BBC TV Licence - It's all in the Data Base

2007/08 BBC Annual Report and Accounts

Recently I highlighted just how un-scientific the BBC's TV Licence Fee detection and collection methods are . They simply involve posting increasingly threatening letters to households which don't have a TV Licence. Never mind whether these households own a TV or not. Last week the BBC published its Annual Report and Accounts. The figures reveal that Licence Fee evasion remains steady at 5.1%. In other words the threatening letters aren't working.

Another blogger hilariously reveals that although TV Licensing's increasingly threatening letters are signed by 'John Hales', Mr Hales' changing signature wouldn't pass any bank fraud test - leading to the suspicion that even John Hales isn't even real!

TV Licensing's John Hales - would you accept his signature on a personal cheque?
Thanks to www.bbctvlicence.com for posting the signatures

The BBC recently ran an advertising campaign 'Your Town, Your Street, Your Home - it's all in the Data Base' (see it here) which has been criticised (according to the Telegraph) for employing a menacing soundtrack of helicopters, dogs barking and door knocking. Last year Gary Streeter the Conservative MP for SW Devon tabled a motion signed by 60 MP's complaining about the bully-boy techniques employed by TV licensing - threatening old ladies who don't even own a TV. Last week even former Director General Greg Dyke labelled the Licence as an unfair tax - costing both rich and poor alike. Serves the BBC right for sacking him.

Now the BBC Trust - the newly self appointed BBC Regulator is to investigate the Licence fee collection methods. They say in the Annual Report:

"We have begun a review to ensure the right balance is being struck between the need to raise maximum revenue and the need to avoid heavy handedness, especially with people who do not own a television set and therefore do not need a licence."

It'll be interesting to see what conclusions the BBC Trust arrives at when they report later this year. Recently the BBC Trust gave the BBC a clean bill of health over the amount it pays its presenters - including the £18m it pays Jonathan Ross.

Of course while the TV licensing bully-boy tactics remain in force the BBC could begin production on another of its cheap and ubiquitous documentary series. Tonight at 10.35 BBC One follows the work of the River Police. Last week the BBC's cameras were on the beat with the Benefit fraud Inspectors. What next? BBC One 9pm - Its All in the Data Base - "Watching cheap voyeuristic TV without a £139.50 TV Licence? we've got your number mate, you're nicked."

Perhaps The BBC Trust should investigate the impact of the BBC's decsion to stream its channels live on the internet instead?

This above all else will surely lead to the end of the TV Licence? No one will tolerate having to buy a TV Licence to surf the web - where they'll soon find the BBC's programmes for free (even the ones not already free on the iPlayer).

BBC Licence Fee 'It's all in the database'

Television Licensing (run mainly by Capita on behalf of the BBC) is running a new advertising campaign to frighten people into paying their TV licence.

A colour TV licence costs £139.50 - payable under law, if you own a TV, video recorder or set top box.

"Your town. Your Street. Your Home. They're all in the database"

The new campaign's tag line is: 'It's all in the database'. It's a bold line considering the bad publicity surrounding loss of personal data by large organisations recently. Of course the Big Brother notion is designed to be menacing.

What the TV Licensing campaign doesn't tell you is exactly what's in this 'database'.

In fact its just a list of every UK address!

TV Licensing works on the principle that every UK household has a TV - 29.5 million homes - unless you can prove otherwise. There are 25 million licences in force which means they write to the other 4.5 million address repeatedly until they get a satisfactory reason as to why you don't own a TV. If you don't reply, eventually they send round an inspector. Write back and say you don't have a TV and they'll send round an inspector anyway - to check you're not telling porkies.

So 'It's all in the database' means simply - we've got a list of all the addresses in the UK.

It costs £133m a year to collect the Licence Fee (which goes exclusively to the BBC, they receive £3.2b a year from it). Last year £10.7m was spent on postage - writing to the 4.5m homes without a TV licence.

TV Licensing send out 60 million letters a year. It is about the most un-scientific method of detection imaginable.

Last year there were over 31,000 complaints made to TV Licensing from harrassed members of the public.

TV Licensing simply uses 5 escalating levels of threatening letter addressed to 'The Occupant' to pursuade you to pay up. They claim to catch an average of 1,000 unlicensed people a day - 365,000 a year. The BBC won't say how many are actually prosecuted.

So now you know what 'It's all in the database' means. They've got a list of addresses.