"I don't watch the television; I just use it as a light in the dark."

[barryqwalsh]

Ian Fannon, TV Licensing spokesperson, said: “No matter how creative people get with their excuses, watching or recording live TV without a licence is against the law. In fairness to those who pay the fee, we will prosecute those who try to avoid it, including the likes of the gentleman who refused to buy a licence unless we bartered with him. He was found guilty and fined by unimpressed magistrates.

Official TV Licensing website - TV Licensing reveals shocker excuses of the year

One person told TV licensing officials he was the King of Scotland

Animation students in Dundee have brought to life some of the UK's strangest excuses for not having a TV Licence.

The Duncan of Jordanstone students have turned reasons given to TV licensing staff into animations as part of a national competition.

Excuses ranged from claiming the television was a microwave to a man who said he was King of Scotland.

Duncan of Jordanstone is the only Scottish university taking part.

More than 40 excuses films, which can be viewed here, have been submitted from students across the UK.


Licence fee excuses brought to life by animation students - BBC News

 

[waltky]

Must be a British kinda thing.

 

[baileyn45]

Do I understand this correctly? You need to have a license to watch TV?

 

[barryqwalsh]

Do I understand this correctly? You need to have a license to watch TV?

Yes!

You need to be covered by a TV Licence if you watch or record programmes as they're being shown on TV or live on an online TV service. This is the case whether you use a TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone, games console, digital box, DVD/VHS recorder or any other device.

It costs £145.50 for a colour TV Licence and £49.00 for a black and white TV Licence.

Official TV Licensing website - Check

 

[barryqwalsh]

Do I understand this correctly? You need to have a license to watch TV?

Don't worry, when Bernie becomes President, he will introduce one.

 

[baileyn45]

Do I understand this correctly? You need to have a license to watch TV?

Yes!

You need to be covered by a TV Licence if you watch or record programmes as they're being shown on TV or live on an online TV service. This is the case whether you use a TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone, games console, digital box, DVD/VHS recorder or any other device.

It costs £145.50 for a colour TV Licence and £49.00 for a black and white TV Licence.

Official TV Licensing website - Check

Pretty wild, I never heard that one before. I'm curious, would that be like a cable subscription in the US?

 

[barryqwalsh]

Do I understand this correctly? You need to have a license to watch TV?

Yes!

You need to be covered by a TV Licence if you watch or record programmes as they're being shown on TV or live on an online TV service. This is the case whether you use a TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone, games console, digital box, DVD/VHS recorder or any other device.

It costs £145.50 for a colour TV Licence and £49.00 for a black and white TV Licence.

Official TV Licensing website - Check

Pretty wild, I never heard that one before. I'm curious, would that be like a cable subscription in the US?

No, the television licence is just having a television. If you want channels, other than free to air, you need to purchase a subscription package from a provider.

 

[barryqwalsh]

What does your licence fee pay for?
A standard colour TV Licence costs £145.50 – the equivalent of £12.13 per month or just under40p per day.

The fee you pay provides a wide range of TV,radio and online content, as well as developing new ways to deliver it to you. In addition to funding BBC programmes and services, a proportion of the licence fee contributes to the costs of rolling out broadband to the UK population and funding Welsh Language TV channel S4C and local TV channels. This was agreed with the government as part of the 2010 licence fee settlement.

The licence fee allows the BBC's UK services to remain free of advertisements and independent of shareholder and political interest.

We aim to collect the fee efficiently and fairly in order to deliver value for money for licence fee payers. In 1991 collection costs came to 6.2% of the total fee collected. By 2013/14 we had reduced this to 2.7%, allowing more money to go towards new content and services. Find out how the BBC spends the licence fee.

The Government has frozen the licence fee at its 2010 level of £145.50 until 31 March 2017, three months after the current BBC Charter period ends.


How the BBC spent the licence fee in 2013/14

Monthly spend - £12.13 per household

Television: £8.00

Other services and production costs: £0.73

Radio: £2.30

Licence fee collection and other costs: £0.49

Online: £0.61

The licence fee: value for money




Your questions answered.TV Licensing FAQs in one place.


Official TV Licensing website - What does your licence fee pay for?

 

[baileyn45]

What does your licence fee pay for?
A standard colour TV Licence costs £145.50 – the equivalent of £12.13 per month or just under40p per day.

The fee you pay provides a wide range of TV,radio and online content, as well as developing new ways to deliver it to you. In addition to funding BBC programmes and services, a proportion of the licence fee contributes to the costs of rolling out broadband to the UK population and funding Welsh Language TV channel S4C and local TV channels. This was agreed with the government as part of the 2010 licence fee settlement.

The licence fee allows the BBC's UK services to remain free of advertisements and independent of shareholder and political interest.

We aim to collect the fee efficiently and fairly in order to deliver value for money for licence fee payers. In 1991 collection costs came to 6.2% of the total fee collected. By 2013/14 we had reduced this to 2.7%, allowing more money to go towards new content and services. Find out how the BBC spends the licence fee.

The Government has frozen the licence fee at its 2010 level of £145.50 until 31 March 2017, three months after the current BBC Charter period ends.


How the BBC spent the licence fee in 2013/14

Monthly spend - £12.13 per household

Television: £8.00

Other services and production costs: £0.73

Radio: £2.30

Licence fee collection and other costs: £0.49

Online: £0.61

The licence fee: value for money




Your questions answered.TV Licensing FAQs in one place.


Official TV Licensing website - What does your licence fee pay for?

That's kinda what I thought. It would never work in the US, Having the govt involved at any level would automatically ensure political interests would become paramount. Although I like the no commercials idea.

 

[barryqwalsh]

The BBC is a great broadcaster, that the UK is very proud of. Politically, it is required and claims to be, neutral, canvasing opinions across the board. However, many believe and I agree it had a left-wing bias, although it has improved and at least makes some effort to present other points of view. But there is still room for improvement.

 

[baileyn45]

The BBC is a great broadcaster, that the UK is very proud of. Politically, it is required and claims to be, neutral, canvasing opinions across the board. However, many believe and I agree it had a left-wing bias, although it has improved and at least makes some effort to present other points of view. But there is still room for improvement.

I watch a bit off bbc as well and have always been impressed with the quality of programming. I'll agree with the left slant as well. I see the same with National Public Radio in the US. Excellent news reporting, as soon as they interview or provide commentary the bias is obvious to a much larger extent than bbc. It's unfortunate, years ago there was a man named Ray Suarez on NPR(now on PBS nightly business report), the best political interviewer I've ever heard. Extremely knowledgeable and fair. Since he left it's been down hill steadily.