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Letters from BBC Television
Licensing
From the beginning of 2006, I decided not to renew my television
licence. I found that my television viewing consisted almost entirely of tapes
of old programmes purchased off Ebay, and that my watching of broadcast
television was less than an hour a week. I therefore decided to stop watching
broadcast television, and I now spend the £157.50 saved from the TV
licence fee on video tapes and DVDs. It is a good decision; I now pay for what
I watch, and not for what I don't watch.
The only fly in the ointment has been aggressive letters from TV
Licensing (TVL), which collects the licence fee on behalf of the BBC. TVL/BBC
sends millions of letters every year to people who do not watch broadcast
television, demanding payment. For many people, these letters can be very
frightening.
But the letters are a bluff; they are computer-generated.
TVL/BBC have none of the powers their letters imply and, with a little
knowledge, people can stand up to the bullies. The purpose of this website is
to share my TVL/BBC letters as I receive them, and to provide useful
information for people who have no time for the BBC.
| Click to view letters from
2006,
2007,
2008,
2009,
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
2014,
2015,
2016,
2017,
2018,
2019 and
2020. Stay on
this page for letters in 2021. |
January 2021
This is my fifteenth year as someone
who does not pay the BBC. I have saved £2,299 and, assuming 50p a letter,
cost the BBC a further £81 in
postage.
Brown 9 by 6
envelope, with window. The letter was dated "December", odd given that I had
already received a letter the previous month - but I am counting it as January,
as that's when it arrived.
Stay tuned for another TVL/BBC letter,
next month.
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