Free TV licences for over 75s

Leekbrookgull · Jul 6, 2015

As it stands free TV licences comes out of general taxtion,however it now appears the BBC will have to cover the £650 million yearly cost and realistically we all know that will come from the TV licence fee. Surely when you pay your yearly fee are you not paying for the BBC to provide TV,radio and internet services and not free TV otherwise you could be paying twice for the same service ?

TheJasperCo · Jul 6, 2015

The licence fee is unique in the developed world, in that it's an abhorrent and almost punitive taxation on those wishing to watch televised programming. I remember reading through a thread on the licence fee on NSC a few months ago, and being astonished at the number of folks who were (and I presume, still are) in favour of it.

Hampster Gull · Jul 6, 2015

I look forward to it

nicko31 · Jul 6, 2015

The Tories just want a right wing press and that includes broadcast as well as print. The Beeb is too centre for them. Half of them want Daily Express TV to start this weekend

nicko31 · Jul 6, 2015

Mustafa said:
Why should license fee payers have to put up with a poorer service because of government policy? Why does the British public have to subsidise often wealthy pensioners like this?

Yet another nail in the coffin for the great BBC, but that's probably the point. Sad times.

Agree, most pensioners can afford the licence. The Beeb is probably one of the few world class things Britain has left

Tricky Dicky · Jul 6, 2015

nicko31 said:
Agree, most pensioners can afford the licence. The Beeb is probably one of the few world class things Britain has left

Shame then that they can't put anything on BBC1 worth watching. I never even look at the schedules for 1 any more (never have looked at ITV1).

beorhthelm · Jul 6, 2015

its a pretty shoddy and dishonest policy, forcing a suppoedly indepedent organisation to pay for a government subsidy. would have been more honest to have made it means tested to reduce the bill. though the numbers are highly dubious... i dont see that there are 4.5million household with over 75s.

Ernest · Jul 6, 2015

Another pointless, poorly thought out policy that makes no sense, this Government are showing their true colours very early

easynow · Jul 6, 2015

TheJasperCo said:
The licence fee is unique in the developed world, in that it's an abhorrent and almost punitive taxation on those wishing to watch televised programming. I remember reading through a thread on the licence fee on NSC a few months ago, and being astonished at the number of folks who were (and I presume, still are) in favour of it.

Wikipedia says half of the countries in Asia and Africa, and two-thirds of the countries in Europe use television licences to fund public television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

Although I don't watch that much live television - uninterrupted tv shows/radio on the BBC is something to be appreciated and something missed when watching tv in other countries where they show you 5 minutes of adverts every bloody 10 minutes!

drew · Jul 6, 2015

TheJasperCo said:
The licence fee is unique in the developed world, in that it's an abhorrent and almost punitive taxation on those wishing to watch televised programming. I remember reading through a thread on the licence fee on NSC a few months ago, and being astonished at the number of folks who were (and I presume, still are) in favour of it.

I agree, under £3 per week for BBC1,2,3 and 4, CBBC and Cbeebies for the kids, 24h News and Parliament, regional news, 6 national radio stations and a fair few regional ones. Much better to pay £240 per year for Sky's basic package, at least with that I can watch impartial, unbiased news such as Fox (I still have been back to Birmingham since their advice about it being a no go area).

seagullsovergrimsby · Jul 6, 2015

Ernest said:
Another pointless, poorly thought out policy that makes no sense, this Government are showing their true colours very early

Far from it , this policy has been well thought out by the Tories. The £650M a year it costs to provide free TV licences for over 75s is no longer handed over to the BBC from the DWP. The sweetener for the BBC is that legisaltion will be passed to close the i-Player loophole so that delayed viewing is no different from watching live programmes so a TV licence is required.

beorhthelm · Jul 6, 2015

now the iplayer angle is interesting. i cant see they will make it "the same" as they cant. but what they can do is open up the field for subscription service, payable to those without a licence. currently you cant watch iplayer abroad without faffing about, as they block it to non-UK IPs. theres a little mess coming down the road from EU to prohibit geo-blocking. by making it a subscription service, they can stop the geo-blocking on their terms and make income from overseas viewers.

fat old seagull · Jul 7, 2015

Ernest said:
Another pointless, poorly thought out policy that makes no sense, this Government are showing their true colours very early

I doubt they've hardly started yet!

KZNSeagull · Jul 7, 2015

easynow said:
Wikipedia says half of the countries in Asia and Africa, and two-thirds of the countries in Europe use television licences to fund public television https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

Although I don't watch that much live television - uninterrupted tv shows/radio on the BBC is something to be appreciated and something missed when watching tv in other countries where they show you 5 minutes of adverts every bloody 10 minutes!

You cannot even purchase a TV in South Africa without a TV licence.

DavidinSouthampton · Jul 7, 2015

Tricky Dicky said:
Shame then that they can't put anything on BBC1 worth watching. I never even look at the schedules for 1 any more (never have looked at ITV1).

What do you want to watch, then. Genuine question.

Despite having about 38,000,000 channels of Sky, our TV is tuned about 80% of the time to BBC1 or 2 because there is nothing worth watching, or that hasn't already been seen 50 times, elsewhere.

Different people like different things.

Seagull on the wing · Jul 7, 2015

I think it is a good idea to have free TV licences for 75+ (well I would being over 75),but I do think it should be means tested,there are many wealthy
pensioners who could afford it,butr there are some that live on the state pension

seagullsovergrimsby · Jul 7, 2015

Seagull on the wing said:
I think it is a good idea to have free TV licences for 75+ (well I would being over 75),but I do think it should be means tested,there are many wealthy
pensioners who could afford it,butr there are some that live on the state pension

There is also the loophole that a household can make a declaration that a over 75 resides there even though two or three generations live in the same dwelling. I wonder if the legislation will be altered so that to qualify for a free TV licence based on age everyone in the household will have to be over 75.

Gullflyinghigh · Jul 7, 2015

Seagull on the wing said:
I think it is a good idea to have free TV licences for 75+ (well I would being over 75),but I do think it should be means tested,there are many wealthy
pensioners who could afford it,butr there are some that live on the state pension

That sounds pretty reasonable to me, I know a number of pensioners and there's a huge variance in the amount of income/money they all have.

Some are better off than I'm likely to ever be whereas others just scrape by....weirdly, it's the ones that have the least that expect/want the least help. Very odd.

sten_super · Jul 7, 2015

seagullsovergrimsby said:
There is also the loophole that a household can make a declaration that a over 75 resides there even though two or three generations live in the same dwelling. I wonder if the legislation will be altered so that to qualify for a free TV licence based on age everyone in the household will have to be over 75.

On the (BBC) news last night they were saying that the BBC will 'take ownership' of the free licenses for over 75s at a certain point (2019?). Then they can alter the policy however they see fit, including means testing it or removing it altogether. So the Government is washing their hands of it and will then be able to blame the BBC when they want to means-test it due to it becoming ever-more expensive (as it will).

I'm quite surprised there's not been a bigger fuss about this - even if it is revenue-neutral for the BBC, it's yet another example of the government refusing to introduce austerity on pensioners (maintaining the free licenses) while making the younger population pay (through legislation allowing the BBC to charge for iPlayer).

synavm · Jul 7, 2015

For me it should be black and white- no license fee at all or license fee at a flat rate for everyone- whether public service television is a good or bad thing is a seperate argument. A TV is a luxury, it's not like shelter, food, water, warmth etc. Of course, the Tories will pander to pensioners because that is the age group that elected them.

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