Television Licence
If the BBC gets its way and a Licence becomes required to stream other providers in the UK. Is this the BBCs attempt to get viewers policed by providers, at the moment from a technical point , anyone can watch BBC without a licence. Tune in, watch online etc, there are no checks and this can easily be done anonymously. But take Netflix for example, Netflix holds payment and personal data on subscribers, information they could be forced to disclose, thereby identifying users to the BBC/Licencing Authority. I think this is probably a stronger motivation for the BBC than revenue, as they have never been able to effectively enforce the licence fee. Obviously the providers would reject this proposal, but if it is included under UK law would they still refuse? A lot of speculation sure, but ???
3 replies
I never understood why the BBC account that you need for iPlayer, isn't linked to a TV licence account. That would be a relatively simple way of ensuring at least iPlayer wasn't being watched without a licence.
Because that would require a change in the charter, which requires the BBC to offer own-branded services unencrypted and accessible to anyone.
My 2c, the whole TV licence thing is stupid. Just pay tax and have services be provided from it - including public broadcasters.
Making public broadcast user-pays was mainly to prevent the BBC from relying on advertising and becoming more biased towards commercial interests. Corporate capture is exactly what would happen if it got pushed to compete directly with commercial streaming services. It would turn to shit, die, or both.
~$3.8bil raised per year on TV licences. UK budget: ~$1200bil. That's not much to pay for a public broadcaster of the quality of the BBC imo. Perfect? God no. Good, in comparison globally to places with and without public broadcasters? Yes.