I Just Cancelled My TV Licence
I Finally Hit my BBC Tipping Point
Hearing the BBC describe Ismael Haniyeh as "moderate and pragmatic" was the last straw.
The BBC’s sanitisation of Hamas predates October 7th but given the brutality of what happened on that day, its response tells us that the organisation has lost all humanity. Viewers had to first of all endure the broadcaster’s refusal to refer to Hamas as “terrorists”, preferring the more neutral “militant”; latterly, it took to adding the rejoinder “proscribed in the UK as a terrorist organisation” after each mention. This feels like a petulant teenage adding the words “according to my mum.”
The BBC’s journey from Reithian state broadcaster to political activist and election meddler has been a long one in which its reporting of the aftermath of October 7th has been merely one facet. On a personal level, I was inched towards cancelling my licence by hearing BBC news broadcast that the protestors at a ULEZ protest I attended in April 2023 included “conspiracy theorists and far-right groups”. My initial complaint was brushed off; the escalation was partially upheld.
A year on from the complaints, I’ve joined protests outside Broadcasting House and watched Nigel Farage experience an applause vacuum courtesy of a hand-picked BBC audience during the general election campaign. Only the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon kept me hanging on. And then news broke about Haniyeh…
My first reaction was to cancel my direct debit. When the next payment failed, I received a letter to that effect. At this point, I looked further into the process and found that I actually needed to make a phone call. Before I did this, I looked into what I would still be able to watch, if anything, without a TV licence. I can’t watch anything on the BBC, obviously, nor on iPlayer. Nor can I watch any live broadcast TV from any other channel on any device from my home. Since I never do this - apart from GB News or watching Wimbledon - this is not a sacrifice at all. I can watch GB News on catch-up which is something I often do in any case. Everything else I watch is streamed on demand (i.e. not live) via an Amazon Firestick and is legitimate for me to watch without a TV licence.
If you feel the same way, do likewise: visit the TV Licensing site and cancel. Declining licence income is already grabbing the attention of the BBC board so accelerate the process of defunding an institution that has betrayed the British public.
And as for Wimbledon? Well, my tennis club in the next street has a TV licence so I can watch it there…
It is time to defund the BBC.
#DefundTheBBC
I looked further into the process and found that I actually needed to make a phone call.....
No you don't. You don't need to do anything other than stop paying for a licence. You will of course be inundated with threats and demands. Throw them in the bin. Any 'TV Enforcement' Officer' visits can be turned away with just a no thank you and close the door. They have no powers to enter of any sort as they are employees of Crapita and nothing more than sales people. They can only get a warrant (Nigh on impossible for them) to enter if you give them any evidence ... Don't engage with them.
ChilliJonCarne
https://youtu.be/Asrpkcj9zoY?si=Bc8W_yoOk1PhMzTB
I did this about 4 years ago. The BBC constantly send threatening letters and they even sent someone round to my house once. Then they stopped for a couple of years but now they have started sending the threatening letters again. It feels like extortion - and I detest the BBC so much that I would not even watch or listen to any of their shows even on someone else’s TV!