Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> Review of TV Licensing to begin this autumn http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1413901523 Message started by JohnW on Oct 21^st, 2014, 2:26pm

Title: Review of TV Licensing to begin this autumn
Post by JohnW on Oct 21^st, 2014, 2:26pm

I see that Secretary of State, Sajid Javid, announced his intention to begin a review into TV License enforcement in early September.

It "aims to review the enforcement regime for failure to have a TV License in the UK, including looking at whether sanctions for committing the offence are appropriate. It will identify and assess options for amending the current regime, including the possibility of decriminalisation of TV licensing offences. Currently, failure to have a TV License and [not] paying the License fee is an offence punishable by a fine."
"The Terms of Reference outline several key considerations including: ‘Value for money for Licence Fee payers and tax payers in enforcement of the failure to have a TV Licence, including operational, revenue and investment costs of the enforcement regime to the BBC and to the court system.’ ‘Fairness for all License Fee payers’ will also be considered, as well as the ‘Degree to which the regime is easy to understand by all.’"

Seems to me that this is heading for the situation where 'if you don't feel like paying for a license then it's going to be OK to not have one!'

Where does this leave 'Public Service Broadcasting' I wonder?

And why can't bl***y Politicians keep their hands off what seems to work, and worry more about what doesn't (like Immigration).

Title: Re: Review of TV Licensing to begin this autumn
Post by Annual Increment on Oct 23^rd, 2014, 7:25am

I agree--what a load of hogwash. The licence fee is terrific value and a moderate increase to sustain services and prevent channel closures is fine. A charge for overseas users is long overdue as is consideration of what place Iplayer has in a commercial world and whether users should be facing an extra pay wall.
i am amazed there seem to be people who fail to understand the principles of the licence fee-who are they? I must assume they are the very people who choose not to pay and blindly think that because they only watch commercial channels they needn't . We all know that " type"-don't we?