Club Rules are no Politics or Religion so hope I get away with this post I don’t disagree with you re Cartels but unfortunately in the UK we are stuck with Capitalism regardless of which Party is in power
But talking about ‘Services’ in general. There has been concern that the BBC T.V. Licence has risen to £169.50 w.e.f. April 2024 and the fact that some presenters get paid loadsamoney [mentioning no names but we know who I’m talking about in recent court case]
But I’ve just caught up on The Proms 2024 and have been more than impressed with them this year courtesy of the BBC. I went to the Albert Hall a couple of times in my youth but it was so long ago I can’t remember what I saw…certainly not The Proms.
But I’ve worked out that a seating ticket of £10 for nine Proms = £90.00. Quite apart from travel etc. Instead got to watch them in the comfort of my home in Newcastle-under-Lyme …pause and rewind and repeat favourite moments when they got me singing badly and me arthritic hips on the move
So Go BBC in my opinion [inspite of their woes] still very good value for money
Regardless of what you watch - the “Licence” is for operating tv and radio receiving equipment.
It is no longer a BBC fee.
Technically - if you never watch anything live and only stream - you don’t need a licence.
They changed the wording and purpose of the licence to stop those who never watch BBC from refusing to pay it.
Digesting, isn’t it. But at least a massive percentage of the country can take warmth in knowing their contributing towards the ‘stars’ pensions and salaries
Yep…I do have a vague re-collection of this when we suddenly had loads of Channels to choose from and folk thought they were ‘double paying’…both the Channel providers like Sky and the BBC.
I recall thinking about it at the time and thought well I don’t think I can do this in practice
But hey…BBC got the message and now you can stream a number of BBC programmes
Which for an oldie like me I appreciate - being able to watch one episode after another
AND I do think the BBC is still the most respected Broadcaster in the World and that makes me proud to be British
[Sez me who was introduced to Stuart Hall and provided a witness statement to the Dame Janet Smith Inquiry back in the day…still have the paperwork some where… ]
We binned the Biased Boring Clowns (I’d have used stronger words, but don’t want a ban ) TV tax nearly three years ago and don’t miss live TV at all. Between that ex footballer and others inflated salaries, the bias the company these days flaunts, the woke programming etc etc…our money goes to more important things in our life these days. We also only have broadband and no BT phone line service. Quite the rebels in our advancing years….
I had that light bulb moment when I got bored trying to sort out the wood from the chaff when we had 4 channels back in the eighties and decided to opt out. Good though the BBC undoubtedly is, even by the mid to late eighties it was focused far too much on entertainment for my liking.
Hope I do not end up like my Dad, dependent on a bucket of pills each month so he can watch TV for 14 hours a day, from the outside it looks like komplete torture.
I have also decided that I will not renew after the last quarter debit was taken today, checked my bank balance for once and realised I was paying still. The BBC has nothing to offer to me anymore so why pay for it ?
Or like flying a commercial passenger jet without a pilot’s licence maybe!? I would more liken it to “possibly” fishing without a fishing licence. 10,000’s or 100,000’s of people are cancelling or not renewing their TV licence’s nowadays. I doubt that most of the Gen Z generation even know what a TV licence is, outside of its something that their grandparents pay each year.
This post I started sounds like ‘Horses for Courses’
With regards to the BBC I suspect I’m just a ‘chip off the old block’…my late father was very pro BBC but when I moved in to take care of him in 2007 he was watching a tiny Black & White TV on an internal aerial …so essentially ‘white noise’ with intermittent sound
Had a heck of a job convincing him to get Sky because he was trained in analogue [RAF Engineer] and couldn’t get his head around ‘digital’
This was because a severe heart attack left him brain damaged. I mean here was a chap who rose to the rank of Sqn Ldr from L.A.C. plonk having failed his ‘school certificate’. Taught himself to speak French and Arabic and used to do The Telegraph Crossword. Got distinctions in Horology after he retired and ran a small business. They shocked him seven times and he came back speaking ‘gobbledegook’ and had to learn to talk, walk and control his bladder etc all over again like a baby
But once I got Sky installed he was as ‘happy as larry’…even though he never got the hang of the remote so it would be ‘Get me that Channel that does Old Movies/Countdown/Animals’ etc
And after speaking to his GP we were able to severely reduce most of his meds as he was far less agitated
But he would have sacked me as his Carer and Daughter if I’d suggested not paying the T.V. Licence and watching the BBC [imagine his brain a bit like a bombed city…Some structures completely intact…some structures gone forever and some structures capable of a re-build]
So…‘Horses for Courses’ with regards to the T.V. Licence
Without it and Sky…it would have been a struggle to keep him in his own home which we as a family thought he deserved [We did have an enduring Power of Attorney] as he was becoming a danger to himself and others
Managed to get a friend of his to accompany him to a showing of his favourite programme ‘Countdown’ with Carol Vorderman …sadly he could not longer do any of the challenges post heart attack
But…typical Dad…“she’s even more glorious in real life”
I don’t disagree with you re Cartels but unfortunately in the UK we are stuck with Capitalism regardless of which Party is in power 
]
) TV tax nearly three years ago and don’t miss live TV at all. Between that ex footballer and others inflated salaries, the bias the company these days flaunts, the woke programming etc etc…our money goes to more important things in our life these days. We also only have broadband and no BT phone line service. Quite the rebels in our advancing years…. 
), and lock what might become a political thread?