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BBC to force more to pay licence fee with ‘YouTube tax’ (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 1 day ago by Armand1@lemmy.world to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Currently, anyone who uses a television to watch content must pay the licence fee even if they do not watch the BBC. Under the proposed changes it would be expanded to cover all other online providers, such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, YouTube, which are currently exempt.

The Whitehall source explained that the move was “because people are able to use them to avoid paying currently”. They added: “It’s not fair that people are essentially able to watch television content but avoid the licence fee.”

Why would the BBC be allowed to collect money on services it does not provide? This is basically saying "everyone must pay this fee, or unplug their internet".

At that point, you might as well just take it from the government budget.

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[–] thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The top two layers are literally stacked with Tories, it's already biased as hell (I've posted peer reviewed papers on here previously that's fact not opinion).

Changing the funding model doesn't affect that.

Changes to remove overt bias can be done regardless of funding.

[–] thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe 5 points 1 day ago

And further to that I note an article in today's Guardian referencing a Reuters article (I'll dig that out and update with it if I can find it)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/oct/16/uk-outlier-europe-farage-politicians-present-tv-shows-gb-news

"However, an international study has confirmed that the UK’s decision to allow politicians to present such shows is highly unusual across Europe. In 35 of the 37 European nations studied, regulators found no recent examples of serving politicians presenting news or current affairs programmes"

"The study, by an academic from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism for the Demos thinktank, will be used as evidence by critics who believe that Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, has failed to protect impartiality by allowing the politician-led shows."