For as long as I can remember, the BBC licence fees have been a bone of contention with me. Rightly or wrongly, I disagree with it. Why should I pay money for a channel I don’t use while watching other channels? Just because the BBC is there, lurking in the background, one click on the remote away? I don’t think so.
I’m not one to break the law, however, so I ditched live TV in favour of the streaming services. Yes, I have to pay for those, but I pay for what I want to watch when I want to watch it, not for rubbish I don’t care for at times I have no say in. But it seems this ideal arrangement may be coming to an end.
Fees for streaming
Watching live TV on streaming services has always cost. You must pay a fee for that. But now, the government are reportedly looking into making users of Netflix and Disney Plus pay a licence fee, even though they are not broadcast TV. This is one of a few options being considered including a fee for BBC Radio listeners and allowing the BBC to use advertising. As Rebecca Ryan of Defund the BBC put it, “it’s just a tax on entertainment”.
Don’t submit to fees people
If the government does impose fees on streaming to help the future running of the BBC, don’t go along with it. I’m not asking you to break the law, merely discard Netflix and Disney Plus and stop streaming. Yes, it’s a big ask and yes, it’ll take away a chunk of our entertainment from us. Yes, it’ll be rather upsetting for a lot of us, myself included.
The universal truth, however, is that if you agree to pay a ransom then the price of that ransom goes up. If you agree to the streaming fee, how long before fees on YouTube are introduced? Fees on DVDs? There are other ways we can entertain ourselves; reading books, watching DVDs, exploring the outdoors. We don’t need to give in to the ‘entertainment tax’ and if we don’t, it’ll certainly not succeed. The government has other places it can look for tax, it is not fair that we must bear the burden all the time.
Don’t do it government
I get it, the BBC needs money to continue, everything in life does. But throwing another fee on struggling households that are already finding it difficult to manage the cost of living? That’s not fair and it’s not on!
Money can come from so many places to help with this. Let the BBC use advertising, cut spending in the country that is actually unnecessary and tax the rich and big corporations properly. I can’t stress that point enough! It’s the rich and the big corporations who don’t pay in their fair share that need taxed, not ordinary citizens who do and definitely not on things like entertainment. The people won’t thank you if such an entertainment tax is implemented.
As of the time of writing, the licence fee for streaming is just speculation. The government is merely not ruling it out. But the option is on the table and that is the part that should worry us. If it’s even being considered then there’s every chance it will be implemented. If such a thing happens, don’t submit to it. Rebel by cancelling your streaming services and depriving the government of this so-called entertainment tax. Lobby your elected representatives peacefully and fight for it to be scrapped. Our private entertainment is not to be charged!
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