BBC to charge for iPlayer

[Hoofy]

Cheese Mechanic said:

How do others feel about this, will you pay for iplayer access?

Nope. Hardly use it. I have used it when I miss Top Gear and Not Going Out () but it's not really worth it even if it were just £2 a month.

[greygoose]

Eric Mc said:

Thread No.125 on the BBC.

It's all getting a bit tedious.

Why don't we have a single "BBC" thread and let all the BBC debate happen there.

A bit like we do for those who want to debate "Climate Change" ad nauseum.

It does seem strange that those who claim never to watch it spend so much time moaning about it.

[turbobloke]

greygoose said:

Eric Mc said:

Thread No.125 on the BBC.

It's all getting a bit tedious.

Why don't we have a single "BBC" thread and let all the BBC debate happen there.

A bit like we do for those who want to debate "Climate Change" ad nauseum.

It does seem strange that those who claim never to watch it spend so much time moaning about it.

As one of those not watching or listening to BBC output by choice, I can say that moaning is nowhere near right.

Calling it moaning os an attempt to trivialise the situaiton. It makes out that there's nothing much on the negative side so adverse comment is just a 'moan' when in reality there's very little on the positive side.

Various people aren't moaning they're indicating the BBC facts of life: an archaic funding mechanism that boils down to a captive customer base providing unwarranted largesse where those who don't watch subsidise others, serial mismanagement by the politicians at the top of the BBC, £hundreds-of-millions of waste, excessive salaries with other-worldly pensions (given that on the domestic front the BBC doesn't have to compete in the accepted sense), severance payments that would make a politician blush, and then there's the blatant left-wing bias when they're supposed to be impartial.

They're lucky to have survived this long, at least now the clock is ticking.

[Morningside]

The amount of repeats on the BBC I don't think you need iPlayer.
/runsforcover

[Yabu]

Cheese Mechanic said:

How do others feel about this, will you pay for iplayer access?

Personally, if it means buying a TV "license" at £145.50 , then I will not . I just do not use it enoiugh (even when its free).

If they allow pay per view , or specific channels at a reasonable cost then I might be tempted, but otherwise? Nah!

Wonder if this is a move to cut off the we don't watch live tv crowd, getting beeb services without paying the licence fee, no payment no I player seems fair in this case.

[Crush]

Morningside said:

The amount of repeats on the BBC I don't think you need iPlayer.
/runsforcover

Watch out for the BBC lovers! They'll be foaming at the mouth (I assume it's foam and it's the media BBC they're devoted to )

[Morningside]

The cynical side of me still says the ONLY reason for the switch from analogue to digital was for a slow transition to Pay Per View anyway as it would have been a nightmare to sell it to a fully analogue public.
But this way its a more of a drip drip effect.

[grumbledoak]

Morningside said:

The cynical side of me still says the ONLY reason for the switch from analogue to digital was for a slow transition to Pay Per View anyway as it would have been a nightmare to sell it to a fully analogue public.
But this way its a more of a drip drip effect.

The analogue to digital move was so the government could sell us our own airwaves again.

The BBC have resisted all attempts to move them toward any kind of supply and demand situation. While telling us how it is the best BBC money can buy, how it is so very, very cheap, how it's output is all so brilliant we would all flock to buy it at twice the price anyway, and that we'll miss it when it's gone. It is long overdue privatisation.

[vonuber]

Yet again, people on PH want to destroy something that is unique and good about the UK (all for the sake of £145!). I get the feeling people on here won't be happy until everything is private and we are getting ripped off up to our bks (but as long as shareholders are happy, who cares?).

[Randy Winkman]

vonuber said:

Yet again, people on PH want to destroy something that is unique and good about the UK (all for the sake of £145!). I get the feeling people on here won't be happy until everything is private and we are getting ripped off up to our bks (but as long as shareholders are happy, who cares?).

I don't think they are concerned about the £145. I think they are concerned about the political principle.

[vonuber]

Randy Winkman said:

I don't think they are concerned about the £145. I think they are concerned about the political principle.

Oh yes. The left wing bias, or 'doesn't slavishly follow what I personally think therefore must be bias'. It's tiresome - on the one hand they moan about the 'multi-culturalism destroying this great country' whilst at the same time wanting to do exactly the same themselves.
As long as they are rich enough to be fine, then who gives a st about anybody else?

[sugerbear]

So rather than telling pensioners we can't afford their free licence the government offloads the responsibility to the BBC.

Thin end of the wedge.

[grumbledoak]

vonuber said:

Oh yes. The left wing bias, or 'doesn't slavishly follow what I personally think therefore must be bias'. It's tiresome - on the one hand they moan about the 'multi-culturalism destroying this great country' whilst at the same time wanting to do exactly the same themselves.
As long as they are rich enough to be fine, then who gives a st about anybody else?

I think you are missing the point. And throwing in a generous helping of your own chip. I don't want to pay for your football season ticket, your visiting Thai 'lady' massage, or your broadcast 'entertainment'. Buy your own. We are not talking about hospitals and schools here.

[Mojocvh]

vonuber said:

Yet again, people on PH want to destroy something that is unique and good about the UK (all for the sake of £145!). I get the feeling people on here won't be happy until everything is private and we are getting ripped off up to our bks (but as long as shareholders are happy, who cares?).

Indeed, how are the government going to disseminate their propaganda if it turns into a pay to view system??

[Dogwatch]

0000 said:

So it's not just that they can't charge over 75s, but that the DWP is paying the BBC the licence fee? I'm glad that is being stopped then.

I'm heading towards 75 (still a little way to go!) and can't see any reason nowadays for that birthday to be a reason for free telly for all. Those who need help to pay - fine, but the usual 'I paid all my taxes' moan doesn't stand scrutiny.

[NicD]

Dogwatch said:

I'm heading towards 75 (still a little way to go!) and can't see any reason nowadays for that birthday to be a reason for free telly for all. Those who need help to pay - fine, but the usual 'I paid all my taxes' moan doesn't stand scrutiny.

Excellent, a fine age and one I hope to reach

I imagine the Government treats as a bribe, and to avoid allegations of being nasty to old people. As you say, there is no rational basis for it.

[turbobloke]

vonuber said:

Oh yes. The left wing bias, or 'doesn't slavishly follow what I personally think therefore must be bias'.

No not that. It's the left-wing biased acknowledged by BBC senior staffers over several years: Sissons, Sewell, Aitken with 20+ years each, and the rest, with overwhelming evidence from actual examples in the BBC Bias threads. While it exists such bias sure is tiresome.

vonuber said:

As long as they are rich enough to be fine, then who gives a st about anybody else?

Class warfare in a thread about BBC bias? Talk about chips with everything.

Not long ago £145 was such a trivial sum it wasn't worth noting.

vonuber said:

Yet again, people on PH want to destroy something that is unique and good about the UK (all for the sake of £145!).

29 fivers is chicken feed...toff stuff or should that be champagne socialist alert.

As to good, there's nothing good about appalling management that wastes hundreds of £millions (obtained through what amounts to a captive audience funding mechanism) which are then used to overpay people manning a lefty propaganda machine.

Bad BBC.

[dandarez]

sugerbear said:

So rather than telling pensionersthose of the age 75 and over that we can't afford their free licence the government offloads the responsibility to the BBC.

Thin end of the wedge.

corrected for you

[jmorgan]

grumbledoak said:

Morningside said:

The cynical side of me still says the ONLY reason for the switch from analogue to digital was for a slow transition to Pay Per View anyway as it would have been a nightmare to sell it to a fully analogue public.
But this way its a more of a drip drip effect.

The analogue to digital move was so the government could sell us our own airwaves again.

The BBC have resisted all attempts to move them toward any kind of supply and demand situation. While telling us how it is the best BBC money can buy, how it is so very, very cheap, how it's output is all so brilliant we would all flock to buy it at twice the price anyway, and that we'll miss it when it's gone. It is long overdue privatisation.

The government always has made money from the spectrum these waves inhabit. They always will. And they continue to do so.

But digital was always going to happen.

[redtwin]

If all licensed broadcasters were getting a cut of the £145 I would actually pay it. Why should just one get all the money whether they have deserved it or not?.

Who am I kidding, if there was a system in place that guaranteed my wages whether or not I actually worked for it, I would be the first to sign up for it.