A "TV License" is one of those things I alway assumed people were making up to satirize the claims of over-regulation & bureaucracy in the UK.
Finding out it was real was a mixture of hilarious and sobering.
replies(19):
Finding out it was real was a mixture of hilarious and sobering.
Publicly funded media is a great thing to have, and the intention of TV License is to fund it independently from interference from the government of the day. In Australia there’s frequently stories about governments cutting ABC funding, which TV License is supposed to avoid entirely.
But the implementation in practice just sucks. It’s baffling to think of how much money is wasted on administering this additional tax program, sending out all these pretty aggressive letters, maintaining the website, and paying the real “inspectors” to knock on peoples doors.
Depends on the kind of media.
Educational content? Sure.
News? Not going to be impartial so I'd rather be able to pick my poison - otherwise it's just propaganda.
Sports? A waste of money in my view and the state should not decide what kind of entertainment gets to exist.
Inane talks shows with hosts taking home ridiculous salaries which are funded by extorting money from people who are barely able to pay for their basic needs? Unjustifiable.
Why can't publicly funded media be impartial?