this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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The only weird thing about TV licence is the name. It's not really a license at all, it's just paying for a service you use.
If you watch live TV, you pay towards the broadcasting of it, plus the running of the BBC, which is ad-free in the UK.
The argument being that if it came from direct government funding, the government would have a much greater degree of control over the main national news source, which would likely be a worse solution. As would filling the BBC up with ads and cutting expensive content like proper news and excellent documentaries.
Calling it a license kind of implies you need to apply for a card or a document to watch TV, which isn't the case.
The UK is far from the only country that has publicly-funded television that you legally have to pay for to use.