After a bit of a hiatus, shouting at BT, and a few others, I finally got back on the TV Licensing trail. I emailed them...

Mark L. Potts 13:25 (21 hours ago)
to foi

Dear Sir,

TV Licensing informs me that they cannot answer my query and recommended that I email this address. Whilst I doubt that you will be able to - or willing to - answer my question.

I would like to know what percentage of the TV Licences that I have been forced to buy in the last 30 years have been spent on programming and what percentage was spent on providing premises and opportunity for activities and behaviour that I do not approve of. Given recent revelations, I no longer have faith in the BBC and fail to see why I should be FORCED to support such a disreputable organisation.

Before you lecture me about NOT having a license, check your records.

However, what would you do if I refused to pay? Just out of curiosity. Would you take me to court and be prepared to answer this question in court?

Yours,

Mark L. Potts

FOI Enquiries <FOIEnquiries@bbc.co.uk> 10:54 (1 hour ago)
to me

Dear Mr Potts,

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as detailed in your email below. Your request was received on 4th December 2012.  We will deal with your request as promptly as possible, and at the latest within 20 working days. If you have any queries about your request, please contact us at the address below.

The reference number for your request is RFI20121442.

Kind regards

The Information Policy & Compliance Team

BBC Freedom of Information
BC2 B6, Broadcast Centre
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TP

www.bbc.co.uk/foi
Email: foi@bbc.co.uk

Tel: 020 8008 2882
Fax: 020 8008 2398

I have included the contact details so, if you fancy dropping them an email...

I can't wait for their reply!

So, following my email below, TV Licensing passes the hot potato, not wanting any part of the BBC's current issues...(Scroll down for the original communications)

TV Licensing 10:59 (4 hours ago)
to me

TV LICENSING
BRISTOL
BS98 1TL

Tel:      0300 790 6087
Fax:      0300 790 6012
Email:    enquiries@tvlicensing.co.uk
Our Ref:  TVL29226---

23 November 2012

Dear Mr Potts

Thank you for your email of 22 November, which has been recorded under your complaint reference 551564. Please use this number if you wish to contact us again.

I'm sorry that you're unhappy with my response to your previous email.

We at TV Licensing are only able to provide information relating to how the TV Licence fee is distributed.

Any further information in relation to BBC spending should be requested directly from the BBC in the form of a Freedom of Information request.

You can do this by emailing foi@bbc.co.uk, or by writing to the following address:

BBC Freedom of Information
PO Box 48339
London
W12 7XH

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Scott Martin
Customer Relations

Need further help? Try our online help service, click here to access it: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/info.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark L. Potts" <marklpotts@gmail.com>
Date: 22 November 2012
Subject: Re: TVL29132525, Contact Us , General Enquiry - All

FAO Scott Martin.

Really? That is your patronising response to my question?

You should check your records.

I HAVE A TV LICENSE! Keep your insulting form letter responses for someone
who may be swayed by your scripted garbage.

Now, answer the question I asked.

You may think that I will let this drop but, you are incorrect. The BBC has
many issues to deal with and, believe me, you do not want me to report that
you are incapable of responding to a simple question.

More BBC cover ups?

Go on, keep ignoring me, because I will NOT let this drop. You think I'm
joking? The power of Social Media is immense. Try me. Now, answer my
question.

Mark L. Potts

I must confess that I have always objected to the TV Licence fee. Not because I believed that it was being spent on activities I would not approve of but, purely because it is clearly unfair to favour one broadcaster over others. When there was only one channel, that was fine, even when there was only one commercial competitor, that was one thing but, now, the BBC needs to enter the real world. The population needs to stop paying for what should be provided through fair competition. Most of the BBC's modern, quality output isn't even made by the BBC, it is bought in from overseas and production companies. Don't even get me started on the outrageous cost. £145 per year? You kidding me?

But, that's cheaper than Sky.

So? I choose NOT to pay Rupert the Tumour. I can always read a book. I do not want or need 24/7 game shows, celebrity this and that, soap operas up the wazoo, and crap so bad that even American's don't watch it. In fact, the only thing I EVER watched live on the BBC was F1!

I said I wouldn't get into the BBC selling off the rights to F1... About leaving the license fee payers with a second rate commentary team and coverage so poor that half of the races I haven't bothered to watch because, by the time the BBC showed them, Facebook, Twitter and, even their own news programme had given the result away BEFORE highlights were shown on BBC. 

So, Forbrydelsen, Broen, Borgen, Den Som Draeber, Inspector Montalbano, Lilyhammer, to name a few, I do not need the BBC for. If they had not appeared on BBC, I would still have watched them. Why should I pay the BBC for programmes I can see elsewhere in the world? There are lots of programmes that the BBC has not made. Do I need a TV license to watch Matador? Old silent italian films? German TV broadcasts from live rock concerts in Essen in 1982?

What am I actually paying the BBC for? Let them finance their own business, like everyone else. I'm sure that the BBC's higher echelons are replete with crooked bankers who can do a dodgy Venture Capital deal.

But, it's not just about the morality of the people paying for something, in which they have no say nor, control. It is about how the BBC has been spending our hard earned £££s. When the Savile fiasco blew up, it became clear that the BBC had, knowingly, allowed Savile and his 'friends' to carry out their behaviours on BBC premises. Far from being the guardians of our morality, the BBC was riddled with all manner of evil and, they actually protected him. You, me, your parents, and your children, WE, the Great British public have been paying for it. I never signed up for that and I don't think you did, either.

So, I decide to look at the wording of the TV License. This is what it says:

Your TV Licence allows television receiving equipment to be installed and used at the premises specified in our terms and conditions.

OK. I'm following it, so far.

Your TV Licence allows television receivers to be installed and used at the premises specified on the licence, and at the other places detailed on the licence, subject to the terms and conditions stated below.

Right. Got it. I can watch TV, on a TV (other means of watching televisual entertainment are available) at the place I say I live, provided that...

Definitions
You means the person named on the licence.

TV equipment means television receiving equipment, such as a TV set, computer, mobile phone, games console, digital box or VHS/DVD recorder.

...I am me and that I have a TV (or whatever).

OK. So far so good... That's all pretty tame. However, it is the next part that intrigues me...

'as they are being shown on television.'

So, let me get this straight. According to their own wording, I only need a TV license to watch live programmes...

...or ones that are receivable in the UK and recorded, as they are broadcast. Trying to cover all eventualities, eh?

Seriously? Has anyone ever challenged this point? They are saying that to watch a program that was not even made in the UK, and had nothing to do with the BBC, I have to pay the BBC for the privilege? Surely, this can only apply if the originator is registered in the UK? The BBC cannot possibly claim any jurisdiction over anything that happens to be picked up in the UK, that comes from outside the UK, from a broadcast that is 'alien' in origin. NO, I'd challenge that one, for a start.

So, if I don't watch Live TV, do not record the broadcast, I do not need a license. It says so in their own wording. Proving it is another matter. Who is the burden of proof on? Me to prove I don't watch Live TV or them to prove I do?

What does your licence allow?

I'll save you some effort. This next bit is all about how they have changed the wording of the license, over the years, to try and cover every base and, so that the TV license covers a location, but only by person, not the location. Oh. Bad people trying to steal radio waves!

It's like car insurance. In Germany, for example, your vehicle is insured, not the specific driver. In the UK, the car is covered only for specific drivers. It's a scam, designed to rip us all off. Pure greed. Think about it. The car will cost the same to fix or replace, irrespective of who was driving it... TV License... one house, a number of flats. Each flat needs its own TV License. Greedy Auntie Beeb! Got to pay for the debauched lifestyles of its employees somehow, eh? Should change the name to DBC: Dorian Gray Broadcasting Corporation

Shameful. But, then again, we're British and don't like to make a fuss. Hell, I want to make a fuss. The TV Licence is unfair and ridiculously outdated and Car Insurance is, presumably, only allowed to rip us off because the government makes a shedload of cash out of it. Why is it in the British nature to give in, so easily, to being fleeced by the rest of the world? Rant for another day, methinks?

The licence allows installation and use of TV equipment:

• At the licensed place by anyone.
• In a vehicle, boat or caravan by:
  • You and anyone who normally lives with You at the licensed place (so long as TV equipment is not being used in a non-touring caravan and at the licensed place at the same time).
  • anyone, who normally works at the licensed place (so long as the vehicle, boat or caravan is being used for a business purpose).
  Use of TV equipment powered by internal batteries anywhere:
  
  
  • By You and anyone who normally lives with You at the licensed place.

What does your licence not cover?

• Any parts of your premises with separate legal arrangements e.g. occupied by tenants or lodgers.
• Self contained or physically separate units on the premises.
• Any parts of your premises with separate administrative arrangements e.g. paying guests.

Haha! I particularly enjoy this bit...

Black and white licences:

• If you use TV equipment to record television programmes, you need a colour licence even if you only have a black and white television as TV equipment records TV in colour. A black and white licence is valid only if the digital box is not designed to record television programmes.

If all I've got is a B&W TV, chances are I don't have the means of recording it in colour, or otherwise.

And then, covering off every thing that their evil little minds can invent...

Further conditions of your licence

• The licence fee must be paid when due.
• You may transfer the licence to a different address if the change of address is permanent.
• A licence may be cancelled or revoked or its conditions modified by a notice sent to You or by a general notice which will be published on the BBC's website and, if deemed appropriate by the BBC, in other national communications.
• Our officers may visit the licensed place to verify our records and inspect the TV equipment at any time, but you do not have to let them in.
• You must not cause undue interference to any other radio or television reception with your TV equipment.
• Your licence is issued on behalf of the BBC by TV Licensing.

For further information on whether you require a TV Licence contact www.tvlicensing.co.uk.

Please note that separate terms and conditions apply to the following types of TV Licence: hotel and mobile units TV Licence, ARC concessionary TV Licence and entertainment units TV Licence. If you have one of these, please refer to your licence for specific terms and conditions or contact us for information.

All of the above is mostly crappy bollocks, apart from this bit, which amuses me greatly:

Haha! If they come to check my equipment, they will get so much more than they bargained for.

The last bit is the break down of how the money is spent...

'...as it is broadcast...' See, that's the part that I like, a lot.

Oh, well, that's all right then. We know that the government is filled with corrupt expenses fiddlers, and who knows what else they and the BBC are colluding to fiddle with?

That's my look at the TV Licence fee T&Cs. It is antiquated and extraordinairly expensive. I know of no other country that imposes such a draconian entertainment tax on its population. Yes, other countries do require a fee, Germany, for example, but it is easy to not pay and, it is a fraction of the cost. Even ffrance, yes, the cheese-eating surrender monkeys, are the next most expensive, and that is still only two thirds of the UK cost.

We laugh now at the Beard Tax, Window Tax or, other antiquated forms of screwing money out of those with the least. But, consider that in a few hundred years, future generations will look back to their history - our NOW - and say:

Why did these people pay so much for everything? Why did they permit their elected leaders to treat them like that? Why were they so greedy and stupid? The planet has everything we need, as long as we are not selfish, greedy, and stupid.

Mark L. Potts
The God of Thunder

23rd November 2012

In response to my recent email to TV Licensing about what percentage of the license fee went on programming and how much on supporting undesirables like Savile, I received the following from Customer Relations:

(Formatting as in the original email)

TV LICENSING
BRISTOL
BS98 1TL

Tel:      0300 790 6087
Fax:      0300 790 6012
Email:    enquiries@tvlicensing.co.uk
Our Ref: XXXXXXXXX

21 November 2012

Dear Mr Potts

Thank you for your email of 14 November, which has been recorded under your complaint reference 551564. Please use this number if you wish to contact us again.

I must remind you that whatever your personal view may be, it's still against the law to watch broadcast television programme services without a TV Licence.

We visit all unlicensed addresses in the UK and anyone found to need a licence, could be prosecuted and fined up to £1000.

Last year, each household's colour licence cost about £12.13 per month. On average, this is how the BBC spent the money in 2010/11 (source - TV Licensing annual review 2011 which can be found on the TV licensing website):

TV                       - £8.01
Radio                    - £2.16
Online                   - £0.66
Other                    - £0.61
Collection                       - £0.42
Digital ? Marketing / help scheme - £0.27
Total                    - £12.13

I hope I've been able to explain the situation and thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Scott Martin
Customer Relations

Anyone think that Mr Martin's response impresses me?

Naturally, I have replied... More later.