TV Tax: UK Mulls Plan To Charge Netflix And Disney+ Subscribers To Fund State Propaganda Network BBC
Time to cancel your subscription.
The following report is from Bloomberg (excerpts):
The UK is considering making households who only use streaming services such as Netflix and Disney pay the BBC license fee, as part of plans to modernize the way it funds the public-service broadcaster.
Extending the fee to streaming applications is on a menu of options being discussed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office, the Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing internal government deliberations.
Alternatives under discussion include allowing the British Broadcasting Corp. to use advertising, imposing a specific tax on streaming services, and asking those who listen to BBC radio to pay a fee.
The government is the early stages of examining how to overhaul the funding of Britain’s public broadcaster when its current 11-year charter ends on Dec. 31, 2027. Ministers are looking to either retain and alter the current television license fee model or scrap it and instead fund the BBC through alternative models such as taxation or subscription. That’s because viewing habits have changed as users gravitate toward on-demand services.
The talks are sensitive because the UK’s national broadcaster is often viewed as a key vehicle for the country’s soft power around the world. But the BBC — which is committed to maintaining impartiality in its editorial output — also frequently faces criticisms of bias from both the left and right of the country’s political spectrum.
Another option is to leave the license fee largely as it is, with a few tweaks, a continuation of uprating, and better enforcement, a person familiar with the internal deliberations said. If there were an obvious alternative model, the license fee would have been scrapped already, they added.
Government discussions remain preliminary and nothing has been decided, the people said. A spokesperson for the DCMS said in a statement that they wouldn’t comment on “speculation,” adding: “we will provide more details about charter review plans in due course.”
The license fee dates back to 1946, when consumers watched programs at the time of broadcast. It currently costs households who watch live TV or use BBC iPlayer £169.50 ($210.60) a year, an amount that usually rises annually with inflation. Even if they don’t watch BBC programs, households are required to hold a TV license to view or stream programs live on sites including YouTube and Amazon Prime Video. However it’s not needed by those who only watch on-demand, non-BBC content.
License fee income in 2023/24 totaled £3.66 billion, little more than the £3.51 billion raised in 2010/11, according to government data. While expanding the fee to cover streaming services would address the shift from linear viewing to video-on-demand, it also risks a backlash from consumers who already pay subscriptions for the same services.
“Forcing streaming service users to cough up the license fee would truly be one of the most bonkers ideas ever concocted,” said John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a pressure group that campaigns for lower taxes. “Far from modernizing the BBC’s funding system, it would only further entrench the already archaic nature of the hated TV tax.”
A YouGov poll commissioned for the Sunday Times found that 36% of voters favor abolishing the license fee and funding the BBC through general taxation, with 49% opposed.
Other options under consideration include: imposing a specific tax on streaming; asking people who listen to BBC radio to also pay the license fee; and making users of the BBC’s on-demand app pay a subscription fee rather than the license, mirroring the business model of services like Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime and Apple TV. Ministers are also looking at tiering the license fee to ensure lower-income households don’t pay the same rate as more affluent users.
“We want everyone to get value from the BBC,” the BBC said in a statement. “We look forward to engaging with government on the next charter and securing the long term future of the BBC.”
Read the rest of the report here.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
“[…] committed to maintaining impartiality in its editorial output […]” -of please, give me a break! We all know the BBC is one of the most egregious propaganda machines in the world; they do not tell the truth and constantly are putting their own deceitful spin on everything.
Proverbs 11:15 He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure.
I’m not British, and I have never subscribed to either subscription service (nor will I ever be), but this proposal by the lunatic Starmer government is just nuts. Maybe this will actually cause some people to finally forsake all this extra vanity, depravity and lies they have been wasting money on each month.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
The WinePress needs your support! If God has laid it on your heart to want to contribute, please prayerfully consider donating to this ministry. If you cannot gift a monetary donation, then please donate your fervent prayers to keep this ministry going! Thank you and may God bless you.
Netflix and Disney are both perverted and evil in content and cartoon graphics. Their intent is to corrupt children and the adults in their lives need to throw out the 'tell-a-lie visual aid' and interact with their progeny.