BBV TV Licence Renewal. I just gone through the process of telling the BBC that I do not need a TV Licence. Why not? I don't have a TV. I am very busy with work and other activities that do not leave me time to watch the TV and, because of this it does not represent good value to own a TV set. The BBC, however, views matters differently. Last year I was advised that it is best to notify the BBC Licence fee department that I did not have a TV to avoid calls from TV Licence inspectors. A relatively easy process? Sort of, you notify them online and they send you an acknowledgment. This is where the problems start. There is no option to simply say "I don't watch the BBC" instead you are required to give a reason, I had to opt for telling them I did not live at my address and. hence it was empty. This, of course, is not true, it is simply that I choose not to have a TV set. The BBC however are too arrogant to accept that I may not wish/need to own TV and watch their programmes. This year I have just renewed my declaration that I do not own a TV. One has to answer a series of questions, that are clearly designed to catch out the non-viewer out so they can be advised that, in fact, they do need a TV Licence. There is no option to declare 'I do not own a TV' or, perhaps more importantly 'I do not watch the BBC as I am dissatisfied with their programme content'. Even when one has made the declaration the response is an email that is worded in such a way as to imply that they are 'thinking about' your declaration as if you are a naughty schoolboy standing in front of a disbelieving school headmaster. I am required to wait for five days for a response to my declaration (incidentally it is ten days if one makes a complaint, which says something about their priorities). At the end of all this there is a caveat that suggests you may still get a visit from a TV Licence Inspector. So, let us consider this for a moment. Should you choose not to shop at Tesco for example (I use Tesco as a fictitious example as I actually do shop at Tesco) do they retain the right to send someone round to your house and check your fridge for their products? Of course not, that would be ludicrous, and yet BBC Licensing have exactly that right, they can demand entry and search your premises, i.e. look through your private property to seek a TV set. If you refuse you can be prosecuted simply on the basis of your refusal. This means that if, for any reason, you are uncomfortable about having a total stranger searching your property you are at risk of being criminalised. One should be mindful that in every other instance even the Police & HM Customs and Excise need a warrant to carry out such action, the BBC Licence fee Inspector has that as an automatic right. It is simply not acceptable. One then goes the the thorny issue of BBC TV's continual scandals that, even as a non viewer, I am well aware of. There have been numerous scandals, sadly some of them sex scandals that have blighted the BBC and I have no wish to contribute to the inflated salaries of those who are perpetrators of such acts. Sadly, and very disappointingly, it appears that the BBC are not as punctilious in this matters as they should be and, please remember, some of those offenders have been prosecuted whilst others spent a lifetime not being properly investigated - I am deliberately not naming names, but you, on reading this, will know who I am mentioning as these incidents have been very widely published in the media. All in all, I sum up the BBC as disappointing, I cannot comment on the quality of their products, as I am a non-watcher, but the forcible and bullying approach surrounding the issue of TV Licensing and the very public scandals make me want to avoid them and anything to do with them.
