[jambutty]

I find it hard to understand why some people still carp about the TV licence fee. At soon to be 36 pence per day (from 34p per day) we can legitimately view whatever there is being broadcast with at least 30 channels for free. Plus we get more radio stations to listen to than you can shake a stick at.

We can have a TV set in every room in the house for that same single licence fee so for 36p four members of a family can all be watching different programmes. Try taking a family of four to the cinema for 36p.

Some people may stubbornly stick their heads in the sand, insist that the licence fee is for the BBC and look forward to advertising funding the BBC in the hope that the TV licence will be discontinued. They should get real. No chancellor would ever give up a revenue of over one billion pounds per year even if some of it is paid out to fund the BBC. If the BBC did go down the funding by advertising road the quality of programmes would drop, as would the diversity. The advertising market is saturated already.

In short the TV licence fee is exceptionally good value for what we get for it.

I have no idea if there are any other companies funded like the BBC garinda but if there are we still pay for them in our exorbitant taxes. What about Learn Direct? That’s funded by the government isn’t it? The various railway companies are still being subsidised by the government. For subsidised read partially funded.

How can the BBC be a monopoly when there are other TV and radio broadcasters chav1? Surely monopoly means on its own or one of a kind, no competition.

I agree that the licence does have some strange conditions especially with regard to laptops and portables. But did you know that if you pop in next door to watch the TV there and it is not licensed and the detector van comes round and catches you out, everyone watching is liable to be prosecuted even if they have a licence for the TV in their own house. The licence covers the domicile not the householder although the householder’s name and address is on the licence. But someone without a TV licence for their own home can watch your licensed TV legally.

You can legally use a mains connected TV away from your house Neil but the TV at your home cannot be used at the same time by anyone. How that could be policed is a mystery to me. It’s all there on the back of the licence.

If you assume that there are at least 10 million homes in Britain (and there are probably many more) and they all have a TV licence that is an income of one and a quarter BILLION pounds per year. Then there are all the commercial licenses for pubs, clubs, hotels, guest houses etc. I doubt very much if the level of funding for the BBC is anywhere near that total. Gordon Brown will have his sticky fingers in the revenue.