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Comment by alexander-wilms | Hacker News Reader

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It's not compulsory. It's quite legal to not pay TV Tax and not watch TV. You can use streaming services but not the on-demand services for the TV channels.

I certainly do not miss the BBC news. I found it very bad for my stress levels.

Agreed, since we canceled our TV license two years ago, our stress levels have dropped, and happiness has jumped.

Is everything produced in the UK automatically in the public domain?

Originally the BBC owned it's TV production, but it's not the case now.

The TV production was hived off to private companies, who then license it to the BBC, so the BBC doesn't own lots of the content it (we, the UK public) paid for, they have licenses to it with varying terms.

So; while it should be the case, in fact UK citizens get the er.. "opportunity" to pay for all sorts of the content again later, after it comes off iplayer.

Didn't know the BBC had a compulsory charge.

If you wish to watch any live-TV in the United Kingdom you have to pay for a TV license. The license fee goes to the BBC, but you still have to pay it for any other channel.

Ok, I don't watch live TV, so it's not compulsory.

I still listen to radio 2 and use the bbc website, no problems there either.

And while much of the license fee goes to the BBC, a decent whack goes to things like S4C, broadband rollout and funding freeview and freesat platforms

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