How Thoughtful Of The BBC

Today the BBC announced it was to freeze the cost of the TV licence for a year. The reason they gave for this was to help licence payers in the current economic climate. They want to send the message that they understand the concerns about vast amounts of money being wasted by an organisation which is totally detached from the world around them. There's a flaw in the plan however.

The TV licence, like the Poll Tax, does not take into account ability to pay, nor income. It's a flat fee regardless of income. Not only that, but it's a mandatory fee, whether or not you want or use any BBC services. If the BBC behaved like a public service broadcaster this would possibly be a defence, but it behaves like a corporate broadcaster. It's a subscription  funded mainstream entertainment network.

When money is tight, each of us has to try and balance the household budget. This means cutting back on extras until times are better. You may cancel your Sky Sports subscription, or your magazine subscriptions. You may cancel website memberships. You may decide to have your summer holiday at home instead of abroad this year. You may put off decorating the kitchen until next year. This means going without stuff. If you don't pay for your subscription, you don't get the goods or services. You don't pay for your holiday, you don't go.

The TV licence is mandatory. You cannot cancel it. You cannot decide that the BBC isn't worth £145 per year in the current economic climate. There may be the odd programme here and there that you like but would happily go without to ease the strain on the household budget. The problem is that if you don't pay for your TV licence, you get hounded with threatening letters, telling you that you HAVE to pay up or face visits from enforcement officers, interviews under Police caution, court appearances, fines or jail time.

If the BBC wanted to think of the tough times their TV licence payers are facing, they'd first strip all the entertainment stuff out of their output, restrict it to ONLY public service broadcasting, and reduce the TV licence fee to a fraction of what it currently is, or abandon it altogether to an opt-in subscription model. Not ONE of the BBC employees seem to comprehend this, although their mortgages and lifestyles are dependent on this income, so it's hardly a surprise that they can't comprehend the inherent unfairness in the TV licence.

Value for money is always relative to what you have coming in, and what you have to spare after all the necessary bills have been paid. £145 per year is nothing to some, while it's a lot to others. Some people wouldn't notice that coming off their bank account, while others have to go without food to ensure they pay it. Those who can't afford it are then threatened with jail time or £1000 fines for what? Not paying for a mainstream entertainment network subscription? This is an extortion racket; nothing more, nothing less. Just because it's legal does not change the fact that it's an extortion racket.

Those who claim that the BBC is so popular, and great value for money, that most people like it and are happy to pay for it have nothing to lose if it goes to a subscription model. That "majority" would happily fill out the change of Direct Debit authorisation form and continue to receive the service.

The reality is that a LOT of people only pay for the TV licence to avoid the consequences of not paying. They do it to avoid being hassled, fined or jailed. They don't do it because they like it. A LOT of people would happily dump the BBC if they could. That's over and above those who can't afford it. That would mean a much smaller number of users making up the total budget the BBC have to work with, which would mean significantly higher prices for those who do like the BBC and it's services. This means either the total budget is lower, which means some services cut back, or an increase in the price per subscriber. Either option, or a combination of both changes the value for money dynamic and would turn more people off.

The BBC are due to renegotiate the TV licence fee in a couple of years. I'd expect this "generous" offer to freeze the fee for a year to be a cynical attempt to earn Brownie points for those negotiations. They will spin this for all it's worth in attempt to squeeze more out of already hard up viewers. All of this while playing the victim on cutbacks. As usual the BBC play the "unbiased, trusted and independent" card while lobbying to maintain their own gravy train.