Der BBC entgehen Lizenzgebühren in Höhe von 1,1 Milliarden Pfund – weil die Leute ihre Türen nicht öffnen
BBC missing out on £1.1bn in licence fees – because people won’t answer their doors
Von scramblingrivet
Der BBC entgehen Lizenzgebühren in Höhe von 1,1 Milliarden Pfund – weil die Leute ihre Türen nicht öffnen
BBC missing out on £1.1bn in licence fees – because people won’t answer their doors
Von scramblingrivet
39 Kommentare
I’ve had a million letters, never once had anyone at my door.
The adage goes „speak softly and carry a big stick“. BBC licensing is the most annoying entity in the country but has no power. Of course nobody will open the door for them.
„This one trick could save us billions! Click to find out how!“
Rookie numbers. It should be missing out on £4bn more
How much are they missing out on by exempting the elderly from paying the licence fee?
The BBC is a public service, and much like other public services it’s paid for by the young to subsidise the old.
Ooooor, maybe stop trying to charge people for watching non-bbc shows?
I’m sure many would be happy to pay for BBC as a streaming service, but I’m not paying them to watch other live shows and events 😂
License fee is weird. It’s even weirder in Jersey in the Channel Islands where I used to live.
You are suppose to pay the license fee there, but you don’t live in the UK or get to vote in UK elections. So why do they have jurisdiction? Even weirder is enforcement comes from the UK, I have never heard of anyone there having the BBC come to their door because they would have to take a boat or a plane over to do that.
Bizarre to include £600m+ of revenue from people who have declared they don’t need the license automatically into the headline.
I’m sure some are evading but plenty will just genuinely not require one.
Lmao. Careful, you’ll get a scary red letter from them.
If the BBC went behind a paywall how many would still pay and how many would stop instantly?
Probably save more on paper and ink costs if they didn’t send out (or contract out) the letters about imaginary investigations.
I wonder how much they would save if they believed people when they say they don’t need one? And then didn’t waste a tree, ink, energy, postal capacity, peoples time, and money chasing innocent people.
I’m certain smart doorbells have a role in this. You can ask someone why they’re visiting before opening the door, so no inspector can say „I saw/heard the TV on when they opened the door“.
I’m not surprised. This probably isn’t even specific to TV licensing, it seems some people don’t answer their door to anyone, unless they’ve made prior arrangements with their visitors.
Quite happy to be paid to sit at home and wait for them to knock!
I find the figure a bit suspect, in 2024/25, the total UK TV licence fee income was approximately £3.8 billion, I don’t believe they could increase that by over 25% if people answered their door.
Making it hard work and unjustifiable for the youth with better customisable online options is a very outdated model.
It may also not look like, but people are more mindful of every £10ish subscription.
Put it as an optional tick box to the electricity bill, and you’d see numbers go up. I don’t even watch television or the Beeb, but I would not mind at all adding a £2.50 most months to subsidy such an important British establishment.
Actually going to watch the BBC for the first time in six months today, Ashes highlights this evening. Don’t have TNT so can’t watch live plus also kind of need to sleep anyway. Pretty sure I haven’t watched it since the snooker World final in May. Don’t get much value for money from my licence fee.
People are just not watching live TV anymore, with internet services being what they’re no one needs to pay the BBC for content. And also, importantly, the BBC are a mouth piece for the state, they basically feed us bullshit routinely. Who would want to pay for it?!
I think I know their root problem
https://ibb.co/XxWyh8JQ
I just wanted to see the yearly cost
I have a doorbell cam now because I was tired of unsolicited visits. If I see someone I don’t recognise or wasn’t expecting I don’t answer.
How much of that deficit is from the cost of sending billions of letters to people.
I don’t need a license so I don’t have one. I also refuse to tell them I don’t need their service because the Onus should be on me telling them that I DO need their service.
How muxh would they save if they didn’t send out letters or employ enforcement agents?
The ridiculously aggressive letters lead to a lot of people adopting a policy of hostility and distrust towards TV licencing out of principle. If you want people to be more amenable to the idea of talking to TV licencing inspectors maybe stop harassing them with empty threats through the post for years beforehand.
I think Rupert Lowe put in an FOI about the letters they send and it turns out they sent 72 million in 2024.
I’m trying to read the page that was linked to it, but it seems down and has been for a while.
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-administering-the-licence-fee-AB20
ETA:
Heres the response to the FOI
https://ibb.co/xt9VkG74
I’ve just cancelled mine after realising that the last thing I watched on iPlayer was the Queen’s funeral.
The I don’t need a licence page is quite funny, it requires a date, which is automatically populated to 2026, I updated it to 2076 instead. The confirmation email stated
We won’t be in touch now until your claim is about to expire.
I hope it’ll be 2076
How will they settle Trump’s lawsuit if they can’t hand over your money?
They’re still sending me aggressive letters despite the fact I’ve told them I don’t use their services.
when my mum logged into her 10yr old iplayer while dogsitting at a neighbours. to then her receiving a letter of threats that she would be taken to court for 1k etc etc, for watching at home when she didn’t, i would have loved them to have sent someone to come round to be able to explain things. automated phone line, no idea if going through that and saying didn’t need one after that letter sorted it because theres no human reassurance its been cleared. so we reported it to the MP, who got Tim Davie to send an email saying that it had been closed. would have loved someone to have come round who could have confirmed no problem at all, all sorted now.
Had tonnes of letters, only one visit from an „Officer“ I caught trying to peep through the guest bedroom window who promptly shat himself when I yelled from the upstairs window that I’d taken a photo of him and was calling the police on him for voyerism. He tried to use the fact he could see the person in the room watching something on the TV as a justification, my reply was we don’t need a TV licence to watch fucking YouTube. Don’t think they’ve come back since
I like to open the door just to tell them no, they can’t come in, and no I won’t bother my arse to register an exemption either because if they’re going to send out scary letters to bully demented wee grannies then I’m quite happy to have them come out and waste their time and money chapping my door and being told to beat it
Just cancelled mine, not sure why I’ve paid for so many years and never even watched anything on live tv
I expect video doorbells have decimated their visits success rates too. Fuck them.
What they actually need to do is utilise the available infrastructure. If I don’t pay my license take BBC away from me. If I want it make me pay and give it back. Netflix doesn’t have to send people to my door they utilise the infrastructure to put controls in place.
Yes TV is slightly different to an application but there are mechanisms.
Haven’t paid for 4 years now, never once had a knock on my door. If only more people would do the same.
From the article “Evasion is now running at 12.5 per cent (£550m) with 3.6m households declaring they did not need a licence (£617 million).”
How do they know evasion is running at 12.5%? Like many families we know the kids are busy during the week after school or doing homework and when they do watch something it’s on demand.
We subscribe to Netflix, Disney etc but don’t watch live tv, is our household included in this figure?
There’s a presumption of guilt in the letters that we receive regularly. I don’t see the need to prove we don’t watch live tv as a household and legally I’m not required to do so.
maybe if they didn’t spend £1.1bn on pointless letters they would save a bit of money to save their dying television channels?
Cry me a river.
I came home from work once and a massive bouncer looking dude was stood on my front garden trying to peer into my front window.
I startled him. Told him, fairly politely, to do one. He tried to argue with me, I got pissed off, marched him to the front door, opened it and introduced him to a back to brick renovation mid rewire. That stopped the letters for a bit.
Years later, after a stream of threatening letters, I called their hotline telling them in no uncertain terms that I don’t and will never require their services, and to remove me from their listing. The call han dler apologised, and told me they’d check in with me in a year. FFS…
Had a final warning, active investigation opened letter arrive this morning as it happens.
What an absolute waste of time and resources.
It’s really that simple. I ignore the letters and i’d close the door on the workers. Unless they have police with a warrant, I wouldn’t give them the time of day.
I’ve been receiving letters for 2 years in my house and I’ve never had someone chap at my door to „bEgiN tHeIr InVeStIgAtIoN“.
Let’s face it also, the moment they click you aren’t a vulnerable person/pensioner/stressed frightened woman, they don’t pursue you.
I wouldn’t be expected to be hounded for a driving licence etc so why do they see fit to interrogate me about whether or not I watch live telly or their terrible platform
Maybe they should stop wasting money hounding people via letters and coming to their doors, and just put ads on the BBC for those who don’t want to pay. Or making it a general tax.
It’s insane how simple a thing this is to fix…
I like the BBC, but it lost its credibility a long, long time ago with the constant scandals and obvious bias. Which is one of the reasons I stopped paying and watching their stuff.
I hope trump sues them into the ground at this point