You need a license to watch TV in UK?!

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Out(sic) TV programming IS superior.

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There are individual programs that are. On the whole, though I disagree. Many of our shows are clearly there just to sell products ,so that entire episodes are just time in which to stick commercials separated by crap.

ALL news shows are geared to please, (or at least not piss off) their bases

Many , may US shows no longer concentrate on anything nearing quality .. For every Fargo, theres about 10 "ALIEN ADVENTURES". PS If you look at the really good nature shows (Soma my favorites), They are mostly BBC, Canadian, or NEW ZEALAND origin and production.

Most of our shows are geared to kids and hillbillies

McGentrix loves to poke people in the eye and then innocently say that its to sate his "personal curiosity".

perhaps you should try that bullshit on someone who gives a **** about your whining.

I find it interesting.

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I find it interesting.

License fees are indeed interesting, in that they can make for better quality TV than just commercial incentives can create.

Why is this important?

There's been considerable public dissatisfaction for quite some time:
- 70% stated that the BBC licence fee should be abolished or cut according to an ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph in 2013.
- The Magistrates' Association has been calling for the decriminalisation of TV licence evasion for nearly 20 years, concerned that evaders are punished disproportionately.
- Up to 50 MP's demanded recently an urgent Government review of BBC funding

I resent having to pay for the BBC for the following reasons:

Unique funding or daylight robbery?
- The BBC has long advertised with phrases such as "thanks to the unique way the BBC is funded" however should that unique way been seen as a positive. Surely it is questionable that a non-government entity should be entirely funded by tax that they are independently allowed to, first, claim and, second, collect.
- The licence fee forces people to pay for self-funded services, such as itv, channel 4 and so on.

Heavy-handed bullying:
- Its business model relies upon fear of criminal sanctions to achieve success: you cannot go to prison for non-payment of your licence fee, but you can be jailed for not paying a fine.
- The BBC sent 52.8 million letters last year chasing evaders. These letters were followed with around 3.8 million visits by TV licence officer.
- More than 3,000 a week appeared before the Magistrates Courts in 2012, accused of watching television without a valid licence.
- Licence fee evasion makes up around one ninth of all cases prosecuted in magistrate courts.
- Of the 204,018 prosecution (or out of court disposal) in 2014, a staggering 24,025 were unsuccessful.
- in 2014, 39 people were imprisoned in England and Wales, for an average of 20 days each.

Burden on the poor:
- The licence fee represents a much higher proportion of income for poor households
- According to a National Audit Office report from 2002: "Areas with high evasion rates are most likely to have a higher than average proportion of younger people, low income households, and students and single parent families, and a high level of County Court judgments 50 per cent above the national average".
- by forbidding all TV programs to non-licence payers, it prevents poor people to enjoy a hobby that's virtually free or it criminalises them, in particular women with children living on welfare.

The licence fee gives an unfair advantage to one broadcaster:
- Itv has a total external revenue of £2,590 million
- Channel 4's total revenue is £908 million a year.
- UKTV (owning Dave, yesterday, etc) had £265 million in revenue.
- In comparison, the BBC has a total income of £5.066 billion of which £3.726 bn comes from licence fees.

Outdated system:
- The BBC has been funded by the licence fee since 1923.
- The current TV licence fee started in 1946
- TV licence might have been relevant when TV was in its infancy. Nowadays, it's not. Many channels offer quality programs funded by advertising.

How it works:
- The licence fee is classified as a tax since In January 2006.
- It cost each house with a TV the sum of 40p a day. In context of austerity, this is actually quite a lot.
- The Licence fee has been frozen at its 2010 level of £145.50 until 31st March 2017
- Free TV licences are available for households with a member aged over 75 and are Licences are half price for the legally blind. Those aged over 60 and in residential care homes can get Accommodation for Residential Care licences for £7.50 a year.

It doesn't have to be this way:
- Canada, United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Monaco and Spain don't have TV licence fees. Presumably its national TV is paid by taxes, in which case it's paid proportionally to each individual's income.

A need of control has been expressed many times:
A BBC funded by the public needs a democratic mandate, not just the votes of a few people who enjoy nature programmes.

Bias:
The nature of the licence fee as a tax could lead to the BBC being manipulated by the government in power with the threat of withholding funds if information damaging to that government was made public. Evidence of this kind of manipulation has already been seen in the run up to the 2015 election and the proposed leader's debates.

Papers have hinted that "thousands of Top Gear fans who signed a petition demanding Jeremy Clarkson be reinstated are now threatening not to pay their TV licence fee in protest." I am one of them.
I think it's particularly relevant to address this now as this issue needs to be debated by the government before 2017, but more so because of the "Fracas", which brings the BBC's responsibility towards the general public to the forefront.

MORE than 100,000 people have signed a petition to abolish the BBC’s controversial licence fee – initiating a debate in Parliament later this year.
On Thursday morning, 109,751 signatures had signed the petition, forcing Parliament to announce their intentions to debate the fee on May 8 later this year.

The furious fee-payers claim it is “expensive enough” to own a television without worrying about the payments which are not a “legal requirement”.
Their statement on the petition's website said: “I believe the TV licence should be abolished, removed and not a legal requirement. It should be included through your provider for free. TV is expensive enough without the added extra worry of £130+ A year.”

In a quick response to the petition passing the 100,000 mark an official statement from the Government read: “Throughout the Charter Review, the Government considered the question of funding the BBC’s services, and decided that the licence fee system will be maintained for the coming Charter period.

“In maintaining the licence fee model, the Government is clear that the licence fee remains a licence to watch or receive television programmes, and is not a fee for BBC services – although licence fee revenue is used to fund the BBC and other public service objectives.”

But hidden within the lengthy statement, the Government said the fee, which has been frozen since 2010, is set to rise “with inflation for the next five years”.

The MPs debate on the fee comes a week after it was revealed that the BBC were considering tactics to pressure the elderly to “voluntarily” towards their free licence fee.

Speaking at the Media and Telecoms 2017 Conference, deputy director general Anne Bulford said “voluntary” payments were an option under consideration.

Andrew Allison, head of campaigns for The Freedom Association which runs the "Axe the TV Tax" campaign, said: “Although a debate in Parliament on the future of the licence fee is welcome as it keeps the issue alive, it won’t make any practical difference. The Government has already agreed a new Royal Charter with the BBC.

“What will be interesting, though, is to find out how many of the current crop of MPs are opposed to it. We hope to work with them to make sure at the end of this Charter period, the telly tax becomes a relic of the past.”

An online petition calling for Donald Trump to be prevented from making an official state visit to the UK has passed 1m signatures.

The petition, on the government’s official petitions site, which at one point was being signed by more than a thousand people a minute, quickly reached the 100,000 signatures needed to be considered for a debate in parliament.

Then there was The Tube that brought lots of struggling musicians to the public's attention.

However, they would scream blue murder if they lost the things that their taxes pay for.

What is more important is the huge amount of Americans opposed to America's current gun laws whose wishes are overridden by lobbyists working for arms manufacturers and the NRA. Now that really is an affront to democracy.

You and oralloy sound like zealots when you guys define what "MUST" happen before you can enjoy "FREEDOMS", or, on the contrary, WHO are "anti freedom supporters".