No surprise the BBC favours this….From the Independent:
End of the licence fee: BBC to back radical overhaul of how it is funded
The BBC will back a radical overhaul of the licence fee, paving the way for the end of the current system of funding the state broadcaster, the Corporation’s head, Tony Hall, is expected to say today.
In a speech to staff at Broadcasting House, Lord Hall is expected to indicate the Corporation’s backing for a broadcasting levy that would apply to every household, regardless of whether they have a television.
Last week the parliamentary Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the £145.50 annual licence fee should ultimately be replaced by a German-style “broadcasting levy” that would apply to every household. The change would allow the BBC to collect funds from the estimated 500,000 households which claim not to have a television or only watch programmes on-demand through platforms like the BBC iPlayer.
However MPs believe the earliest that a levy could be introduced in the UK would be 2026.
The system, introduced in Germany in 2013, would do away with the need to detect and prosecute those who avoid buying a TV licence. It is estimated that licence-fee collection costs £120m, with the BBC losing £250m to those who evade paying the charge.
Not a bad little earner….500,000 new ‘subscribers’ providing £73 million…plus £120 million not spent on collection costs, plus £250 million it claims it now loses from evasion….nearly half a billion extra in the BBC kitty all paying for….
“….a strong BBC helping bind the country together at home and championing it abroad. A British creative beacon to the world. Providing a universal service for a universal fee. An internet-first BBC which belongs to everyone.”
A household levy would future-proof the BBC since it reaffirms the concept that its contribution to public service broadcasting ought to be funded by a universal tax.
A BBC that ‘binds the country together’? Or a BBC intent on tearing it apart…remember this is the BBC that tells you there is no such thing as an English identity.
As for its ‘contribution to public service’…this is the BBC that has totally corrupted politics in this country and is working to gerrymander the general election in favour of one political party.
Robin Aitken has his own views on the BBC’s merits…
Why the BBC doesn’t deserve to have the licence fee increased
Among the BBC top brass there is a perennial anxiety about a perceived threat to its funding. And who could blame them? Consider this: unlike any of its media competitors the BBC is able – give or take a few million – to predict what its income will be next year and the year after that. Now think how much of an advantage that gives the Corporation. While other broadcasters, and all newspapers, must fight tooth and nail to maintain an income stream, BBC strategists can plan their future operations at leisure. That hefty wad of banknotes comfortably insulates them from immediate financial worries and allows them to plough money into new ventures where start-up costs can be intimidating for competitors. It is why the BBC has been able to develop its world-class website: the Corporation threw money at it until it worked properly with the result that it is now a global leader in online news.
So no wonder the BBC takes any threat to cut down the licence fee money tree seriously. Their salaries – and the status and success of the Corporation – depend on its continuation.
If – God-willing – there is a Conservative government next year when the BBC’s Royal Charter comes up for renewal, a bargain could be struck. The licence fee could be maintained – but not increased (it will be salutary for the Corporation to live within its means).
In return the BBC should renew its vows to impartiality; no more fixing the agenda to suit the Left; no more old pals appointments like that of Director of Strategy James Purnell (ex Labour minister); no more left-wing rants masquerading as ‘comedy’ (viz The News Quiz). A BBC fair to all, one we can all be proud of.
Well…. we can but hope.
very clever and quiet sneaky move by the bbc,they intend to take this fee out of are council tax where we have no choice to pay up or else we end up in court facing a prison sentence if we dont pay up.so i guess that means we will end up paying about an extra £3 a week on are council tax whether we have a tv or not. so, this in effect is like a double whammy of a tax rise on us with are local councils being handed over the job as the bbc tv license enforcers.
From a technical standpoint, the BBC could easily restrict easily restrict access to its web pages and charge for content. The fact that it does not is therefore no excuse to introduce a broadcasting poll tax. It is hard to think of anything more anti-democratic than this, and therefore no surprise that the BBC wants it. Why do we even need a state broadcaster anyway?
It’s a disgrace. All money to this foul organisation should stopped. it should fund itself.
So the politicians have caved in to the BBC. Where are the politicians who could tell the BBC to fund themselves? The BBC should be broken up, privatised, and the bulk of its current broadcasting material should be funded by what the BBC describe as the Asian community which in reality is the Moslem community.
And Lord Hall will suggest they should start by charging people who only use catch up.Talk about an air of entitlement.
Just heard Nick Ferrarri rubbishing the idea of a levy but the person he was discussing with repeated the myth that BBC is wonderful and does a public service blah blah blah !
i pay enough in council tax and don’t want to fund the BBC through the back door.if I must pay I want to be reminded I am funding an ideology I don’t subscribe to.
In New Zealand they got rid of it by people power ,people got together refused to pay and they couldn’t prosecute everyone..
Of course in this country community and family is decimated by left wing social policy so not much chance of thet happening here.
Did anyone hear Today being critical of Islamic jihad apologists CAGE this morning?
Breathtaking hypocrisy. BBC News online’s main coverage of the Jihadi John story over the weekend was entirely and uncritically built around quotes and information from CAGE.
The BBC’s main theme was that this “person” who butchered kneeling prisoners on camera and boasted about it, was the real victim, a great bloke and led astray by M15 who dared to question him about his earlier jihadist tendencies.
This was the BBC online news, lead article on this story!
I was so appalled I saved a copy of the article. I could hardly believe my eyes at the level of unambiguous BBC support for this symbol of jihadi barbarism and the BBC’s appeasement of Islamonazism.
Something is gravely wrong with the BBC.
They are being eviscerated on Facebook again for this bizarre adulation excused as reporting.
Via the now all too familiar medium of one degree of separation “quotes” he seems to be a misunderstood sweetheart, model employee and loves cats.
With a bit of head choppin’ on da side, innit?
The girls at the BBC are clearly smitten as he’s clearly a bit hot. Some of their women, too.
True. It’s a game played by the BBC and those who have views the BBC wishes to promote.
This is how it’s played;
1. Set up a “pressure group”.
2. Issue a press release or a “new report” warning about the a “crisis” due to global warming, or private business, or Islamophobia, or Israel, or cuts to the public sector etc etc…
3. The BBC will run your “story” and promote it.
4. The BBC will contact you and invite you to comment on a range of other stories for years to come, thus turning you into a highly respected “expert”.
If you eventually get found out and exposed as a radical Islamofacist who supports jihad, the BBC can pretend to be surprised… And then start the game again with a different pressure group.
4. The BBC will contact you and invite you to comment on a range of other stories for years to come, thus turning you into a highly respected “expert”.
Better not leave anything to chance; the Beeb will train you to sound like an oracle:
Following the significant success of its Expert Women training days, the BBC it is to launch two ‘BAME Expert Presenter Talent Days’ – one in London and one in Salford.
BBC launches BAME Expert Presenter Days
“girls” = “gay men” Genius, Guest Who!
…………..Jihadi Mohammed.
The BBC’s reaction to the BBC being handed more money and even less incentive to be accountable is not really surprising.
Maybe a bit more light needs casting on politicians who seem in its thrall and moving heaven and earth to ensure their unique funding gets even more unique?
How exactly would this “household levy” be collected? If it’s with the Council tax, what about those currently exempt from paying Council Tax?
It sounds not dissimilar to the “poll tax”. Remind me again how that went down.
“…A BBC “reduced in impact and reach” will leave Britain “diminished”, the BBC’s director general will warn later. In a speech at New Broadcasting House in London, Tony Hall will say “a sleep-walk into decay for the BBC” would mean “a UK dominated by global gatekeepers and American tastemakers”.
…As opposed by a UK dominated by a thieving, dissembling, monopolistic left wing propaganda wing of Common Purpose, the EU and assorted other bottom-feeders?
Oh, Mr Hall, methinks thou dost protest too much.
The only thing it will leave diminished is the power of the gigantic, publicly funded, unaccountable BBC.
Selfish, vested interest cynically masquerading as the public good.
God rot the BBC.
It is with a great deal of reluctance that I have come to the view that those folks who post here regularly that the Tories, well Cameron and his clan at any rate, and Labour, have very similar agendas when it comes to the really crucial issues like Immigration, English Parliament and Europe, are correct in their view. Consequently the Tories let the leftist bias of the BBC continue and are indeed planning to allow it to grow its income stream and no doubt its anti democratic leftist clap trap.
The liberal left orthodoxy is everywhere , even UKIP , bend the knee to it on a host of issues. There is no longer any viable right of centre alternative in the UK. UKIP will do well to get into double figures for MPs. Lady Thatcher was the last of this dead breed. There is no doubt in my mind that she missed a trick in not ridding the country of the BBC. In my book the collapse of the centre right in the UK is largely attributable to the leftist stance of the BBC since the 80’s. For thirty years it has pumped out overt and covert ‘liberal left good, centre right bad’ propaganda and has succeeded in moving the attitude of ordinary folk well to the left of where it was. They will call this progress! I call it the Road to Perdition. Critically, the BBC has succeeded in at least neutering the country’s common sense aversion to mass immigration and all the evils that come with it.
With no alternative to the liberal left available to us where will we end up? Almost certainly somewhere were I and many others don’t want to be but we have no one to speak for us and can be safely ignored.
Well said, there is a certain poster here would continually repeats the vote UKIP get Labour mantra – whats the bloody difference?
UKIP have to walk a very thin line and in my opinion they have to get the minimal exposure that they achieve, I don’t believe they do it by conviction, such inclusiveness has bitten them on the ass more than once.
I’m a little more optimistic that UKIP will do better that the polls predict, I suspect that the canvassers from all party’s are aware that the reaction on the doorstep is more pro UKIP than the MSM/polls would admit, Farage himself said over the weekend that he thought UKIP would gain enough seats to force an EU referendum. The constant anti UKIP propaganda would also suggest that other party’s are getting the same message from more accurate polls and door knocking.
I believe the bias and diversity started far earlier than the 80’s, remember Mary Whitehouse? although the first time I sat up and took notice was Nationwide, Mrs T and the Belgrano.
I am looking forward to living under the Millipeed /SNP jackboot , just like the kippers want & will get . But unlike you ,I will be off to France , then Oz . Enjoy the 5 years of hell , you will all get. Don`t say I did not warn you what will happen . Enjoy .
Rather live under the Jackboot than the jacklessboot of islamophiliac Cameron
The Baroness is gone, but not forgotten:
David Cameron is urged by senior Conservatives today to drop the target of reducing annual net immigration to below 100,000 as the scale of internal division over the policy is revealed.
Ken Clarke, a former home secretary, said that the prime minister’s “no ifs, no buts” pledge had been a mistake, and Baroness Warsi, the former Tory party chairwoman, said that a repeat of the “unrealistic target” would set the party up for another failure.
Scrap ‘unrealistic’ immigration target, No 10 told
Can you go before the GE -one less vote for the Lib-Con Jack boot
You Know ,this one
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/02/27/christian-school-where-ofsted-branded-pupils-bigots-will-close-education-secretary-confirms/
But thats right your not realy interested in principle are you?
A Wallace and SNP government will quickly reduce the country to its knees, the problems caused by the one eyed jock will quickly return and we will be over the edge into free fall. Enjoy Aus, give a big wet kiss to the beebs Gaza ape on his holiday assignment. When, if you come back you will see it’s changed a bit, immigration to new heights, economy flat lined, Islamic take over of many councils, Scotland gone it own way, the rest of us still picking up the tab for them though, oh and the beeb will be paid for on the rates, TTFN !
The message that should be hammered home in the next couple of months is to vote tactically. In Tory marginals vote Conservative; in Labour majority seats Tories should vote UKIP; in Labour marginals vote the second party whoever that may be. We cannot afford another 5 years of socialism and it would give us the opportunity to pressurise the Tories to go back to their roots. It’s called a risk assessment – the least worst option
Naaah, if we vote Tory ,we get LibLabCon , same as usual.
Vote UKIP and break the cycle.
We might get Millipeed and his crypto-commy bunch , but at least the Tories might become proper C onservatives again.
And they might realise they HAVE to break up and privatise the B BC .
And the people might get a mouthpiece in a few UKIP M Ps.
It started when she came in 79 but took off in the war, on the Task Forces way down all the leftie doomsayers were given free reign to spout about peace, and the rightness of the Argies cause. It continued with every news broadcast spouting the latest crazy Argie claims for ships sunk and planes shot down treated as gospel never mind the feelings of those at home. The hatred of the British cause took off with the sinking of the old but dangerous Cruiser. After the war ended they treated Mrs T as beyond the pale, she had done the worst thing possible in their eyes, supported British flesh and blood against a bunch of Nazis and won. All the leftie mob were proved wrong, Benn, Foot, the TUC, the Guardian, and most of all themselves. They hated her, the forces, and the common people who welcomed them home ever since.
I was wondering Is human flesh Halal?
Time to exterminate those ISIS savages once and for all. Compared to them, Saruman’s Uruk-Hai out of Lord of the Rings were a bunch of Comic Relief volunteers.
Well, when ‘our girls’, or the ‘young women’ (depending on their voting intentions) score canteen duty they shall not want for recipe ideas.
To be fair this latest they will not be aware of until arriving, but they will of course know all about other dishes, thanks to the BBC’s quest to educate and inform.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23190533
‘Snog, Marry, Whip up a nice side of Fava beans’ guest WLTM stocky, tough-looking 27yo Bedouins from the Baba Amr district of Homs, with a wild stare and skin burned a dark brown by the sun… Sounds like a lorra laffs, Cilla.
… when ‘our girls’, or the ‘young women’ (depending on their voting intentions)…
There’s a lot more flexibility these days; on the story about Cameron building houses for under-forty-year olds, Norman Smith explained that ‘youngsters’ find it hard….
Good God…..Pleased I didn’t see it..
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/03/02/bbc-blasted-for-pro-eu-propaganda-film-questions-raised-about-funding/
‘A BBC Spokesman said: “No EU money was used in the making of the programme being aired on the BBC. Impartiality is of paramount importance for the BBC.’
It was and is a bit of a red herring. Clearly EU money did contribute as the EU puts money into the BBC and vast numbers of BBC staff were involved in this piece from commissioning to promoting to airing. If EU money was directly injected vs. easing burdens elsewhere it just gets to be a worse conflict of interest than exists already. Finding out would be fun. I wonder if the spokesperson said this secure that the ever-transparent BBC can blow off any attempt at checking, as they are wont to do, on the basis of BBC integrity being above challenge. Are they all Lords now?
“This fictional programme reflects the author’s vision. BBC editorial guidelines do not prevent the acquisition of independent programmes which approach subjects from a particular perspective.”
It has of course been pointed out this semantic weasel is pure bollocks. And no excuse. But we’ll simply wait and see what ‘author visions’ get described by the BBC as legitimate documentary, especially when in guise of an approach from a particular perspective. Or which not.
Especially if the direction of origin is one from which ‘news’ often originates too, vs. ‘not news’ (c) A. newsroom Tealady.
It is the combination of the TV media ,the education system and pop culture that has lead to the takeover of the UK by the progressive left who have controlled all 3 for decades.What i resent is that there are no mainstream alternatives unlike the USA with Fox News .Anybody who thinks Sky News is anyless progressive left than the BBC is mistaken.There are niche TV channel alternatives notably the far right Christian channels and the mostly far left RT tv channel
My old man used to say the rot set in with the Beatles, used to laugh and talk him down, not so sure now.
Looking at old film of pre 1963 Britain, it was still culturally ‘old Britain’ but by time we hit the end of the decade, Britain was weird and ‘way out man’. It had changed a lot in those 6 years under Mr Wilson, not for the better.
Scary thought, UKIP aside, one would have to be at least 46 today to have ever had the opportunity to vote for a right of center Prime minister.
Of course, in their own perceived self interests, Beeboids would cut Defence spending, but increase BBC licence fee.
“Foreign aid budget to outstrip defence by 2031 if spending changes continue under successive governments”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2976713/Foreign-aid-budget-outstrip-defence-2031-spending-changes-continue-successive-governments.html#ixzz3TKDj08BG
‘Come on please: another ten years of the BBC licence fee; and that will see me out,
before I get my big juicy pension.’
‘Daily Mail’-
“The licence fee is not dead, BBC boss insists:
“Director-general on collision course with MPs over comments.
“Lord Hall believes the licence fee ‘has got at least ten years in it.’
“He said even if the fee is axed, it should be replaced by a charge.
“Follows critique from MPs that the charge is ‘anachronistic.’”
By KATHERINE RUSHTON and SAM CREIGHTON
FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2976674/The-licence-fee-not-dead-BBC-boss-insists-Director-general-collision-course-MPs-comments.html#ixzz3TKFB7TCb
Surely the Beeb could just go pay per view.
I don’t have a tv, but a few years ago I bought a tv as a present for my mother and paid for it on my credit card. Clearly the shop tipped the Beeb or their collection agency off. A week or two later I got a letter saying that they knew I had bought a tv, that I didn’t have a licence and asking for an explanation. I was gobsmacked, thought it was a damned impertinence and I just ignored it. Now the tv I bought at my mother’s place still works, but for a month or two she hasn’t been able to get BBC programmes on it, neither tv nor radio. They must be being blocked electronically.
Has anybody else heard of anything like this happening?
In any event, it demonstrates that they don’t need a Council Tax levy to fund themselves. They can either accept advertising or go down the pay-per-view route.