Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 225 posts

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#81

Post by HWR_14 »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #35

I’m not sure how much cut through this has had outside of the UK, but the government are currently in serious trouble because of constant leaks about parties in Number 10 Downing Street during the pandemic - including a particularly poorly timed one the day before the Queen was photographed at her husband’s funeral alone. The leaks are ongoing, so we know that this particular plan is part of “Operation Red Meat”, whi…

Only to answer your question about the party scandals - it totally made its way across the Atlantic. The severity of the scandal has been stated but is not obvious (Boris May lose his prime ministership over this?) However, it was drowned out by the ouster of Phillip.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#82

Post by EL_Loco »

cromka wrote: post #31
cracrecry wrote: post #28

One of the great things of the Licence fee was that the Government does not get to control the national TV like it does when the one who pays is it directly. In places like Spain the national TV(and regional TV too) becomes a propaganda machine for the exclusive service of the Government(s, national and regional). It is awful to have your taxes redirected for the private interest of the Party in charge. In fact with…

> In places like Spain Spain? Spain pales in comparison with Poland. Where they collect the license fee, too.

Poland? Poland pales in comparison with Brazil, where there's a R$5.7 billion (about 1 billion US$) 'Electoral Fund' used for political campaings by the thirty something registered political parties. All paid for by the taxpayers. And let's not forget that there's also a 'Political Party Fund'. And I just love the reason for the creation of the 'Electoral Fund', but that's another story.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#83

Post by iso1210 »

nerdawson wrote: post #75
dazc wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ITV also make short drama series which are often better, in my opinion, and manage to do this without threatening to send people to jail for not contributing financially. You can subscribe for £3.99 to have an almost ad-free experience too. I doubt the BBC could compete at this level as a subscription only service in its current state though? Worth noting also, the prevelance of BBC ads for its own content which have…

BBC and ITV shared coverage of the Euros last year and their streaming offerings couldn’t have been more different. The BBC were airing matches in 4K HDR and their service ran without a hitch. ITV, on the other hand, a private company, had a site which crumbled under load. When it did eventually work, it was so poor as to be laughable. It probably wouldn’t even be considered HD and the frame rate couldn’t keep up. It…

I wouldn't watch a live sports match online, certainly not something like an England match in the world cup / euros (think Superbowl if you're American) - you're talking 30-60 second lag. The neighbours cheer at the goal and you're screwed, not to mention things like twitter.

The difference between DTT and Satelite is just about OK, but not online.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#84

Post by Nextgrid »

jaymzcampbell wrote: post #12
bennysomething wrote: post #7

Good. Currently I'm forced to pay for content I dont consume.

I know there's lots of conflicting horror stories online but years ago when I moved house and had no TV at all, I submitted a declaration[1] saying I didn't need one and haven't had any hassle since. After a few months I realised I wasn't missing live TV at all and never went back. [1] https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/t...

The declaration only lasts for a year or so, not to mention that out of principle there is no reason for us to help them save money on not sending their letters/goons especially considering they started the whole thing to begin with. Let them reap what they sowed.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#85

Post by dijit »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #36
verytrivial wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate, you're going to spit blood when you hear about all the roads, hospitals and armed forces you're paying for but not directly using.

Just about everyone uses roads, hospitals, and enjoys the security provided by armed forces (for example, the OP apparently has a computer or smart phone, which I'm betting traveled on a road for some part of its journey from the factory to him, and which I'm betting relied on the implicit security provided by military forces to prevent it being hijacked on the way). Broadcast television is at an entirely different l…

You make decent points but I'm not entirely sure I buy this line of reasoning.

A significant bulk of BBC funding seems to go into news and education, an educated and informed population is generally better for everyone.

Could we live without entertainment TV such as Eastenders? Probably, though it can often serve a purpose in education such as (poor) representation of schizophrenia and suicide which can point people (and their family&friends) to helplines for getting adequate support.

Entertainment TV maybe also lends credibility to the idea that the BBC isn't just "boring" stuff like PBS might be considered in the USA, and thus people might be more inclined to engage with the content.

I'm speculating, but even when I view the BBC coldly I don't see it as being as black and white as all that, I would say the net contribution to society is so high that you would feel it's effects even if you don't directly engage with it.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#86

Post by iso1210 »

Freskis wrote: post #57
fiftyacorn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are pro-government, pro-union - but the point is BBC news should be non-partisan

I would say most UK people consider the BBC to be impartial and neutral, except perhaps for people with more extreme political opinions.

BBC is certainly the most trusted news outlet

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/media/articles-reports/2020/04/2...

Although it's only about half

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#87

Post by neilsense »

dijit wrote: post #76

What is interesting is that the BBC have been reporting recently on the sitting government's complete disregard for their own rules w.r.t lockdowns. It began with Matt Hancock breaking COVID distancing rules and cheating on his wife with his aide. Now it's a slow burn leak of more and more damning evidence that they've held parties- while the police force have openly stated that they "do not prosecute crimes retroact…

This issue has been going on well before C19. The BBC have abused their power and it is absolutely ridiculous that people have to pay license fees to them when media has changed so much.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#88

Post by Nextgrid »

iso1210 wrote: post #11
bennysomething wrote: post #7

Good. Currently I'm forced to pay for content I dont consume.

I don't need to pay for a license fee because I don't watch TV. I watch Netflix, amazon, apple, disney etc. I still pay it because I'm listening to radio 2 at the moment, and have the news website in the background. While legally I don't need a license fee for that, it feels wrong to not be contributing. Unless you're some weird boomer still paying £600 a year for a sky subscription to watch shit TV broken by adverts…

I'm in the same position as you (don't watch license-requiring content, but appreciate other BBC content such as their website) but I refuse to pay the license out of principle as to not encourage/support their bullshit approach at enforcement.

I disagree with the idea of generating insane amounts of paper waste (and sometimes sending crooks in-person) to threaten less scam-savvy people into paying for a license they don't need, especially when said people might be lower-income that can't afford paying for a license "out of charity" if they aren't required to by law.

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#89

Post by mschuster91 »

ssddanbrown wrote: post #9

I like much of what the BBC do and produce, especially BBC news, but the licence fee has always felt like a relic from the past with a bad strategy of enforcement (With their threatening letters and misguiding terminology as to when a license is required). Their actual broadcast service is lacking in some areas too. On BBC One HD I still get a blank place-holder screen for local news, advising to switch to the non-HD…

> I hope the BBC continues to survive, just with a more modern funding approach

Difficult. There are not many ways to fund a public TV/radio program, and all of the non-per-household-license free-OTA variants have issues:

- anything tax-based is just asking for trouble aka a populist government extorting the public stations after critical coverage

- ad-funded... well that's just ordinary private TV, with the threat here being mega-corporations buying positive coverage / suppressing negative coverage (just look at the current scandal in Austria with former chancellor Kurz)

- household license but encrypted (to enforce said license), which is often enough brought up by the far-right has the downside that the viewership and with it the funding will collapse, and the government will lose a critical way of disseminating information in a crisis event (e.g. floods, earthquakes, terrorist attacks)

Re: BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

#90

Post by Nextgrid »

johnday wrote: post #64
Nextgrid wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The BBC is welcome to encrypt their broadcasts and sell subscriptions directly.

This is not feasible. In the UK we have Freeview [1], a free-to-access television platform which manages ~all terrestrial output. The BBC administrates this system along with the other major broadcasters (ITV, C4, ...). If the BBC did not put out its own output under Freeview, not only would Freeview collapse but the BBC would effectively be wiped off the face of British television. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Freeview just a marketing name for DVB-T (or T2 nowadays), which supported encrypted content since its inception and can mix encrypted & non-encrypted channels in the same multiplex?
Post reply on HN