Brits who just stream Netflix and Amazon Prime may still need to buy TV licence
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/netflix-bbc-licence-fee-tv-37142727?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target
Posted by neo4025
32 Comments
Not gonna click on The Mirror but I’m guessing it’s for people who watch live events via Netflix/Prime?
Edit: I’m wrong. Wow so it’s not clickbait for once.
This would be a great way of completely destroying the BBCs remaining reputation.
I wonder how effective it would even be. If people are claiming not to have a TV, can’t they just claim not to have netflix?
I have amazon prime for deliveries, never for the video stuff. Does that still count?
Is the BBC going to be given access to my bank records and browsing history to prove my innocence?
Will this just add yet another round of ammo against VPNs to the government’s slow march against privacy?
Abolish the TV licence and just move it to general taxation.
This was regarded as unenforceable the last time they asked for it, so I can’t see it being any different now.
I’d sooner bird watch than pay the licence fee so I’ll cancel everything, fuck em.
Still wouldn’t pay for it if it was ‘needed’ to stream shows. Maybe they should try improving the service first so more people want to pay for it instead of trying to force people to pay for it when it’s not used.
Expecting us to pay them for someone elses content is ludicrous. Shall we start paying asda a fee everytime we shop in tesco too?
If this was to happen, i guess I’ll just have to dust off my eye patch, parrot, and cutlass… i can be a crook too.
What is the reasoning behind paying BBC for something that they have nothing to do with?
It’s basically like paying for a gym membership just because you are walking past the building on a way to a bus stop.
I still won’t pay it, but I do wonder if this will ever actually happen. Netflix and Amazon will not like this and they’re big enough to make the government fold on this.
Basically what they are saying is that BBC is such a shite that it needs all the people who uses other platforms to subsidise it.
Frankly this would be the final nail in the coffin for me watching TV/using streaming services.
There is zero chance i will ever pay for a TV license – Send me all the threatening firestarters you want.
This will drive those capable into Pirating, Plex servers, or just taking the chance and doing it illegally anyway.
Just out of principle, this would cause me to cancel all my subscriptions and move back to piracy.
Not to give them ideas but… since 2016, the TV license in Italy (canone RAI) has been collected through people’s electricity bills. You have electricity? You pay for it. Evasion problem solved.
Then they’d have to change the actual law. Currently it says any LIVE broadcast.
> buy TV licence
not on your nelly
if it was a public broadcaster objectively reporting facts, then yeah
but a state broadcaster should be funded directly by the state
Okay, how about this, let the BBC rot? If anybody want’s it they can choose to pay for their services? Like every other normal product or service?
Meanwhile Netflix pays almost no corporate tax in the UK. If only we closed corporate tax loopholes.
Why are people being forced to pay for this?
It’s forcing people to buy something they don’t want.
Not a chance, absolute bullshit fee. Fuck them and their harrassment letters / goons.
Can the government please step in and scrap the licence and make the bbc make their own money. Why should I have to pay a license fee to watch tv when I don’t watch any bbc content?
Wow. Charge you to just turn on your TV. When you already pay for the TV itself, the electricity to power it and the streaming service you’re using.
Get TF BBC!
Edit: I don’t want the Beeb to collapse but it’s not worth it for me. Make it worth it and I’ll pay.
People can’t afford to pay x million subscriptions for everything – that’s why they choose and BBC loses out.
Welp, I got news for them, haven’t used a streaming service in years 🏴☠️
Soon I’ll be taxed for watching flipping instagram reels
How about cutting costs first? Like any of the 5000 bloody podcasts, as if the world doesn’t have enough of them.
Maybe they could introduce a bill that requires anyone broadcasting in the UK to pay towards funding the BBC/local news broadcasting via their subscription fees.
Eg Pay a Disney+ subscription and a percentage of that subscription goes towards TV licensing, that way the more subscriptions you have the more you pay towards TV licensing
The the BBC splitting its channels between free and subscription being another option. BBC 1 and 2 being free but the rest under a direct subscription fee. The free to air content of the BBC has a huge amount of what I’d call fluff, it’s in the BBC’s interest to make it but its not in the national interest, like news and other educational content. You can’t possibly argue that Strictly is something that *should* be free in the national interest.
> one of the BBC’s greatest strengths is its ability to unite a nation that has increasingly found ways to divide itself,
You have contributed to the division.
Crucially, the BBC is managing its irrelevance and unstoppable decline. Today it’s Netflix, and in the future, it will be reading a book, playing a video game, or even watching a video you made yourself. And all of this will be framed as good for the country. They’ll use tired patriotic tropes, reminding you of “Auntie Beeb,” and appeal to nostalgia by harking back to the days when the BBC was all we knew. Get ready… it’ll be disgusting.
I would cancel any paid subscription services if this happened. I’m not going to effectively double their costs and won’t be using them to incriminate myself.
Make iPlayer available as a subscription service outside of the UK.
It would generate additional funds. Unless the BBC are just being dicks and mad that there are people in the UK that don’t pay TV tax
Mate I’m not gonna subsidise Eastenders just because I watch The Expanse on Amazon.
Fuck off
Considering Amazon Prime TV is automatically added when you take out a prime subscription then I think there’s going to be some legal wranglings.
What if you just buy or rent a TV series or movie?
They haven’t thought about this very carefully