Letters – BBC Licence Fee

British Turn To Streaming As 2.8 Million Claim They No Longer Need To Pay TV Licence Fee.

LAST week we discussed the latest figures surrounding the issue of 2.8 million television viewers who believe that they should not be required to pay the £159 annual charge for a TV license as they no longer watch BBC channels or any kind of live television.

The rise of streaming services such as Netflix, Disney Plus and Paramount Plus have been giving traditional channels like BBC and ITV a run for their money over the past few years, with the above figure showing an increase of more than 360,000 people in the previous twelve months.

There’s been a significant uplift in the amount of people who watch live television through social media channels such as YouTube. According to TV Licensing.co.uk, even if you’re watching live TV through YouTube indirectly, you are still required to have TV license coverage to be compliant with the law.

Toby Young, the Founder and Director of the Free Speech Union told the Daily Mail: ‘These figures show that the TV licence fee is not a viable funding model for the BBC going forward.

He added: ‘The obvious alternative is to become a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime.’

Perhaps, times are changing and preferences are evolving. Will streaming services eventually render traditional live television as irrelevant and out-dated?

The readers of Euro Weekly News took to the comment sections on our website to share their thoughts on what they think about the issue surrounding TV license payments.

Pay per view would sort out this antiquated policy, and then the BBC will see the exact figures willing to tune in to the channel. M

I object to the BBC using the Licence Fee as their own bank account paying obscene wages such as 1.3m to Gary Linaker for hosting a programme for 1 hour a week, and paying one of their news readers £350,000 for 3 days work and a total if 12 hours on radio which I never listen to – William Hughes

Where have you seen these shows already ? The licence is free for over 75s in receipt of Pension credit. You’re on £52 k a year so probably too rich to get pensions credit though – Jase

The BBC has now become a game show channel and a repeat channel with nothing too exciting in the middle – Les

The BBC send letters to intimidate people who don’t own a license – Anonymous

The BBC is a self serving and obsole service. Yes, they have a few series that are good, but with over 3 billion from stealth enforcement of licence paying they should have! Why it still exists is beyond me and paying 44p is far to much for a generally mediocre service, that unless you want to be hounded by Television Licensing as if you were a criminal, you will pay under duress! – Rob

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Why do we have to pay the BBC to watch all the other channels who pay their own way. Shocking – John

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Do away with the tv licence. We live in the 21st century not the 20th century when bbc was created – Stephen Nield

It’s disgraceful that the BBC charge pensioners £159 for a TV licence. Shame on you. – John

Repeats and more of them. Then there are the quiz / game shows giving obscene amounts in prize money, that and the astronomical salaries payed to some of their presenters. My husband is over 80, I am in my seventies , the only reason we watch bbc is no adverts, we are not into streaming, so watch more DVDs than tv these days, but still we have to pay the license fee. We have just over the limit in pension between us not to be able to get pension credits. – Jacqueline Drew