Quote:
Originally Posted by passingbat
How do you make a fee of around £12 a month extortionate considering the vast amount of content you get for that amount; TV, Radio and your favourite content delivery method; On Line.
Do you have the statistics to support this?
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Looking at the tremendous waste that goes on at the BBC, of course it is extortionate.
I have not seen any surveys done on what people think of the TV licence, but quite a lot of correspondence on these forums and elsewhere testifies to the fact that a lot of people resent paying for it. I can understand why, particularly if you don't actually watch the BBC channels or listen to BBC radio.
---------- Post added at 13:29 ---------- Previous post was at 13:17 ----------
Moving forward....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...V-service.html
Freeview is to undergo its biggest overhaul in a decade by launching a new service called Freeview Play, which will provide access to catch-up content from BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD.
The free service will allow thousands of British households to access on-demand services in their living rooms for the first time.
Freeview Play will be available on a range of new TVs and set-top boxes, and enabled with any existing broadband service. Viewers will be able to search for catch-up content by scrolling back in the TV guide or through apps.
The service will go head-to-head with YouView – the connected TV service launched in 2012 by the main TV broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5), together with BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva – which recently signed a deal to integrate with Sony TVs.
Freeview was launched in 2002 as a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB and Arqiva, the telecoms group. It provides over 60 TV channels, up to 12 HD channels and over 25 radio stations and is subscription-free.
Freeview wants its new connected TV service to become the “new normal” way to watch TV.
Guy North, managing director of Freeview, said: “Freeview has been built on a vision to make television available to all free from subscription. In the same way that we took the UK from analogue to digital, Freeview Play is the next step in that vision and will put the viewer in control.
“We want to keep television fair and open for everyone. That means giving consumers the freedom to choose the TV they want, the way they want it.”
Last year, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 withdrew most of their financial support for YouView and agreed to spend more than £100m developing a new internet-connected version of Freeview, after it emerged that virtually all YouView households were pay-TV customers of BT or TalkTalk.
This was due in part to the £300 retail price of a YouView set-top, which meant that the service only became popular when the cost was subsidised by BT or TalkTalk and spread across the duration of a broadband contract.
The main goal of Freeview Play is to ensure that catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD are available in the living room to households that cannot afford or do not want a pay-TV package.
“The UK has a very proud heritage of making sure people have access to free television,” said Mr North. “We are aiming to do with Freeview Play what Freeview has always done, which is making technology available and affordable for a mass market.”
---------- Post added at 13:35 ---------- Previous post was at 13:29 ----------
...And here is the Virgin Media story about extending their service beyond their existing boundaries by 2020.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...K-economy.html
Virgin Media has announced what it calls the largest investment into Britain's broadband infrastructure for more than a decade, creating 6,000 new jobs in an £8bn boost to the UK economy.
The internet provider will extend its network to approximately 4m additional homes and offices over the next five years as part of what it has called "Project Lightning," taking its coverage to nearly 17m premises by 2020.
Analysis undertaken by leading economic consultancy Oxera has found that this investment can be expected to spark £8bn of economic activity.
"I welcome this substantial investment from Virgin Media which is a vote of confidence in our long-term economic plan to support business and create jobs by building a superfast nation backed by world-class infrastructure," said the Prime Minister, David Cameron.
"These 6,000 new jobs and [1,000] apprenticeships will mean financial security and economic peace of mind for thousands more hardworking families across the country."
The media company has claimed that householders will benefit from broadband speeds of 152Mb, at least twice as fast as the fastest speeds available from rival media companies BT, TalkTalk and Sky.
The rollout is also expected to provide small businesses and people working from home with faster broadband.
“Millions of homes and businesses will soon be able to benefit for the first time from broadband speeds at least twice as fast as those available from the other major providers," said Tom Mockridge, chief executive, who joined Virgin Media last July from News International.
The race to sign up pay-TV and broadband customers intensified last year with the launch of BT's sports channels, which are free with the company's internet service, as well as the roll-out of fibre-optic cables, which offer much faster broadband speeds.