[doublerabbit]

That's another no-brainer to why I shouldn't pay for a TV License. I'm not going to support an organisation which cuts off my Scottish PM, refuses air importance. Produces poor quality entertainment and now wanting to sell a decent broadcaster from the UK.

No seriously, to the down-voters; in the UK you have to pay a TV license. I find the quality of BBC programming really poor. C4 was decent, but if the government is going to sell to a media empire, I do not want to give further money to the government. And I am aware channel four does not receive money from the TV License but they are still owned by the British Government.

[Veen]

> in the UK you have to pay a TV license

You have to only if you watch broadcast TV, live TV, or use iPlayer. If you're not doing any of those things, then not paying isn't really a boycott. On the other hand, if you are doing them, then you're likely to get fined for it eventually.

[billpg]

Just to underline the point, in the UK, you need to pay a TV License fee to watch any broadcast TV, including Channel 4. They (C4) don't get any funding from this fee.

[gadders]

And let's not forget that almost 1/3 of all criminal convictions for women in the UK are due to the BBC TV license [1] which is disgusting. TV License non-payment needs to be de-criminalised.

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tv-licence-f...

[Veen]

Why is that disgusting? No one forces those women watch TV without a license.

[gadders]

I don't know, man. I think a criminal record for the moral equivalent of sharing a Netflix login is a bit harsh.

[doublerabbit]

> You have to only if you watch broadcast TV, live TV, or use iPlayer. If you're not doing any of those things, then not paying isn't really a boycott.

I disagree by not paying the yearly TV sub, they are not getting my yearly sum of money via protest. No, I don't do any of that, if the content was worth watching I would be paying for it.

[Veen]

The result of lots of people "boycotting" the BBC is that it won't be funded and will end up being sold like Channel 4. Many in the current government would love to break up and sell off the BBC. I agree that the Beeb is largely garbage at the moment, but I hope that it can recover from it's current malaise in the future.

[tialaramex]

For-profit newspapers in the UK are part funded by the "TV license" but Channel 4 is not.

Channel 4 is funded by advertising, and by its for-profit ventures like Film 4, which is one of the production companies for famous movies like "12 Years A Slave".

[doublerabbit]

They do not receive funding from the TV license. However channel four is owned by the British Government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Government_Investments

[tialaramex]

Sure, the British Government owns a bunch of things, including Railway Companies, several Banks, and lots of special purpose companies like the Low Carbon Contracts Company (which exists ordinarily to pay a subsidy to e.g. wind farms, but with energy prices so high actually they pay it money instead)

Selling off these natural monopolies to a private investor who will then demand extra profits to do roughly the same thing and be an intractable obstacle to any political changes is Tory policy but it does not make any actual economic sense it's purely ideological.

[te_chris]

They don’t receive license fee funding

[doublerabbit]

They do not receive funding from the TV license. However channel four is owned by the British Government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Government_Investments