launches products subsidised by the licence fee tax in competition with independent ventures.
Thousands of people are prosecuted every week for not having a licence. Most of them are poor and they are typically female and single mothers. An average fine of £150 is increased for subsequent offences and can escalate to prison sentences (usually of young women) of those who are unable to pay their fines.
As the BBC launches another hateful, intimidating advertising campaign intended to scare people into paying up, and claims the right to conduct electronic surveillance without a search warrant to generate further prosecutions, it is censoring from its own airwaves the crucial debate on the future of public broadcasting in Britain. It is not surprising the BBC must resort to threats, to make people pay.
The latest above-inflation, 4.2 per cent increase in the licence fee is only the starter. The licence fee will rise to £200 by the end of a new 10-year settlement.
Although polls consistently show 60 per cent or more in opposition to the licence fee, the public desire for a downsized BBC and a reduced or abolished licence fee has been completely ignored. The government has rid itself of the BBC director general and chairman who defied Downing Street over Iraq. The BBC has never been such a handmaiden of government.
The BBC is now quietly lobbying for the licence fee to be extended to computers connected to broadband networks. Its current spending spree puts it in need of ever more cash. There are huge cost overruns at the BBC’s headquarters building site. The corporation is proposing to spend hundreds of millions in further property development in Manchester. The BBC’s stable of presenters is paid astronomic sums. There are suspicions of further financial issues at the corporation.
Visitors to Britain marvel that it should be a criminal offence to watch television in Britain without paying tribute to the BBC. Thousands are conscientious objectors, refusing to pay the fee and mastering countermeasures to the BBC’s contracted TV licensing agents, Capita plc. Capita’s agents work on a bonus scheme - the more prosecutions they bring, the more they are paid. The behaviour of these agents is repeatedly questioned yet they are subject to no independent complaints procedure.
[center]
[/center]
Some additional notes regarding the role
Past experience in intimidation and threatening of the elderly, single mums and students especially is essential.
You’ll be considered a ‘lone-worker’ meaning we will check up on you every hour just to monitor and provide a quick response if there is an accident or in case a dangerous situation arises.
If you like watching football matches please don’t bother applying because we will expect you to make door-to-door visits every time an important match is on.
Remember
- You have no authorization what so ever to enter people’s premises.
- You have no means of proving our ‘customers’ need a TV licence because the technology we use to detect TV’s in use are either non-existence or outdated.
- You will totally depend on your criminal past to force our ‘customers’ into a confession and have them sign our ‘plead-guilty’ forms.- The more of these signed forms you send in the higher your bonus.- Don’t ask for search warrants all the time; our client, the BBC, considers this not cost effective. Again, use our proven intimidation tactics to achieve our goals.
Tip
Target only our weaker ‘customers’ such as students, single mums, the elderly, the disabled and people living in deprived areas. We hold lots of statistics; our database will help you targeting these particular areas.
Looking forward reading your CV!
***************************************************************
New independent broadcasters are inhibited from entering the market, because of the BBC’s unfair competition.
Viewers are forced to pay for programmes they do not want. And often cannot even receive.
Curbing this bloated monster is the objective of this web site. Our members monitor every move this monster makes – this site is where you can find the real story on the BBC. Read the site to know how to fight back against this outrageous tax. Join the forum to find out the latest on the campaign and what you can do.
Why pay for something you don't want?Because the Government says you have to otherwise you become a criminal.In effect you are being dictated to... Match Of The Day anyone...?
from people in power. Most people seem to think that you can't change anything, or that 'one person can't make a difference'. That last statement is true, as a rule one person can't make a difference, but that's not the way to look at things, one person may not be able to make a difference, but hundreds or thousands can. I'm sure I'm not the only person to feel this way about TV licensing, in fact I know I'm not the only person to feel this way, so why can't everyone of a similar thinking get together & organise a mass boycott? What can the authorities do if suddenly everyone refuses to pay their TV license? The steps they can take are to fine you & then imprison you if you don't pay the fine, but how can they do that if there's not enough prison spaces to accommodate all the people refusing to pay? There are approximately 70,000 people being held in prisons in the UK, and that's already at bursting point, so to find the spaces for say an extra 10,000 people would be a nightmare if not impossible. 10,000 may sound like a lot of people to get on board, but when you consider that there's approximately 60,000,000 people living in the country the figure starts to pale into insignificance.
