Do you record TV just to skip the ads?

Actually, you don’t need a licence for pre-recorded shows – you only need a licence if you are using BBC iPlayer to watch or record live broadcast television.

This is an old Conversation. A TV licence is now needed to watch programmes on iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/tvlicence

You need a Licence to watch on BBC iplayer

I see that the BBC has broken the link since I posted it in 2018. Here is a new one:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/about-bbc-iplayer-and-our-policies/tv-licence

There is more information on the TV Licensing website.

Quite. We should support the BBC financially if we choose to watch or listen to their output. At £159 a year – 44p a day – it seems to me to offer extremely good value for money given all the channels it produces content on and its educational contribution, particularly during Covid. The last thing I want to see is programmes dependent upon, and interrupted by, advertising.

I am hoping that there is not enough advertising to go round to support all the content offered by the BBC on top of the existing commercial channels, although it could lead to a clear-out of some of the less essential formats in our channel list. I accept that is an elitist viewpoint; all the ‘wallpaper’ channels presumably have sufficient adherents to sustain the advertising they attract through their choice of content.

I often wonder why we need more cookery programmes when there is already so much in the archives. I suppose it is the charms of the chefs that keep changing and engage a new audience. It’s effectively pushed horse racing off the screen.

The danger, it seems to me, of relying on advertising (apart from its unpredictable supply and income) is that broadcasters will need to produce many populist programmes at the expense of content for more “minority” interests. There are enough of those programmes already; I don’t want any more just to try to maximise revenue. These broadcasting businesses also have shareholders, who want dividends, to support them. Do we want to privatise the BBC to match this model?

There is a lot to be said, I think, for keeping a publicly funded public service broadcaster. It produces quality output. I see no need nor logical reason to force all broadcasters into relying on advertising or subscription. As I have said, I don’t see the current licence fee cost as at all unreasonable, in fact I think it great value for money, considering the volume and wide choice of entertainment and information it offers.

John wrote: “It’s effectively pushed horse racing off the screen.”

One of my memories as a child was that the family shared a strong dislike for horse racing and almost competed to change the channel. “And it’s off…” I think it was the commentator we objected to.

These days the adverts take almost as much time as the programme content and we get about about forty minutes of actual content in any hour. The BBC, are not quite as bad, though their internal advertising and filling videos are quite lengthy at the beginning/end of any programme. I agree with others here that the BBC is probably the best broadcaster here and the licence fee is worth the money. It is significant that many BBC repeats form the main stream basis for many commercial channels, and the amount of total rubbish broadcast proliferates year by year. Just a look at the schedule says it all. I don’t know how many times the Titanic has set sail, we have to face the murderer from hell, a group go hunting for ghosts or for each other to pair and bond or argue on a desert island. Obscure American comedy vies with live drama from the courtroom where some over weight woman is claiming damages from a man old enough to be her father. I could go on, but you all have televisions that broadcast the same rubbish every day. I pay to have this content available and wonder why. One day I might do something about it.

If you watch TV as little as I do, repeats are not a problem. Unfortunately I don’t get very good value for my TV licence fee.

That is an interesting comment. What BBC programmes, if any, do people watch who feel £3 a week is poor value? Documentaries like David Attenborough’s, new or repeats, films, news, the Proms, HIGNFY, politics, popular music, soaps, gardeners’ world………. I wonder if they checked a year’s worth of viewing just how much each hour had cost? And while you don’t need a tv licence to listen to any radio programme, it’s output is funded by the fee, and I guess many listen to R1and2, a substantial number to R4, and a significant number to R3 and WS.

The danger of removing a license fee supported broadcaster is that minority, but significant, groups will lose access to less popular programmes. How many classical concerts are broadcast on commercial tv (even on BBC they are far outweighed by pop music)? Would the Repair Shop, Bargain Hunt, Bake Off, have got off the ground in the commercial world? Would we be stuck with Big Brother, Love Island, Naked and Afraid?

Incidentally, repeats sometimes seem to be regarded as second-class programming. Yet we are still happy to watch old cinema films. Very good programmes have been made for years and repeating the best is extremely good for entertainment as well as financially. I still enjoy Dad’s Army, Yes Minister, Montelbano, Attenborough, Michael Palin, ……..

To have all the BBC’s output on tap for just 44p a day seems extremely good value.

Oh and, of course, the news and current affairs. Far cheaper than buying a newspaper.

I get my value for money from BBC radio.

For me the big step forward was the introduction of BBC iPlayer – now rebranded as BBC Sounds for radio. That meant that we could watch what we want when we want. I don’t feel the need to turn the TV on every day.

Totally agree Malcolm, especially with your comments on the BBC’s ability to produce quality programmes that wouldn’t get past the advertisers on commercial TV. I turn by instinct to the BBC when I want to know something. I might even listen to WS if I knew what it was and where to find it! World Service? It has an archaic quality to it that is very attractive.

Given that the licence fee for tv funds BBC radio, what would happen to Sounds if the licence fee were stopped? Would you like continual advert breaks? Or is not daily access to 21 national radio stations and 40 local radio worthwhile, in addition to limited tv viewing plus the convenience of iPlayer, for 43p?

Vynor – I listen to BBC World Service on DAB radio these days but it’s available here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service

Malcolm – I expect that there will be extensive public consultation before there are any major changes to BBC TV and radio.

World Service is well worth listening to, Vynor. In the car it is on the list with R3, R4 and Classic FM.

I listen to the same stations in the car plus Radio 4 Extra and the local BBC radio station for local news. Classic FM would be better without the adverts and the presenters.

DAB radio has been a huge benefit to radio listening in the car and I find reception remarkably good in most rural areas.

I was out driving and searching for a relaxing music channel on the car radio without a constant bump bump bump, and decided on Classic FM. I spent the next 5 mins listening to a violin concerto that evoked thoughts I was attending my own funeral. I pressed the Off button and sang a cheery song to help me on my way. Thank heavens for Off buttons!

Perhaps we need a TV programme explaining the function of the Off button, Beryl.

”Classic FM would be better without the adverts…….” which is what you might be having to endure on BBC radio if the licence fee is abolished.

@Beryl, if you have judged the entertainment value of Classic FM by a 5 minute extract from one piece of music then it is worth trying again.

Preferably when I am not driving Malcolm! I do enjoy Classic FM on many occasions, I just picked an inopportune time. I much prefer harps to violins 🙂

” which is what you might be having to endure on BBC radio if the licence fee is abolished.”

Most of us are clever enough to have worked that out. So far we have managed to resist the closure of FM radio broadcasting which many still value, despite commercial pressures, so perhaps there is hope.

@beryl, I like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and was surprised by Classic fm playing an accordion version of this some years ago. Not quite what I expected – wrongly I’m sure – from a popular classical station. https://www.classicfm.com/composers/vivaldi/news/accordion-four-seasons/

I would be happy to pay the licence fee if there was no advertising on BBC TV.

The radio and mobile phone reception here is not good due to hill and tree interception, so I rely on TV Satellite reception, together with its subtitles for news and documentaries.

Advertising on BBC TV has increased of late, but this may have been overlooked by some.

I hope that we don’t end up having to record and skip what we don’t want to listen to.

Wavechange wrote “I expect that there will be extensive public consultation before there are any major changes to BBC TV and radio”.

I wish I could be so confident. The Culture Secretary has frozen the licence fee for the next two years which is bound to lead to cuts. She has also made it clear that the settlement up to 2027, when the current royal charter expires, will be the last and that after that the BBC will have to raise its own funding from its audience and commercial activity. Government funding has not been ruled out for socially essential programming and output in the national interest.

There is clearly room for back-tracking before that because there will have to be a general election by May 2024 at the latest, but I believe the government is so determined not to have the regular haggling over the licence fee that that is what is driving the current policy. Bear in mind also that the question of exemption for households containing a 75+ year old is not entirely resolved as the recent change is still a simmering issue. Whatever we might think, there are votes in the abolition of the licence fee and the Opposition would hesitate to mandate restoration of it.

I know quite a number of people who are opposed to keeping the licence fee going and are generally unsympathetic to arguments in favour of keeping the BBC alive. Without exception, they all have alternative facilities and subscriptions so resent having to pay to support the BBC. Their feeling is that the quality of the BBC’s output over recent years has not earned their approval, and I can share that view. I regret that most of the programmes I want to watch are not on the BBC [nor on ITV nowadays]. We don’t have satellite or subscription services but since we don’t want to watch much TV we are not too disappointed. However, I think it would be a severe blow against those who cannot afford streaming facilities and subscription services if the BBC was effectively dismantled.

I would be very sorry to see the demise of a good public service broadcaster if only because it helps maintain the overall standard of television and radio broadcasting. I also do not want commercial interests to influence what I can watch and how it is presented. It will be interesting to see how the government will act but I am not hopeful of the BBC surviving in anything like its present form.

I am strongly in favour of retention of the licence fee, John. Any alternative is entering the unknown. Of course others have different values and opinions to ours. Although I listen to far more radio than I watch TV I have no problem with paying for a licence and I feel that I get a lot for my money. I see that my comment about retention of FM broadcasting has been marked down but some listeners are passionate supporters.

I have spent many hours discussing radio with fellow enthusiasts but do not know the strength of feeling for retention of BBC TV as we know it. Perhaps it’s time to discuss this with our friends and family so that everyone is aware that part of our heritage is at risk through commercialisation.

I would like to know about the environmental impact of moving from broadcast TV to streaming services even when decent broadband is universally available. It does not seem to make sense to have millions of people simultaneously downloading huge amounts of data. Maybe the BBC could produce a documentary about how it contributes to our unsustainable lifestyle: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/29/streamings-dirty-secret-how-viewing-netflix-top-10-creates-vast-quantity-of-co2

Unusually for me, I marked down wavechange’s comment. Nothing to do with FM radio but, in response to my previous comment, ”Most of us are clever enough to have worked that out.” which I, rightly or wrongly, interpreted as a rather inappropriate comment. Particularly when wavechange regularly complains about unfriendliness in Convos.

I will happily withdraw my disapproval if I have misinterpeted the comment. 🙂

It is a dull day here and too cold to do anything in the garden. Also recovering from a heavy cold and from a long bowls competition that left me with very achy thigh muscles. So maybe very slightly irritable.

I am not at all confident about the public being given full information on all the options, the consequences of each, nor any real consultation before decisions are made. I have little confidence in the abilities and motives of the politicians deciding such changes.

It seems that I was right to complain.

We enjoy ITV’s drama outut, such as it is. Foyle’s War was outstanding when being produced as was Morse, and Endeavour. The Licence fee represents extremely good value, however, even as the Tory Chairman and Tory DG are both riding the BBC to push it towards the right. Sadly, the consequences of that are seen mostly in the News output,

Looking back, ITV’s drama output is a history lesson in good writing, directing, acting and production values. I particularly recall some of the Play for Today productions and the adaptations, under the Country Matters title, of a number of short stories by A. E. Coppard and H. E. Bates. They dealt with adult themes in an intelligent and responsible way. Sadly, these have not survived in the archives.

ITV comedy and entertainment programmes also had their high spots [as well as quite a few lows], and the best politics programme in my opinion was Weekend World with Brian Walden.

The less said the better about the content of ITV’s World of Sport with Dickie Davis at the helm [which was basically racing and wrestling] but I think it pleased the devotees of most of the sports they presented because of the change from the sterile style of the BBC in those days and the innovative use of graphics for data. Linking together the output from fourteen regional production companies into a coherent fast-moving results sequence was also a technical achievement that left the BBC standing with its juddering teleprinter sputtering across the screen.

ITV Sport was action-rich but could never outperform the BBC on slower sports like cricket, bowls and snooker though, probably because the particular audiences would not have attracted much high value advertising.

Except when I do that I usually find I’m in another advertising break.

On mine it’s the ‘next track’ button (at least that’s what it would do on a cd player). Skips forward 2 minutes by default (I think). Invaluable. Similarly, the ‘previous track’ button skips backwards

On my Humax remote RM-F01, it’s the button below the record button with the double arrow head. You can program it to skip 4 minutes forward which is the length of commercial breaks. Works a treat, can’t remember the last time I saw an advert.

We’ve been doing this for years. Don’t watch what you don’t like, record what you like and fast-forward through the bits you don’t want to see. Easy.

In other words, learn to live with the technology – don’t fight it and don’t get in a twist about it.