[opendtv] Re: Digital age 'may mean no TV for poor' [UK]
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 17:14:06 -0700
So, you are of the belief that the BBC is not owned by the government?
Otherwise, I am wholeheartedly in agreement with your comments. Eliminating
the licence fee is the best way to help the poor in this context.
Means-test it.
The whole thing is probably moot, since few are betting on the BBC having
access to the licence fee come 2007. Their charter is up in 2006, and there
have been more than a few missteps in the last year, so that now it's not
just the Tories talking about divesting the BBC and eliminating the licence
fee.
And, while we're at it, why not eliminate the subsidies that the
broadcasters and their enablers benefit from for the "transition to
digital." Funny how that never gets mentioned here. Oh, yeah, the absence
of a free electronic media marketplace is one of the hidden elephants.
John Willkie
-----Original Message-----
From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of John Shutt
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 2:40 PM
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Digital age 'may mean no TV for poor' [UK]
I believe the current license fee for a colo(u)r television is 121 gbp.
The current license fee is collected by a private agency on behalf of the
BBC. It does not go directly into the government coffers, and any break on
the license fee would have to be made up by the government or else the Beeb
would have a serious operating fund shortfall.
If one wanted to offer a government subsidized STB to the poor, then it
could offer a 30 gbp break on the license fee for 3 years to everybody.
That way the early adopters aren't penalized for buying early.
In any case, if you wish to be fair to the poor, then eliminate the TV
license fee altogether, which is a regressive tax, and replace it with a
progressive income tax. (In other words, bump the income tax rates by a
fraction of a percentage to pay for the Beeb.) Low or no income families
pay no income tax, and therefore would pay no license fee. Higher income
families would pay according to their ability.
It'll never happen.
John Shutt
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 1:04 PM
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Digital age 'may mean no TV for poor' [UK]
> Well, then, you'll just have to stop collecting the licence fee from those
> folk.
>
> (Do the math, idiots: give them a 99 pound (or less) STB, or forsake a 175
> pound annual licence fee.) This is the government arguing with itself,
> and
> using the public prints to scare people in the process.
>
> John Willkie
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