Welsh people who can't speak English? :suspect:

Probably very few these days. But where do they learn it from, sheep? :laugh:

bottom line is we dont ask for their programs so we should not have to pay for them
you have to pay whether you watch the channels or not. thats nothing short of extortion with threats.

its a practice the old kings would do in the 18th century with land owners and the like. when you got 57 channels and 55 of them dont ask for money its mad
value for money , value for money is our civil rights and freedom thats priceless
there is no value in paying bullies bbc- big bully cooperation or big bully c----s lol

It's a licence to watch the telly and listen to the radio. It's not a licence just to watch the BBC.

its a licence to print money to feed rich men.

its the bbc you pay for not the tv or other channels

But it only appears to fund the BBC and its channels/radio stations? If the BBC would just fund itself like other channels have to, then there would be no license fee :S

Everyone pays council tax and VAT.

Absolutely, no matter how people get their money, everyone pays tax in some form.
Although if your circumstances are right you can get full council tax rebate.

This Licence however is taken from all people except the over 75s.
If the BBC was made to be funded other ways then this obscene licence would not be in existence.

Everyone that wants certain channels are happy to pay subscription for that,I have no issue with that, Sky customers have to pay for packages of Channels,it is the BBC that wants to keep this daft licence and is the only real reason we still have it.

Well, not for me,I don't feel in any way the BBC is better a great deal of the time and in fact,I for one, don't even find them as good now as to certain programming.

This attempt to de-criminalise not paying the licence fee would go a good way to perhaps seeing the start of the end for the licence,for me that is a really good thing and way overdue in my view too.

Time the BBC was made to battle for viewers and improve its programming like all other channels and stop having its funding given to it on a plate as it has for far too long now.

The thing is though, engaging in a battle for viewers with itv will not improve its programming. It means more reality shows.

Most of the BBC's good output will start relying on viewing figures and be axed due to their low rating.

but the BBC already has Strictly Come Dancing, and The Voice, which is enough to make anyone want to quit paying the license fee...

let's face it, the BBC puts on a lot of trash, just as trashy as any of the commercial channels, it would be easier to defend them if they had better content...

newsnight, and Question Time are good, everything else is a bit iffy...

the Great British Bake-off is something you'd expect to see on a low end basic cable network here in the US... and the sewing -bee version of it wouldn't even make it to air here, even with 500 channels.

Do you live over here or are you talking about BBC America?

I never said they don't have their share of trash (they have to cater to all audience members after all) but there's a lot of quality shows that don't have to rely on viewing figures to survive that would just be axed completely if the BBC went commercial. BBC4 and all of their documentaries for a start.

Strictly Come Dancing and all that bollocks wouldn't have to worry, they pull in the viewers.

Edit - I see you're continually editing your post, but you're only including random shows that run for a couple of months a year on BBC 1. That's not even scratching the surface of the entire BBC. Pull your head out of the TV listings.

but most of the really high quality docu's the BBC does do, are co-productions with the Discovery Channel in the US, so they are using commercial money anyway to do the high end stuff... they aren't even relying on the license fee to make those really good documentary series...

Because the license fee is frozen and costs are rising and rising. Their viewing figures wouldn't even justify a co-production if they went commercial.

In 2012/13 the company saw headline sales rise by 3% to £1,116m - exceeding the £1bn mark for a fifth year

http://www.bbcworldwide.com/about-us.aspx

Is this all from British licence payers?... No,

Good post and good points with examples too lostalex, I agree completely.

:conf: That's not what I said. I said they'e relying on co-productions and other means of funding more and more because the fee has been frozen whilst costs rise.

No matter who is right and who is wrong, as it stands the BBC charge a licence fee whether we like it or not is immaterial. If you are dodging paying you are currently breaking the law and can be prosecuted.

You tell them Cherie. :fist:

I will Marshy :fist:

Not for much longer suckers.... :grin2:

Don't come crying when we have more X Factor/The Voice shows. :fist:

Returns to the BBC (not the international companies) - £156 million
License fee - £3.6 billion.

:hmph:

they get £3.6 billion from British licence payers?

You will have to subscribe for PM Questiontime, :tongue:

Yep. :hugesmile: But that doesn't go to Worldwide, which funds itself.