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[–][deleted] 16 insightful - 1 fun16 insightful - 0 fun17 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

The UK should pull funding to the BBC if they're going to be this biased and bigoted.

[–]artetolife 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

They will lose all their funding in the next decade or so anyway, I hardly know anyone under the age of 50 who pays for the fee any more.

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Doesn’t the UK force people who own televisions to pay the fee? In Ireland, if you have a TV and you don’t pay the annual TV licence fee, you will get summoned to court.

[–]artetolife 12 insightful - 3 fun12 insightful - 2 fun13 insightful - 3 fun -  (5 children)

No, you can register as exempt if you don't use it for live TV or iplayer. And even if you do I've never had a visit from the license people, and you're legally allowed to just not answer the door to them anyway😂

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Good point. In Ireland, you’re only exempt from the TV licence if:

  1. You’re over 65.
  2. You don’t have a TV, you don’t have a tablet bigger than 12 inches (in other words, you don’t have a big iPad Pro), and you don’t have a large laptop or desktop computer.

You can hide your TV, and you can refuse to answer the door, but there is very little tolerance if any for those who don’t pay their TV licences. There are even advertisements on Irish channels where inspectors come to the door and smugly ask for the homeowners' licences, and the homeowners in these ads are always strawmanned. Those ads have not been circulated in recent years due to backlash from the public, so now you get ads that simply encourage people to get the licence if they have a telly. But it doesn’t make a difference, you are still treated like a criminal just for not paying €160 a monthyear for a licence when you have a device that you have paid for.

[–]artetolife 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It sounds draconian on paper but I think it's better than the situation elsewhere in Europe where everyone pays for the state TV even if you don't own a TV. Or worse, having TV like in the US where the ads never stop even when the show is on.

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If there’s going to be a public TV, I’d rather pay for it directly with my taxes than pay a fee just for owning an electronic device. Though I’d rather there not be public television at all. If it were up to me, RTÉ would become a private company.

[–]hufflepuff-poet 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

€160 a MONTH?! That's ludicrous just to have a TV. I thought it was a one-time or annual fee, not a monthly bill!

[–]RedEyedWarriorGay | Male | 🇮🇪 Irish 🇮🇪 | Antineoliberal | Cocks are Compulsory 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Oops, my mistake, it is €160 a year. But it’s still steep.