Election Year or Fear!

[Andy_Faber]

it is clearly ridiculous trying to extend the (football) blame to licence fee payers.

Explain why? Its not compulsory to have a TV license.

[MadAmster]

I don't pay the TV licence but I do watch BBC over here. We don't have a "licence" any longer. We used to have a similar thing called "kijk en luister geld" (watch and listen money) but the government scrapped that a while back.

Do I watch Sky? I'll plead the 5th on that one although I don't watch it all that often. The odd game I can't get on RamsTV, even using a Very Personal Network and F1 and that's it. I could watch loads of series and films on Sky and lots of delights from around the world. Viaplay do now show F1 here but that will decline post Max. The circuit didn't even manage to sell out on race day compared to the 4 previous editions when it was sold out almost as soon as tickets became available. On race day there were still tickets available in the "Tarzan bocht" aka Turn 1 where much of the excitement happens in terms of comings together and overtaking. They did cost 499 Euro...

Most cloggies seem to be Max fans rather than F1. Last Zandvoort F1 GP next season. Max is no longer the supreme driver as his car isn't working properly. His various teammates are failing because Max has a certain driving style and the cars are designed to get the best out of him. Whoever is in the #2 car has no chance as the car doesn't suit them. It's no coincidence that Perez didn't cut it and this season 2 different drivers can't cut it. The car is all wrong for them. Once Max moves on to other things, which he will do sooner rather than later, interest in F! here will wane and Viaplay won't broadcast it.

[MadAmster]

Explain why? Its not compulsory to have a TV license.

According to AI... you need a TV Licence in the UK if you watch or record live TV broadcasts on any channel or service, or use BBC iPlayer, on any device. Failure to pay when you need one can result in legal action, including prosecution, a fine of up to ?1,000, and court costs. However, you do not need a TV Licence if you only watch catch-up TV on other services like Netflix or YouTube, or listen to radio broadcasts.

So. no, it's not compulsory to have a TV licence if you don't watch live TV but it is if you do watch live TV.

[Andy_Faber]

I'll plead the 5th on that one

Millions would MA, maybe tens of millions.

[Andy_Faber]

According to AI... you need a TV Licence in the UK if you watch or record live TV broadcasts on any channel or service, or use BBC iPlayer, on any device. Failure to pay when you need one can result in legal action, including prosecution, a fine of up to ?1,000, and court costs. However, you do not need a TV Licence if you only watch catch-up TV on other services like Netflix or YouTube, or listen to radio broadcasts.

So. no, it's not compulsory to have a TV licence if you don't watch live TV but it is if you do watch live TV.

Correct, I have to go through the rules regularly wrt empty properties. Perversely one doesn't need a license to watch pirate broadcasts because they don't officially exist, but of course one could be sanctioned (I guess more severly) under other laws. Watching UK terrestrial broadcasts in, for instance, Spain is also illegal, easily identifiable by a) massive satellite dishes and b) people being British (!) but I know the Spanish authorities aren't right bothered about rounding up the 200,000 or so perps on behalf of UK

[SithHappens]

Hard to believe you can still buy a black and white TV licence.

[ramAnag]

Explain why? Its not compulsory to have a TV license.

Because, for the vast majority of people it is compulsory to have a TV licence in order to watch TV (not necessarily football on TV) legally and because the licence fee is used to fund a wide variety of BBC services, whereas people choose to separately watch and pay for Sky and an infinitely greater part of their business/income is directly related to football.

[swaledale]

Some figures for you

2025 -2029 Premier league domestic TV rights £6.7 billion

BBC will pay £211 million over same period, about the same as the previous 3 year contract, as neither ITV, Channel 4 or channel 5 bid for the highlights.

The BBC Licence fee is £174.50 per annum or £14.50 per month.

Sky sports starts at £23 per month

The licence fee accounted for 68% of the BBC total annual income (£3.66 billion of a total of £5.39 billion)

The BBC doesn't breakdown its expenditure on football or even sports (not that I can find anyway).

Its a matter of record that one of the main reasons for the formation of the premier league was to attract and have control over TV rights for its matches and substantially increase its revenue, which it was considered and has been proven to be the case.

If somebody can make the case that paying the TV licence fee has contributed to the massive amounts of money flowing into the premier league since its formation, then they use a completely different mathematical system to the rest of us.

[ramAnag]

Nadine Dorries defects to Reform UK. Quelle surprise. They just about deserve each other.

[SithHappens]

Noises seem to be pointing towards Rayner resigning/being sacked today.