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With a lot high quality TV now on-line from the likes of Netflix and Disney, I’ve taken a glance into whether or not paying for the BBC represents good worth for cash.
It’s been introduced that in 2024, the TV Licence is rising by £10.50 a 12 months, with the annual value set to be £169.50.
It is a under inflation enhance (that might have been £15 extra), and follows two years of no will increase in any respect. That’s already led to various cuts on the broadcaster, with extra little doubt set to come back.
There might be some who might be happy to listen to there, and advocate that individuals cancel their TV Licence now moderately than pay extra. I’ve shared on this article who must have one and who doesn’t.
Nonetheless for me, the large query isn’t find out how to ditch the licence price, however must you?
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Who wants a TV Licence
Right here’s whenever you want a TV Licence:
In the event you watch any reside TVIf you file any TVIf you watch BBC TV on iPlayer, regardless of the machine (eg in your cellphone, video games console, TV and so forth)
Regardless of an increasing number of of us utilizing streaming companies, that is nonetheless just about most TV viewing.
So realistically the one means you’re eligible to keep away from the licence price is in case you solely watch on-line streaming or catch up companies (not together with iPlayer), and in case you by no means watch or file broadcast TV.
Now if that’s the case, then you definately don’t should pay, and I’ve shared additional down how one can cancel your TV Licence.
Over 75s
A rule change a couple of years in the past meant not throughout 75s get a free TV Licence. Nonetheless, many will nonetheless have the ability to declare one so long as they already obtain pension credit score. Right here’s extra data on the TV Licensing web site.
Earlier than we begin
Everybody has an opinion concerning the BBC, particularly the information output which these on the suitable say is just too left wing and people on the left say is just too proper wing. We’re going to place that apart for this evaluation and focus simply on what you get for the cash you pay.
I additionally wish to put my playing cards on the desk right here firstly. After I was 5 or 6, I declared that I needed to work for the BBC once I was older. And I did. From 22 to 33 years previous I labored everywhere in the Beeb, earlier than leaving to begin up Be Intelligent With Your Money. So it’s necessary to me.
Although it’s actually not good (what giant organisation is?). I do consider we’re higher off as a rustic with the BBC than with out. And that may clearly inform on my evaluation under.
But it surely’s greater than a decade since I left the broadcaster, and a lot has modified in that point – not simply on the BBC, but in addition how we devour our media – which works for me too.
And the price of dwelling disaster has made each penny we spend a lot extra necessary, making worth for cash as a licence price payer one thing that actually does want interrogating.
What I watch
So do I get worth from BBC TV? Over the previous few years my TV viewing has modified drastically. Lots of my favorite dramas and comedies could be discovered on Netflix, Sky Atlantic and Disney+.
But I do nonetheless watch loads of wonderful regular TV, primarily BBC and Channel 4. The truth is a number of the greatest exhibits I’ve watched during the last 12 months have been on these channels.
Glad Valley, Ghosts, Traitors, Race Throughout the World, Match of the Day, Boiling Level and What We Do In The Shadows (all BBC), by means of to It’s a Sin, The Nice British Bake Off and The Handmaid’s Story (all C4). And there are many nice older exhibits obtainable on-demand too, resembling basic Attenborough, Motherland, His Darkish Supplies, Peaky Blinders, The IT Crowd and The Bridge.
And I’m not alone. Most TV viewing is of a free to observe channel, whether or not that’s through Freeview or Sky. And the most-watched exhibits yearly are on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Even huge import TV exhibits like Recreation of Thrones, Loki or Stranger Issues haven’t come shut.
Nonetheless, £169 yearly is some huge cash. And there are some cheaper options with superb programmes.
How the TV Licence value compares to different media companies
In the event you pay for the TV Licence month-to-month on the new worth it’ll work out as £14.13 a month.
It’s far cheaper than paying for TV through Sky or Virgin, the place you’re no less than double that quantity each month, and probably as a lot as £100.
Elsewhere we’ve seen various streaming companies hike costs, closing the hole to the licence price.
Sky’s “on-demand” service NOW is £9.99 a month for the Leisure channels (not motion pictures or sport), or £119.88 a 12 months – although there are offers to get this even cheaper, usually half the worth. However if you need HD and to ditch adverts you’ll pay one other £6 every month.
Amazon Prime now is available in at £95 for the 12 months, which is £7.92 a month (and streaming solely is accessible at £5.99 a month).
After clamping down on sharing, Netflix begins at £4.99 a month (with adverts), however the most well-liked package deal is £10.99 a month, understanding at £131.88 a 12 months. You may pay extra, at £17.99 for the highest tier
Disney revamped costs in November 2023, so that you’ll pay both £4.99, £7.99 or £10.99 a month, whereas Apple TV+ additionally elevated month-to-month prices (once more) to £8.99 a month.
And there are others like Paramount+ (£7.99 a month), whilst you pays for further content material and no adverts through ITVx (£5.99 a month).
So on the entire, although there are an increasing number of of those streaming companies, and so they all maintain getting costlier, they are often cheaper options (in case you get them on their very own, or reduce the worth you pay through affords or go for the essential variations with adverts).
That’s a persuasive argument for ditching the Licence Payment so far as value goes. Nonetheless, I consider that so long as you may afford it, you get extra to your cash from the BBC than the premium companies.
What the Licence Payment pays for
The factor individuals ranting towards the TV Licence are likely to neglect is the cash doesn’t simply pay for BBC TV drama, documentaries and comedy. It additionally funds BBC information, sport, CBBC, radio and on-line.
And it’s these areas which I believe make that £14.08 immediately really feel like actually good worth. So I’ve damaged down this worth between all of the issues it pays for and calculated under what I believe is a good consultant worth for every BBC service.
These figures are only for me – you should have your personal views on what you utilize and don’t use.
BBC TV & iPlayer
My worth: £7 a month
So think about the drama, comedy, leisure and factual a part of the price was the identical worth as the opposite streaming companies at £10. Oh and iPlayer.
It doesn’t matter what you may instinctively suppose in case you simply flip the TV on and watch one thing reside, I believe in case you actually checked out what’s on, you’d discover loads of high quality new and previous content material to maintain you going all year long. We’ve truly acquired an extended record of exhibits we wish to watch and never acquired round to, and add no less than a pair each month.
However let’s say it’s £7, representing half of the cash you pay. That’s even cheaper than many of the different choices (and no adverts). I believe many individuals would suppose that’s fairly honest for what you get.
And don’t neglect this contains funding the manufacturing of BBC programmes you may truly find yourself watching on a service like Netflix! With out the licence price they wouldn’t be made within the first place.
BBC Radio & BBC Sounds
My worth: £3.50 a month
I’ve acquired a cool digital radio for the bathe. There are 4 presets, and we’ve acquired BBC 5Live, BBC 6 Music, Coronary heart 80s and Absolute 90s saved. My god, I hate the adverts on the latter two, making BBC radio important.
And through the first lockdown specifically I used to be mainlining 5Live – a incredible instance of nationwide broadcasting after we wanted it most.
BBC podcasts are now not simply radio exhibits put on-line. Many are commissioned only for BBC Sounds, together with the superb documentary Vishal (produced by my buddy Satiyesh) and music exhibits. Plus it’s a good way to compensate for radio you might need missed.
I do hearken to loads of Spotify, and there are some nice podcasts on the market (have you ever listened to my Money Chats one but?). So it’s potential to get good high quality music and speech content material (although you’ll want to pay to keep away from fixed adverts).
Nonetheless, given the selection between paying for Spotify (at £10.99 a month) and paying for BBC Radio, I’d choose BBC Radio. And at an equal worth of £3.50 a month I believe that’s a cut price.
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BBC Sport
My worth: £2 a month
In the event you needed to pay £2 a month, that’s simply £24 a 12 months, to get Wimbledon, Match of the Day, 6 Nations and smaller sports activities like snooker, athletics and so forth, plus each few years the World Cup, the Olympics and Commonwealth video games, I believe most individuals would suppose it’s incredible worth – particularly when in comparison with the £10.99 value to observe Sky Sports activities for someday on NOW TV.
BBC Information
My worth £1 a month
That is actually an space the place my view on worth for cash has modified (although loads of that’s right down to finances cuts enforced by the federal government by means of frozen or under inflation will increase to the licence price).
I’ll now go to the Guardian first for my information updates, moderately than the BBC Information web site, and even hearken to podcasts just like the Information Brokers over Newscast.
Nonetheless, BBC Information is the primary place I’ll go for breaking information. And in case you’ve ever watched information within the USA, you’ll admire not solely simply how good BBC Information is, however the way it makes certain the opposite information networks elevate their requirements.
I’d say it’s nicely value paying £1 a month for this – that’s simply 3.3p a day.
CBeebies and CBBC
My worth: 50p a month
Let’s say it prices 50p a month to have these channels – and I don’t even have children! In the event you do you most likely would say it’s value paying extra to get this important content material.
I grew up watching exhibits like Going Stay, Blue Peter and so forth. And extra not too long ago my niece and nephew cherished programmes like Justin’s Home and Operation Ouch.
And through the pandemic the BBC actually raised the bar in exhibits to assist with homeschooling.
Sure, you will get different children exhibits through Sky however these are largely low-cost abroad imports and I don’t suppose they’ve the identical schooling and high quality you get from the BBC.
BBC On-line
My worth: 0p a month
In earlier years, I’d allocate 50p a month for this, because it was the place I’d go to examine the climate, the information, the soccer scores and extra? Now I hardly go to it aside from to play Sounds or iPlayer, which I’ve coated in different sections. So lets deal with it as one thing you get as a part of your “contribution” to information, sports activities and so forth.
Different stuff
My worth: 13p a month
Then there’s loads of stuff we don’t see, however do profit from.
There are expertise developments which make an enormous distinction to how we watch TV (resembling iPlayer) and the way different programmes are made by different individuals (just like the cameras constructed for Blue Planet, or new “digital actuality sound”).
We’d not hearken to the World Service, but it surely does a fab job of selling the UK around the globe and supporting nations that actually want it.
Oh, and the licence price can also be used to verify everybody within the UK will get broadband, particularly rural areas. It did the identical for digital TV.
Proper, I’ll shut up now. However let’s say we pay 8p a month in the direction of all this (a complete of 96p a 12 months).
Cash nicely spent or a waste of money?
So simply to rapidly summarise, for me the £14.13 month-to-month TV licence value could possibly be damaged down like this.
£7 a month for all of the drama, comedy and documentaries (£84 a 12 months)£3.50 a month for all of the radio (£42 a 12 months)£2 a month for sport (£24 a 12 months)£1 a month for information protection (£12 a 12 months)50p a month for youngsters’s TV (£6 a 12 months)13p a month for the improvements (£1.50 a 12 months)plus all of the BBC web sites
I nonetheless suppose the licence price is a very good funding. The truth is I believe these values I’ve assigned are too most likely too low for what you get, particularly within the circumstances of sport and radio.
Sure I’ve made up the values above (in actuality the cut up is completely different), and there will definitely be elements you don’t use in any respect. But it surely’d be simple to justify assigning increased values to those you utilize and fewer to these you don’t – for instance in case you’ve acquired children you’d most likely suppose £2 a month for CBBC is nice worth.
And in case you take into account what you may pay for all of the separate elements at business charges, even in case you solely selected one or two, you’d possible pay simply as a lot.
Ought to the Licence Payment be scrapped?
Andy’s evaluation
The Conservative authorities has been heavy on anti-Licence Payment rhetoric for an excellent whereas, and that’s supported as ever by the likes of The Day by day Mail and Rupert Murdoch’s Information UK (The Solar & The Occasions) whose enterprise pursuits might be boosted by a weaker BBC.
However I do recognise there’s rising resentment in some elements of the general public, significantly by individuals who merely don’t watch any BBC (or reside) TV in any respect. I’ll usually see posts in cash saving Fb teams about scrapping it, with the vast majority of the a whole lot of feedback in favour of ditching it.
A lot of what I see in these conversations is misinformed, and I hope this text may also help steadiness a number of the arguments (I discover it irritating that the BBC’s personal impartiality insurance policies forestall it from delivering any respectable defence).
Just like the NHS, we’d actually miss the BBC if it was gone. Regardless of what number of wonderful US imports can be found to observe, there’s nonetheless incredible TV made within the UK, and an enormous a part of it’s right down to the BBC. Even in case you nonetheless suppose it’s an excessive amount of cash, I do suppose that it’s necessary we struggle to maintain the BBC unbiased and powerful.
Alternate options
If individuals genuinely don’t use any BBC service then I do suppose it’s unfair that they need to be pressured to pay for it. It appears one thing actually does want to alter. However what?
It’s actually robust to discover a resolution that might shield what the BBC stands for and allow it to provide the companies it does to the usual it does with out the total price.
Numerous individuals speak about a subscription methodology, as you have got with Netflix. It’s actually an possibility, however individuals don’t realise that Netflix makes little or no revenue, and hardly pays any tax within the UK.
I additionally suppose there’s a probability that for plenty of individuals the associated fee will go up with a purpose to get all of the companies. A latest report from the BBC stated it’d possible value £37 a month to get all of the companies.
That doesn’t sound too far off. The choose and blend method to Sky through NOW TV can prevent money versus a traditional Sky subscription, however if you need Leisure, Cinema, Youngsters and Sport you’re nonetheless paying £60 a month.
An advert funded mannequin is an alternative choice, however ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 aren’t swimming in money, and including the BBC into the market will imply there’s much less cash to go round. So we’ll see all of the free-to-air channels endure.
And we might see the BBC outbid for a number of the necessary huge occasions and programmes by the likes of Amazon – forcing individuals to shell out extra.
I think about it’d should be some type of blended mannequin. Maybe some companies funded by a diminished licence price with others subscription solely.
The right way to cease paying the Licence Payment
In the event you genuinely don’t watch any BBC TV, reckon you could possibly do with out, or don’t really feel you need to pay for the opposite BBC companies then you may cancel your licence.
You may inform TV Licensing that you just don’t require a licence right here. Simply be sure you don’t watch any reside TV or use iPlayer.
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