On NO Ive just read this on AOL

Tax on PCs May Replace BBC Licence Fee
Concern over TV viewing for free on the Internet
The TV licence fee is to remain... for now

A tax on personal computers is reportedly being considered as a replacement for the BBC licence fee.

Technological advances would mean that a fee based on "television ownership could become redundant", Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said.

More than six million UK households have access to broadband connections and the BBC has begun broadcasting video clips over the Internet.


A legal loophole identified by the communications regulator Ofcom allows viewers to watch television over the Internet for free, The Times reports.

Ofcom predicts that more than half of Britain’s households will be watching television over the Internet by 2012.

Although the licence fee is being retained at least until 2017, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Green Paper setting out the BBC’s long-term future proposes a solution that could end the traditional fee.

It suggests "either a compulsory levy on all households or even on ownership of PCs as well as TVs", according to The Times.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it was not worried for now, but insiders told the newspaper that the department would act if Internet viewing took off.

Yep, kinda hope so. With the BBC piloting Podcasting, it's own media player and toying with bittorrents as distribution channel it could be an interesting few years. There's a lot of content I'm paying for that I can't access when I want it. The move towards internet distribution makes sense to me.

All those people who supported the retention of the TV licence will be over the moon to learn that the government not only intends to retain it, but has gone one better and is considering extending the idea to licences for the ownership of a Personal Computer. This, is apparently because people are increasingly downloading BBC media over the Internet.

It doesn't seem to matter that most people do not even do this, or that most people who own a PC will own a TV also and pay for a TV licence. The people that own both a TV and a PC would find themselves paying the TV licence fee twice over.

This is a fine example of how the government are never short of inventive ideas for extracting money from people who never actually watch BBC, and now it seems millions of PC owners could end up having to cough up this anachronistic tax if this ridiculous idea is allowed to proceed.

Perhaps this will be the final straw and hopefully see the Licence go the same way as the Poll tax did.

There is no mention about charging people from overseas who download the media.

http://www.computeractive.co.uk/news/1161957

I'm 99.9999999% sure this topic has been done but can't find the thread anywhere. :confused: Did it get pulled? Or is a mod breaking one of the principle forum rules? :hihi: Nevermind Lickszz, you're still the best mod. :hihi: :thumbsup:

Funny enough T020, I thought I could recall something similar, but I couldn't find it either. The article in question however is dated 16/03/05. If someone does mange to locate the thread in question, I will happily merge but until then......

The Government says it has no plans as to how the licence fee will be collected from PC owners, saying the proposals refer to when the BBC's charter is renewed in 2016. "By that time," a representative of the Department told us, "it might be necessary to look at extending the licence fee to computers."

2016?

It might be necessary?

Careful the mods don't put this in the politics forum.

Why not just close the BBC site?. I have never downloaded anything off the BBC site and i never will!.

The government had better start using some of our taxes to build new prisons, because i for one will not be buying another licence for my computers :mad:

That should keep a few thousand more civil (?) sevants in cushy jobs.Which part will be taxed as more and more people now build their own pc's.PC detector vans?

maybe you could merge this (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?threadid=31163&highlight=licence+replace+television) :thumbsup:

Originally posted by bladesgirl
maybe you could merge this (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?threadid=31163&highlight=licence+replace+television) :thumbsup:

MOD: Thanks for that. Why can't more people be nice and make life simpler for we mods?

Originally posted by max
MOD: Thanks for that. Why can't more people be nice and make life simpler for we mods?

Tried to find the thread for you but the wonderful search facility didn't help me (or Lickszz by the looks of it).