$180 Per Second of BBC Output

The BBC is a much-loved institution. Whenever politicians propose changes to the BBC, people get hysterical about the supposed damage the supposed wrecking will do. This happens even when the politicians involved aren't Tories.<p>The BBC is better value for money than the pay TV channels, because the pay TV channels can't force people to pay for their product. If the BBC channels went subscription-only, the price would be higher than it is now.<p>The BBC doesn't carry advertising. Lots of people like watching TV without being interrupted by adverts. And the free commercial channels like not having the increased competition for TV advertising space.<p>The licence fee / TV tax is also far from universally admired, but as the alternatives are also flawed and it's the status quo, it endures.<p>I'd prefer it if it was based on ability to pay, but (a) that would make it more expensive to collect and more time consuming to pay; and (b) there is a danger that if it was collected by the Revenue, that would be a step along the road towards the BBC losing editorial independence.

Let's start with the factual errors.<p>&#62; That’s for a TV channel and a pretty good website.<p>No, that's for eight or so TV channels, a similar number of national radio stations, a network of local radio stations, and a pretty good website.<p>&#62; Well, if you are capable of receiving BBC broadcasts you pay the tax.<p>TV Licensing would like us all to believe that if we're capable of receiving any UK TV broadcasts (not just the BBC) then we have to pay, but it's not true. You have to pay if you actually receive a UK TV broadcast. Note that watching live TV through iplayer counts as receiving a UK TV broadcast, but watching an earlier programme timeshifted through iplayer does not. The BBC wants this changed, but this hasn't happened yet, I think.<p>&#62; Every household in the United Kingdom is charged a flat fee<p>As well as not having to pay if you don't receive UK TV broadcasts, you don't have to pay if one of the householders is aged 75 or above.<p>Also, pubs/hotels/etc have to pay if they receive TV broadcasts, but it's not on a flat rate basis.

I love (nearly all of) the BBC output e.g. BBC4 documentaries, CBeebies and CBBC (two entire kids channels with <i>no adverts</i>), BBC Radio 6, iPlayer, various tech investments like Dirac and Semantic Web for music metadata with Musicbrainz etc. but yes, the licence fee is a terrible regressive tax that should be replaced with something like extra VAT on TV purchases, so that people with multiple expensive TVs pay more and since you couldn't avoid it you'd save on enforcement costs.<p>But... the tories hate everything the BBC stands for and any political changes to their funding model will result in them taking the opportunity to control and/or destroy the BBC. This leaves me highly conflicted.<p>On a very slightly brighter note, they've stopped jailing so many young women for non-payment after a rash of suicides a few years ago.

The TV Licencing system in Britain is quite widely publicized, but it isn't unique. See:<p><a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Television_licence" rel="nofollow">https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Television_li...</a><p>For example, France, Germany and Japan all have a flat rate licence fee to pay for their national broadcasters. Greece goes one step further and includes a surcharge on domestic electricity bills for this purpose.