A topic talked to death, but finally we are getting somewhere.

In modern times, before you are allowed a streaming service, such as Sky, Netflix or Amazon, you have to sign a contract to agree to the terms and agreement of the particular service.

The U.K. is forced to pay a TV Licence without such a contract and daily many receive threatening letters of prosecution because we are given access to BBC live broadcasting services without such a contract.

The BBC are so adamant to get you to pay for their services that they have gone as far as to stream through the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video where you may have an agreed contract with that particular service but not the BBC, tricking you so that you will need a TV Licence through watching live broadcasting television.

The wheels are turning as finally we are seeing the BBC Licence Fee (Abolition) Bill being discussed in parliament.

We are only at the beginning stages but the fact that this is being discussed and a topic on the table where outdated broadcasting regulations no longer apply in modern times.

Follow the progress of the parliamentary bill here.

A bit of History

How the TV Licence Fee started.
In 1920 the Marconi Radio Company began to broadcast test signals from Chelmsford, Essex to a band of amateur radio enthusiasts. Not long after that it was broadcasting music too. On 15th June 1920 engineers put on Britain’s first advertised live public broadcast sponsored by The Daily Mail who paid the famous Australian opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba, £1,000 to sing. Such a large sum could have bought two houses for that!

TV Broadcasting & the Licence Fee
From 1936 to 1939 the BBC broadcast live TV. During that time there was no extra charge for a TV Licence.

In 1946 a TV Licence was required, which also covered radio. In 1946 the annual licence fee was £1 for radio only or £2 for both radio and TV. Only 14,500 TV licences were sold in 1947. In 1950 that had shot up to 344,000. In 1971 the radio licence was dropped. You only needed a licence to watch TV. It cost £7 B&W, £12 colour. In 1971 16 million TV licences were sold – today it’s about 26 million.