Why Do We Bother With A TV Licence

I enjoyed that last night, MayBee70.

I’d like to add to the praise for the BBC’s children’s services. Ceebeebies and CBBC offer great programmes, often educational, and a world away from the pointless pap some of the streaming services promote, peppered by pushy adverts for trashy toys and junk food.

Operation Mincemeat is on BBC2 tonight. I’ve wanted to see it for ages so am looking forward to watching it ad free tomorrow. I was going to buy the dvd.

I am a bbc fan too and want to mention the world service which brings the UK to world attention, and probably why English is spoken so widely throughout the world.

I would pay £179 a year for iplayer, the website and the radio alone. Noads and the best educational and documentary resource on the planet.

I can’t read much now (bad eyes) so I’m watching more stuff on my iPad. I can’t stand constant advertisements so it’s mostly BBC’s iPlayer.
I too enjoyed Mog’s Christmas and Stick Man but have also watched all the Traitors and look forward to the new series.
I’m not typical in that I never watch drama or films except the excellent BBC classics. I have no TV but still have to pay for a licence and it’s well worth the cost for all this plus BBC radio.

keepingquiet

fancythat

You can pay to get rid of ad vertisments.

But why? When I already pay my TV license- it makes no sense to me how much people are willing to pay for streaming etc but resent paying the TV license?

Can someone explain this please?

I do have the license.
But think it is @worth@ #30
[some of my keyboard is wrong at present!]

Happy to pay #75 or whatever it is to skip adverts
a. hate them
b. as much a matter of time[i have other things i want to do with time].

Yes I think it did.
And I have a friend who thinks it is great for kids tv.

fancythat

Luckygirl3

We bother with a TV licence because the BBC is a gem and to be treasured. We lose it at our peril.........

Says who to all of that?!

But the childrens' tv may not be too bad[dont watch enough of that to know.

The BBC helped greatly with children’s education during the pandemic I believe?

fancythat

You can pay to get rid of ad vertisments.

But why? When I already pay my TV license- it makes no sense to me how much people are willing to pay for streaming etc but resent paying the TV license?

Can someone explain this please?

If there’s nothing on and you don’t watch live tv or iplayer then cancel your licence.

livelylady

BBC losing rights to broadcast Wimbeldon from 2027. If this happens I will be stopping my license fee.

It's all gone downhill since Sue Barker retired. ☹

BBC losing rights to broadcast Wimbeldon from 2027. If this happens I will be stopping my license fee.

You can pay to get rid of ad vertisments.

REKA

The BBC will cease to exist sooner or later. Streaming has taken over. I'm struggling to think of anything we watch.

Ah, Wimbledon. And that's about it

Oh, you must just love all those advertisements on the 'reality' channels?

Luckygirl3

We bother with a TV licence because the BBC is a gem and to be treasured. We lose it at our peril.........

Says who to all of that?!

But the childrens' tv may not be too bad[dont watch enough of that to know.

Oh, hang on, I’d forgotten about Netflix’s Bridgerton and Adolescence. So I’ve obviously seen more on Netflix than I remembered. Still watch a lot more on the BBC though.

The Biased Broadcasting Corporation

Yes, I think most of us, whatever our views, think the Beeb is biased against them. Which probably shows that they’re getting it right.

I’ve no complaints. We don’t consciously tune in to the BBC above all others, but when I look at our normal viewing, we’d hardly watch anything if we didn’t have it (though I will admit to being a loyal Corrie fan ). Thinking of what we saw yesterday, it was Only Connect, University Challenge, The Traitors and The Night Manager, all excellent. Match of the Day for DH. Oh, and The Traitors at the Proms, which was even better. And we had Radios 2 and 4 on for much of the day. We have the basic Netflix subscription, but rarely use it - the last things I watched were the Crown and One Day. As for Prime, I’ve had the membership for years for the other benefits, and can’t remember ever watching anything on it.

Allsorts

I would hate for the BBC to go, particularly their news coverage, so although tv is rubbish I do love the radio and some catch up

The Biased Broadcasting Corporation. 🤣

Crossstitchfan, I have watched several old films over the last few weeks and loved them - It's a Wonderful Life, Some Like it Hot, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Miracle on 34th Street... all classics in my view.
The GC watched Miracle on 34th Street for the first time and enjoyed it very much.

Luckygirl3

We bother with a TV licence because the BBC is a gem and to be treasured. We lose it at our peril.........

Hear hear luckygirl

More radio than tv for me, though the Traitors alone is worth the fee!

I have access to Netflix through my son’s subscription but there is very little I fancy watching. Most of my TV viewing is from BBC I player . I listen to BBC radio every day . I think my TV licence is great value .

keepingquiet

My main go to channels are Sky Arts, Channel 4 and rarely ITV.

Riding above all this though, are the BBC channels 1, 2 and 4- only when I have exhausted everything I want to watch on the BBC channels do I look elsewhere.

I hate the ads.

I love the value the license fee still gives. When I visit my daughter I have to watch Netflix because they pay for it. I don't know why because its rubbish.

How can you say that Netflix is rubbish when there are so many films and series on there?
We’ve just been watching Foyles War, an old series but a good one and you can fast forward through any ads.
There’s something for everyone and both lots of new and old things to watch.

We bother with a TV licence because the BBC is a gem and to be treasured. We lose it at our peril.........

I suppose it depends how you watch TV. I tend to plan ahead rather than just switch on and hope there’s something that appeals.

Five years ago, when I first bought a smart TV after watching on a non-smart TV through Sky satellite for 20 years, I subscribed to several apps. The combined cost was around the same as I had been paying for the Sky entertainment package. I soon realised that, apart from a limited amount of original or exclusive content, they were all showing the same things. One-by-one, I cancelled.

Tastes vary but Netflix has little to attract me for long. The standard ad free version now costs £12.99 a month, £156 a year compared to a TV licence costing £174.50 which gives access to the BBC as well as free-to-air and live paid channels.

Nowadays, I read media reviews and make a list of content that I would like to watch on subscription services. Once there is enough on one service to warrant a month’s subscription, I sign up again. For example, over the holidays, I wanted to watch Mick Herron’s Down Cemetery Road and Vince Gilligan’s Pluribus plus one or two other things on Apple TV so I bought a month’s subscription for £10.

I do the same with Disney, Netflix and Now, dip in for a month at a time. If you shop around you can often find a voucher code for a discounted price.

The only regular subs I have are for Channel 4 as I like the international drama from Walter Presents which tend not to be in the main schedules. I want to watch without intrusive adverts every ten minutes. I also have an annual sub to BFI as I like independent smaller budget films as well as the international content there. Both cost a £1 a week.

As it can now cost up to £20 to go to the cinema, even with an age concession, I think that’s good value especially as many of the films I like don’t have a general release outside London if at all.

I used to be a regular cinema goer but lockdown forced me out of the habit. It made me realise that I am happy to wait a few months for a new film to arrive on a streaming service for a fraction of the price.

The BBC archive, especially since ITV bought out Britbox, is increasingly extensive. Again, tastes vary but I would be surprised if someone couldn’t find much to watch there. There are hundreds of TV programmes listed on the A-Z. The radio archive is even more extensive.

Other than that, I keep an eye on the free-to-air channels and set the Humax box to record anything that I want to see so I can fast forward through the adverts.

I enjoy vintage content so Talking Pictures TV on channel 82 is a favourite. I also watch a lot of content on Sky Arts channel 36.

Generally, the kind of new content I like is spread across several different services. It’s just different now to how things were 25 years ago before satellite TV and now digital.

I figure I spend around £300 a year altogether (licence plus annual and dip in and out subs). Less than £1 a day to have a wealth of content at my fingertips. I struggle to think of anything else that offers such good value.