The BBC

Not sure where the extra 'cases' at the end came from there.

70 jailed.

Pretty sure you don't get sent to jail for not having a TV licence. You can go to jail if you don't pay a fine, which might sound like the same thing but it applies to all kinds of minor crime.

Yes, that's what i assume that they are referring to here. The last time i had a serious look at this was about ten years ago and, at the time iirc, courts pretty much stopped sending people to jail for non-payment of fines relating to TV licenses. Seeing it go back up to 70 is remarkable. The fines disproportionately affect women and (obviously) those dealing with the most extreme poverty so there was a real push to manage things more humanely. Giving people in difficult situations a criminal record for non-payment of what is effectively a debt / bill in the first place is unusual. Non-payment of utility bills / debts isn't generally a criminal offence.

utility companies can cut you off* but the bbc can't

(* actually i think they aren't allowed to deny people such fundamentals as electricty. so instead they install pre-payment meters which effectively do the same thing.)

Isn't non-payment of council tax a criminal thing for the same reason? The council can't turn off the streetlights etc.

They could blindfold you.

Council tax debts are primarily civil offences. Persistent non-payment can lead to criminal conviction where you had the means to pay in the first place. It's not a criminal matter in the first instance so failing to pay won't mean you automatically end up with a criminal record.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10701148/Noel-Edmonds-Its-time-to-sell-the-BBC...and-we-could-buy-it.html

Original article is behind the times paywall. It's every bit as nuts as you'd expect:

Obviously from a business perspective we are not about to reveal our plans in detail, but our new BBC will not be encumbered with the infrastructure and practices of traditional broadcasting. Today every phone owner is, in effect, a broadcaster. Your smart TV is a studio and your PC is a radio station. You are the master of your media. Such mastery makes a mockery of an organisation that operates more than 50 channels at a cost of £5bn.

Under our plans, the new BBC becomes as important to the consumer as the hardware without which none of us can now function. We refer to this as BBC Gaia — a lifestyle in which the new BBC is the default position for all consumer information, education and entertainment. It’s our 21st-century Reithian vision.

nothing says Lord Reith like Deal or No Deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAo-xyIEEkI

^ we refer to this as BBC Gaia

RIP the (Newsnight) Review Show
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9905765/The-Review-Show-does-culture-matter-less-than-cookery.html

the review show was fucking terrible, good riddance

however, what will bidisha do now??

too soon?

That article is from match 2013

March 2013

once a month is still TOO MUCH

The final episode is this Sunday, apparently.

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/03/bbc-axes-review-show-20-years/

I hope they bring back Tom Paulin one last time, if only in order for him to call Harry Hill's X-Factor musical Zionist propaganda, or something.

I just saw the last episode without knowing it was being cancelled, I hadn't seen it in a few months. It and Culture Show and any other similar programmes used to annoy me a lot but I enjoyed them enough to watch them regularly for something like 10 or more years; sometimes there was really good stuff in there.
I'd prefer to think the internet has replaced these shows than the idea that anyone interested in this sort of stuff has dwindled that badly.
BBC 4 really has turned to shit. I don't think I'd mind if BBC was sold, especially if it meant people stopped getting harrassed about tv licences, because I've always dreamed of not having a tv someday.

BBC Broadcast was already sold to an Autralian hedge fund several years ago. What other bits do you think should be sold? And who do you think should be the buyer?

Don't think Robert cares as long as his 'dream' "of not having a tv someday" is realized.

I'll admit I don't know much about the issue and if I am curious enough, I hope all the facts don't take too many hours to read.

I don't even have a dream.

just take responsibility for your own life and get rid of your own damned TV and leave the BBC intact for those of us who want it and appreciate it, even for its flaws.

and who want to pay for it

not really any sentient argument for paying for market-level shit like bbc1 radio1 etc via a poll tax enforced by criminal censure

that shit should all be privatized and the less market amenable public interest stuff financed via general taxation

I live with other people, it isn't my tv.

Actually, fuck privatising the BBC. A TV licence is cheaper than the cable package I'd inevitably be forced to buy in the name of 'choice' in a post-privatised world. I consider that my licence pays for multiple channels and radio stations where I never have to watch an advert for anything but another BBC programme. BARGAIN.

yeah the serenity you get from not having to watch adverts is probably less valuable than ending a system that criminalizes hundreds of thousands of people irrespective of whether they consume bbc content, two thirds of whom are women, along with plenty of non-english speakers, the indigent and vulnerable, whoever the capita tv licensing etc vermin can intimidate most easily in lieu of a search warrant, and dozens of whom are then imprisoned when they can't afford the fine

I have a friend who said the investigating people she met were polite and easy to convince. But I get the impression others are more demanding? If I moved into my own place with no tv, would I possibly have to convince them I don't use the iPlayer or the radio function on my CD player?

there is no obligation to acknowedge them at all unless they have a search warrant

But what if they did have a warrant? How much do you have to prove.

hundreds of thousands of people? really?
I know a real piece of work who takes pride in refusing to pay for a TV licence (despite being well able to, and watching it very loudly all day) and she won't answer her door unless you do a 'special knock' because she's scared of being busted. However, she's never had anything more than a letter every so often.

bbc scotland news is a disgrace. Biased towards the no to independence campaign. Its really turning me against the news department of the BBC.

btw you can use iplayer as long as its not a live program. Just watch it after the progs finished on catch up

they won't have a warrant unless unless they have already amassed or feigned enough 'evidence' to convince a magistrate that you require but do not have a tv licence

they very rarely obtain warrants anyway, there are foi reqests to individual police forces confirming this

"I don't even own a TV"

so, they can't come in?

bbc scotland news is a disgrace. Biased towards the no to independence campaign. Its really turning me against the news department of the BBC.

― Scooby Doom (۩), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:39 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the bbc will always act as a state broadcaster, supine to whichever administration, the most credulous of all tv channels during the iraq war and now happily normalizing/rationalizing the current government's welfare polciy (though there are minor correctives and exceptions)

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/07/bbc-j10.html

I hate the way BBC News are pushing welfare bullshit, but I've heard that when the government of the day gets more than 60 per cent of the vote, which is the case right now, there's an onus on the state broadcaster not to challenge their policies.

I'm just wary of any privatisation, including handing over the licence monitoring job to Crapita, more than I am exercised about £12/month*.
Besides, you can use iPlayer and/or the radio without a licence. What you aren't supposed to do is watch live TV.

*The last time I had no licence and a Crapitan on my doorstep, he tried to front his way into my flat by pretending he was one of the builders working on my kitchen. He got told. The real builders were massively entertained by seeing him frog-marched out with 'You. FUCK. OFF. NOW!'

hundreds of thousands of people? really?

― kinder, Friday, 18 April 2014 18:39 (12 minutes ago)

uhuh, ~200k p/a

so, they can't come in?

― kinder, Friday, 18 April 2014 18:43 (8 minutes ago)

~99% time no

Yet they never manage to catch Charles Moore, who writes columns about refusing to have a licence. BTW, if you work at the BBC and are found not to have one, you're sacked.

they would never catch charles moore cuz the capita salesmen who earn pro rata will always victimize poor areas

they have never visited me in an upper middle class inner suburb of london (full of tv execs and at least one bbc 'talent' nearby)

Why is radio and iPlayer made exceptions? They don't have adverts either, so it is basically free in that case.

This has nothing to do with quality but one of the current weather reporters for Scottish news is incredibly beautiful.

I hate the way BBC News are pushing welfare bullshit, but I've heard that when the government of the day gets more than 60 per cent of the vote, which is the case right now, there's an onus on the state broadcaster not to challenge their policies.

― baked beings on toast (suzy), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:53 (8 minutes ago)

don't think this is true in any formalized sense, bbc kowtows via the natural inertia of hegemony in a a british context

section 4 of their charter covers informality

nb i don't require a tv license, the only live tv broadcasts i watch are russian hd football or tennis streams, which still necessitates having a tv license since they are shown simultaneously via domestic broadcasters, so i take a bottle of wine to my (tv licensed) cuz nextdoors in order to watch them

*The last time I had no licence and a Crapitan on my doorstep, he tried to front his way into my flat by pretending he was one of the builders working on my kitchen. He got told. The real builders were massively entertained by seeing him frog-marched out with 'You. FUCK. OFF. NOW!'

― baked beings on toast (suzy), Friday, 18 April 2014 18:53 (18 minutes ago)

since you had corroborating evidence from the builders you might have reported this to the police as aggravated trespass / harassment / assault / whatever and complained to capita independently (the individual wastemen presumably being logged to certain addresses and identifiable)

lol

I might have done, but since he didn't actually cross the threshold, all I could do was to escort him from the block knowing the 'trades' button didn't work to get him back in. If you'd registered that important detail you wouldn't have introduced the coulda/shoulda/woulda element, right?