'Ray of Hope' to End Licence Fee or Limit BBC?

[Teddy Bear]

Perhaps the Tories will eventually do something about the transgressions of the BBC and either bring them into line or do something about the licence fee.
The new culture secretary, John Whittingdale, is an MP who has spoken out against the BBC  quite a few times before. The BBC are clearly not pleased with this new appointment and their initial reaction was to launch a host of tweets about what they see as his sins. In fact, reading them, I am more drawn to him than otherwise. The BBC claimed later, obviously realising that antagonising JW was not the best way to deal with what might be their future, subsequently deleted them.

Shows their real nature though, not that I'm surprised.

BBC at war with Cameron over appointment of hard-line Culture Secretary who said the licence fee was 'worse than the poll tax'

• David Cameron appoints John Whittingdale the new Culture Secretary
• Mr Whittingdale was chair of influential Culture, Media and Sport committee
• He released a string of reports criticising the corporation's licence fee
• The veteran Conservative said the £145.50 fee was 'worse than the poll tax'
• BBC today retweeted, and then deleted, a message slamming the Tory MP

By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline

David Cameron and the BBC were at loggerheads today after the Prime Minister named a hard-line critic of the corporation as the new Culture Secretary

Tory MP John Whittingdale, who has produced a string of damning reports on the BBC as chair of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee over the last decade, was called to Downing Street this morning in the most surprising announcement of the Cabinet reshuffle.

But the appointment of Mr Whittingdale, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher who has described the licence fee as 'worse than the poll tax', appeared to spark fury at the BBC.


The BBC's press office retweeted - and then quickly deleted - a message posted online slamming Mr Whittingdale's voting record on gay rights, the hunting ban and a host of other unrelated issues to his new brief as Culture Secretary

The appointment comes as negotiations are set to start over the renewal of the next BBC charter, which is set to expire in December 2016.

The charter sets out how the corporation will be funded – throwing the future of the licence fee into doubt.

Mr Whittingdale appointment was the biggest surprise of the Prime Minister's first Cabinet reshuffle following last week's shock election triumph.

He replaces Sajid Javid, who is handed the key role of Business Secretary left vacant after Vince Cable was swept out in the Lib Dem bloodbath.

The Prime Minister kept a host of his most senior ministers in place, including the Chancellor George Osborne and the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond,

But he announced that Boris Johnson will get a seat at the Cabinet table. The Prime Minister announced the London Mayor will 'be attending my political Cabinet'.

The Prime Minister left Downing Street to address a group of Conservative MP in Westminster after winning an unexpected majority last week

Amber Rudd is named Energy Secretary and Priti Patel becomes Employment Minister in the first of the promotions for women.

Mr Whittingdale's appointment will be seen as a shot across the bows at the BBC ahead of the charter renewal.

He previously said the licence fee was 'unsustainable' and needed to be brought up to date with how people now watched TV.

The Tory veteran suggested that the licence fee could be added on to people's council tax to make it cheaper for the poor.

A BBC spokesman this morning insisted the corporation was 'looking forward to working with the new Secretary of State'.

He also insisted that the re-tweet of the critical message had been a mistake which did not reflect the BBC's view.

The spokesman said: 'The tweet referred to was tweeted at the BBC and not produced by us but it was inadvertently retweeted – that was never the intention and it was immediately deleted.'

The licence fee currently costs £145.50 per year for every household where people watch or record live TV.

A TV licence is not required to watch catch-up TV, using services such as the BBC iPlayer.

One option to replace the licence fee would be to make some BBC services available by subscription.

But the committee said choosing which programmes remained available subscription-free would require careful thought.

Speaking last year, the new Culture Secretary said: 'I think in the long term it's unsustainable. I think most people, almost everybody, accepts that the licence fee as it currently stands need some tweaking to sort out anomalies.

'People's viewing habits have changed and it needs to reflect that. That's a very simple change and I think people see that.

'You then have the question of whether or not it should remain a flat poll tax, collected through some fairly draconian measures, and whether it should still be criminally enforceable.'

Mr Whittingdale added: 'Government has already announced consultation on decriminalisation. I've been looking at other countries and I think there's quite an attractive option of linking it to a specific household tax - maybe council tax.

'I think in the longer term we are potentially looking at reducing at least a proportion of the licence fee that is compulsory and offering choice.'

He added: 'It's a question of introducing choice. I'm not saying I wouldn't pay the licence fee - I would go on paying the licence fee.

'It is a poll tax. It's actually worse than a poll tax because under the poll tax, if you were on a very low income you would get a considerable subsidy.

'The BBC licence fee, there is no means-tested element whatsoever; it doesn't matter how poor you are, you pay £145.50 and go to prison if you don't pay it.'

He added the era when 'everybody either watched or listened to the BBC' was becoming 'less true', in the face of catch-up services, online streaming, and more choice.

Mr Whittingdale said there was not a 'serious possibility of the licence fee going in the next charter renewal' adding: 'When I say it's unsustainable I am talking about over 20-50 years.'

[Teddy Bear]

Well this appears to be a move in the right direction - in both meanings of the word RIGHT.

BBC licence fee dodgers shouldn't face court say Tories: Future of charge in doubt as ministers contemplate biggest shake-up of funding since corporation was founded

• David Cameron plans to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee
• Senior ministers say non-core channels should be paid for by subscription
• Industry figures say BBC need a rethink for catch-up and smartphones
• BBC’s Royal Charter which sets out remit and funding is reviewed in 2016

By James Chapman Political Editor For The Daily Mail

The future of the BBC licence fee is in doubt as ministers contemplate the biggest shake-up of the corporation’s funding since it was founded in 1922.

Downing Street said last night that David Cameron plans to revive moves to decriminalise the non-payment of the £145.50 a year fee.

Other senior ministers believe the fee is increasingly outdated and could be pared back, with anything other than core BBC services paid for by subscription.

Senior industry figures also say a fundamental rethink is needed in a multi-channel age with many viewers using computers and mobile phones to watch via internet catch-up services.

The BBC has been shaken by Mr Cameron’s appointment of arch-Thatcherite John Whittingdale, who has suggested the licence fee is ‘worse than the poll tax’, as Culture Secretary.

Senior Tories are understood to have been appalled by the BBC’s aggressive stance when it and other broadcasters suggested the Prime Minister would be ‘empty chaired’ if he refused to take part in three leaders’ election debates on TV.

They also believe much of the corporation’s news coverage – particularly on its website – was biased towards Labour.

The BBC’s Royal Charter, which sets out the corporation’s scope and remit, and funding arrangement – both ten-year agreements – is to be reviewed and renewed by the end of next year.

The BBC Trust, which oversees the corporation, is thought unlikely to survive.

Last night Lord Hall, Director-General of the BBC, said he looked forward to ‘lively and robust debate about its future’ and the corporation should be ‘confident’.

Government sources insisted that suggestions Mr Cameron had ‘gone to war’ with the BBC by appointing Mr Whittingdale were ‘overblown’. But they said it cannot be right that 200,000 people a year end up in court accused of not buying a licence and facing criminal convictions.

Last year MPs backed plans to give the Government the power to decriminalise the non-payment of the licence fee – making it instead a civil penalty, which applies to unpaid utility bills. Another possibility is for new technology to be used to cut off BBC channels to non-payers, rather than making it a matter for the courts.

UP TO 70 ARE JAILED EVERY YEAR

÷ Licence fee evasion accounts for around one in ten cases heard by magistrates who can impose a fine of up to £1,000. Around 150,000 to 180,000 people a year are convicted.

÷ Between 50 and 70 a year are jailed for not paying the fine. Most are given a sentence of less than three months.

÷ There were 25,419,296 licences in force in 2013/14.

÷ The first licence fee was issued in November 1922 for radio users, costing 10 shillings (50p). The first combined radio/TV licence – for £2 – was issued in June 1946.

÷ As television became popular, radio-only licences were scrapped in 1971. The first supplementary licence fee for colour TV was introduced in 1968.

÷ A licence is not needed to watch BBC iPlayer content after it has been broadcast. However, the Watch Live option requires a valid TV licence.

÷ Around 4.33million free licences for over-75s have been issued at a cost of £607.8million a year to the Government.

Earlier this year peers voted to block the move before 2017 after the BBC claimed decriminalisation could cost it up to £200million a year and warned that channels may have to be closed. Number Ten said the issue would now be reopened as part of the charter review process.

Several Cabinet ministers are understood to favour moving from a licence fee to a subscription model, with viewers buying a ‘bundle’ of BBC channels or even individual programmes. Subscriptions could replace some or all of the compulsory licence fee.

An alternative model, used in Germany, Denmark and Holland, would see a payment for the national broadcaster simply rolled into household taxes when, like other areas of public spending, it would face cuts in times of austerity.

Some senior Conservatives also believe the BBC should in future pick up the spiralling cost to taxpayers of providing free TV licences to the elderly, currently met by the Department for Work and Pensions.

The licence fee was frozen at £145.50 in a deal agreed between the BBC and the Government in October 2010 and will remain at that level until 2016, a 16 per cent cut in real terms. BBC bosses claim the future of services could be threatened by any future squeeze.

Conservative MP Philip Davies, a former member of the Commons media select committee, told the BBC’s Daily Politics programme: ‘I think the [BBC] Trust will be abolished. It will have to be replaced by some other governance arrangement.

‘I hope and suspect that John [Whittingdale’s] appointment will scupper any attempt that the BBC will have to try and increase the amount of the licence fee.’

[Teddy Bear]

I hope the Tories take note of this opinion piece by the eminent Charles Moore, a true hero, in the Spectator. Also for readers to know their rights for TVL agents.

Cameron has one chance to abolish the licence fee and this is it
Charles Moore

As the news of John Whittingdale’s appointment as Culture Secretary came through, I happened to be sorting my pile of threatening letters from TV Licensing. It was taking me a bit of time, as there are 34 of them, accumulated over the past two years or so.

Faithful readers of this column may remember that in my flat in London I do not have a television. TV Licensing, which collects on behalf of the BBC, works on the insulting assumption that everyone has a television and therefore accuses me of licence evasion, telling me that it will take me to court. I never reply to these letters, both because I do not see why I should and because I have established that, contrary to their implication, TV Licensing has no right whatever to demand this information or to enter one’s premises. Its threats are like the sentence ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’: legal fiction.



As long ago as the Peacock Report in 1986, it was officially recognised that technology would quite soon remove whatever sense might once have lain behind the licence fee, yet such is the intimidatory might of the Corporation that we are still paying this cultural poll tax 30 years later. Politically, it is important to legislate its death sentence early in this Parliament, or the Tories will be too frightened by the approach of the next election to do so.

[Teddy Bear]

This writer expounds on the topic.
Judging by how often BBC presenters manage to use the C*** word, usually claimed as a mistake but strange it's always to characters that they don't like, now when I hear the BBC referred to as Auntie, I see it as A *untie.

Biased Auntie Beeb has only herself to blame
If the Conservatives truly have 'declared war' on the BBC, it's about time. Those who work there no longer even realise how blinkered they are

By Michael Henderson

The Tories, we learnt this week, have declared war on the BBC. Not really. If anything, the people who have been lobbing grenades and firing guns can be found within the corporation itself. Most British people admire the idea of public service broadcasting, and many have grown up loving the BBC. The old BBC, that is. The one that knew what public service really meant.

There are pockets of resistance, mainly on Radios 3 and 4. Where else could you hear a scholar such as Professor Roy Foster talk magnificently about W B Yeats, as he did this week? Somewhere within Broadcasting House there are producers and reporters eager to find what is good, interesting or noteworthy, and determined to share their discoveries with others.

But the malaise is too far gone to be ignored, and if this Government chooses not to ignore it, they can hardly be blamed. Few people can doubt there is a political bias at the BBC, so deeply ingrained that those who work there take it for granted. In his autobiography, the news anchor Peter Sissons, who had moved across from ITN, noted how a producer swept by his desk in the newsroom one day, dropped a copy of a certain newspaper on it, and said: “Everything you need to know is in there.”

That man represented, if only he knew it, the corporation’s view of the world. But it isn’t just the liberal bias, which during the recent election campaign saw Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, surrounded on Newsnight by no fewer than four people who opposed his views in a studio discussion about welfare reform. It is, speaking more broadly, a cultural problem.

On Radio 4, for example, The News Quiz, which used to be an amusing show that ended the week with a merry quip or two, is now a platform for unfunny Lefties who bellow anti-Tory propaganda at the audience.

Mariella Frostrup, whose manicured tones can’t quite conceal the pity she feels for anybody unfortunate enough not to live in London, seems to be on the wireless every other day. This is the lady who, simper simper, bowled a few half-volleys at Gordon Brown during a Labour Party conference. Would a Tory-leaning broadcaster get away with a stunt like that?

Other programmes, such as Front Row, Saturday Review and even A Good Read, tack heavily to the Left in their choice of material and guests. When a leisurely world view is required, to put everything “in context”, it is usually to the likes of Lisa Jardine and Helena Kennedy that the BBC turns; or, increasingly, to that frightful windbag, Giles Fraser.

Rev Fraser, the turbulent priest who last week confessed to his shame at being English, gets behind doors where water can’t penetrate. Why? On The Moral Maze, where he is a regular member of the team, he struggles to articulate himself, yet there he is, week after week, presented as the conscience of Christian England.

Charles Moore has written more than once about the BBC’s abject failure to “get” Margaret Thatcher, thereby failing to get what most viewers understand instinctively. Things haven’t changed much. Newsnight, in particular, has become a shadow of the programme it used to be. It is Islington talking to Camden, and that kind of stuff tends not to play well beyond London.

At 8.20 yesterday morning, the Today programme on Radio 4 ran a feature on Grayson Perry, the potter who wears a frock. With so much going on in the world, that was considered to be worth five minutes of our time. And they wonder why their foes stand by the gate, planning to cut a swathe through their privileges! It’s not dark yet, Auntie, but it’s getting there and most of it is of your own doing.

[thehighlandrebel]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3101888/BBC-change-way-collects-licence-fee-viewers-threatened-debt-collectors-fully-paid-145-50-charge.html

[Teddy Bear]

I'll post the article in full here THR.

This is another example showing just how lacking in morals and ethics our government is.
When you think of what the BBC is actually supposed to do for our society, and what it actually does, an ethical government would have addressed this long ago on so many levels.

BBC may change way it collects licence fee after viewers are threatened with debt collectors even after they had fully paid £145.50 charge

• BBC sends out 100,000 letters a day chasing people to pay the £145.50 fee
• Threatening missives are still sent to those who have paid the full amount
• In one case, a viewer who had paid was told they would face £1,000 fine
• BBC Trust has now ordered Corporation to investigate and change process

By Katherine Rushton, Media And Technology Editor For The Daily Mail

The BBC may have to change the way it collects the TV licence fee, after it threatened to refer a viewer to a debt collector, even after they had paid the charge in full.

The Corporation, which sends out 100,000 letters a day chasing people to pay the £145.50 fee, was too slow to stop the intimidating missives.

Instead of being allowed to watch television in peace, the viewer in question was told that the case would be passed to a debt collector, and that they could face a £1,000 fine.

The BBC Trust has now ordered the Corporation to investigate the situation, and work out how to stop threatening missives being sent out to people that do not owe money.

‘It was not, in principle, acceptable for a fully licensed member of the public to be sent a letter warning of referral to a debt collection agency,’ the BBC Trust said.

‘The BBC executive will be asked to investigate how its system may be changed to prevent such warning letters being sent to licensed members of the public.’

The BBC pays Capita, the outsourcing firm, to collect of the TV licence fee, for a cost of around £70million a year.

A spokesman for TV Licensing said that there were a specific set of circumstances which led up to the debt collection notice being sent my mistake.

‘The complainant later set up a new licence whilst their previous licence was still valid. When they missed their cash payments, letters advised they might be referred to debt collection. This would only happen in a tiny number of cases. We can confirm we will examine these letters.’

However, it is not the first time that TV Licensing has been heavily criticised for its ‘bullying’ tactics.

Capita’s letters send repeated threats that it will impose £1,000 fines on households who do not pay the annual £145.50 charge.

The company also brings almost 3,000 people prosecutions a week, accounting for around a tenth of all cases in magistrates’ courts. Anyone found guilty is left with a criminal record, and between 50 and 70 people a year are jailed.

[Teddy Bear]

We are all familiar with the BBC masquerade of being caring and concerned when they can use it to pursue their dubious agendas. Perhaps this is why the Conservatives are using the particular tack they are at hinting about possible changes to the licence fee.

The Culture Secretary John Whittingdale has already hinted that in its present form it hurts lower income families the most, though this hasn't stopped the BBC from making threats as to what would happen if they were cut, so clearly they don't like it up 'em when it's going to cost them something.

Not that their hypocrisy surprised me in the slightest, I could have predicted it, as would most of us.

BBC licence fee hits the poorest hardest, says Culture Secretary as he prepares to take on Corporation

• John Whittingdale attacks 'regressive' levy imposed by the BBC
  Challenged by the Labour party about whether 'Auntie' is safe in his hands
  Tensions mount over the £145.50-a-year fee being cut or reformed

By Matt Chorley, Political Editor for MailOnline

The BBC licence fee hits the poorest viewers hardest, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale has warned.

The senior Conservative said the levy was 'regressive' as he prepares to start the process of renewing the Corporation's royal charter.

It raises the prospect of the £145.50-a-year fee being cut or reformed by the Tory government.

Mr Whittingdale was challenged in the Commons by his Labour opponent Chris Bryant over his plans for the licence and whether 'Auntie' is safe in his hands.

Mr Bryant said: 'Can you give us a little clue as to your own inclinations? You were Mrs Thatcher's toy boy and Norman Tebbit's special adviser.

'You call yourself a free market Conservative and, like Nigel Farage, think it is debatable whether the BBC should even make Strictly.

'You said the licence fee is worse than the poll tax - but I think you always supported the poll tax. Is Auntie safe in your hands?'

Mr Whittingdale replied: 'In terms of the BBC licence fee and charter renewal, you are absolutely right it is a tight timetable. However, I am hoping we will be able to renew the charter on time.

'As for the licence fee, you will have to await our conclusions but I would say I very much agree when you observe elements of the licence fee are regressive because everyone has to pay it, so it falls as a greater percentage of the income on the poorest people.'

It comes after BBC bosses this week hit out at government plans to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee.

The director of television Danny Cohen was accused of 'holding viewers to ransom' after he threatened to axe programmes if licence fee evaders are no longer sent to court.

'If the BBC takes on more financial obligations, it's got less money to spend on content. It's as simple as that,' he told the Creative Week conference of a conference of television executives, hosted by Bafta in London.

'If we took on one of those things – decriminalisation or over-75's licence fees – we'd just make fewer programmes, and that is something I think none of us want to do.

'It may also mean fewer services. So we have to be aware of that in all those negotiations [with the Government], and I think that anything that makes the BBC unable to commission great content, and quality content, can't be good for licence fee payers,' he said.

Around 3,000 people a week end up in court for failing to pay the licence fee, accounting for around a tenth of all cases before a magistrate, and in 2013 thirty-two people were jailed for not paying the resulting fine.
John Whittingdale on the future of the BBC licence fee

MPs have repeatedly called for licence fee evasion to be decriminalised, and are expected to press the issue as the Government begins negotiations over the BBC's new funding package – the so-called Charter Renewal.

However, BBC executives are worried that many viewers will stop paying the annual charge if there is no longer any threat of jail – putting a dent in its income.

The Corporation is expecting to have a difficult ride over funding negotiations, following the appointment of John Whittingdale as Culture Secretary.

Mr Whittingdale, formerly chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, has been a particularly fierce critic of the BBC's spending habits, and warned in a report earlier this year that the BBC should prepare for the end of the TV licence fee within a decade.