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Please do not write below the line

(www.bbctvlicence.com)
313 points dcminter | 4 comments | 21 Oct 24 18:42 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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cooper_ganglia ◴[21 Oct 24 19:34 UTC] No.41907633[source]▶
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.

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lifeisstillgood ◴[21 Oct 24 20:20 UTC] No.41908142[source]▶
The BBC is prized in the UK, and rightly so. Most national broadcasters have strong public interest provisions but the Beeb has a history and culture of strong independent journalism, incredible childrens and family output and acts as a mainstay anchor to support a creative industry.

There is plenty to criticise but the weird ring fenced tax that we pay is incredible value for money (films, tv, web, journalism for the price of Netflix

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Kwpolska ◴[21 Oct 24 21:55 UTC] No.41908928[source]▶
How much taxpayer money is wasted on the accounting, the enforcement, and the scary-sounding letters? Wouldn’t it be better if the government just gave taxpayer money to the BBC directly?
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TheRealPomax ◴[21 Oct 24 22:06 UTC] No.41909017[source]▶
You mean "how much money is given to people to do those things"? Because the money doesn't magically disappear in the pockets of "big beeb", all those tasks are performed by people who get paid for that, drawing an income and then spending the money they earned by economically participating in society.

There is no money being wasted. Although it might certainly be a case of paper being wasted.

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1. Kwpolska ◴[21 Oct 24 23:05 UTC] No.41909480[source]▶
The UK government/BBC is happy to give £91m/year to Crapita to administer the TV License [0], and there are a bunch of other contractors [1]. Almost 100 million pounds wasted that could be spent on programming, but instead go to private businesses. Instead, the UK government could just directly fund the BBC out of taxes. Even if it might require a small increase of the tax rate, they could save on the enforcement and tracking.

[0] https://www.capita.com/news/capita-announces-five-year-exten...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_Un...

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2. bigiain ◴[21 Oct 24 23:43 UTC] No.41909719[source]▶
> Almost 100 million pounds wasted that could be spent on programming

That's kinda assuming that everybody would continue to pay the license fee if the enforcement was stopped.

I have no clue how much revenue the TV licenses generate, or whether 100 million for administration and enforcement is a reasonable number. It feels unlikely to me?

Google google google:

  In 2021, there were 24.8 million households in England
  The TV licence fee is currently £159 a year
So there'd be 4,000 million or so in revenue if every household paid for the license (more including the rest of the UK). I _guess_ maybe 2.5% isn't a unreasoable number for administration and enforcementment? It's better that, say, Apple taking 30%...
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3. zerocrates ◴[21 Oct 24 23:57 UTC] No.41909796[source]▶
They're saying it would be cheaper to just have the government, which already has a whole apparatus for calculating, collecting, and enforcing tax, fund the BBC directly. So there would be no TV license.
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4. Scoundreller ◴[22 Oct 24 01:10 UTC] No.41910223{3}[source]▶
removing red tape is for business, not consumers!

My jurisdiction finally got rid of annual/biannual car registration fees and stickers. Was a rather pointless process other than collecting money.

Was hoping they'd raise gas taxes by 0.1cents/litre or something, but I guess they buried it in with other taxes.

Unfortunately, we still require driver's license renewals every 5 years for CAD$90. And they don't bother taking a picture with every renewal because that was too much bureaucracy for them. I think it's only once I'm 80 they'll haul me in for a cognitive test.