The end of the TV licence fee?

The BBC is to start streaming it's most viewed TV channel - BBC One - on the web. The BBC's on demand catchup service - The iPlayer - has enjoyed enormous success, but programmes can only be viewed streamed or downloaded after they have been shown live - so you don't need a TV licence to use the iPlayer.

To watch any live TV in the UK requires a TV Licence - which currently costs £139.50 a year. A licence is required if you own any TV, set top box or video/ DVD/ or hard drive recorder with a tuner which can receive TV signals. You also need a TV licence to watch live TV on a computer.

But now we can watch BBC One live on the web will every laptop owner also require a TV licence? According to TV licensing - yes. Watching live TV - however you do it, requires a licence. The Licence rules do have some exclusions - but viewing on a computer screen isn't one of them. TVs used in mobile homes and caravans (which are covered by the home licence) and TVs which work solely powered by their own internal battery are the only exemptions (The over 75's get a free licence for their main home and the blind get a 50% reduction).

So what future for the TV licence? The current BBC charter - and hence its funding - is guaranteed until 2016. But 4 years earlier - 2012 is the date when the last analogue TV transmitters will be switched off and viewers will need a TV or set top box with a digital decoder (such as Freeview or a Sky box). By then, if trends continue, a significant proportion of TV viewers will be watching on computer screens.

Policing the licence fee - whether 'its all in the database' or not will soon be impossible. How will the nation's favourite broadcaster be funded in the future? It may be the end for the licence fee - but not the BBC, surely? The Beebs rush to streaming TV on the web may be a mistake...

Petrol Prices - again

2 months ago (26th March) I posted a photo of my local Shell garage. They had just installed a new sign - with extra space for the ever lengthening prices. The picture showed the price of a litre of unleaded as 108.9 and Diesel as 115.9.

Just 2 months on and unleaded has increased another 10p a litre.

The price leap for diesel is even greater - 15p a litre.

Last week world oil prices peaked at $135 a barrel. So now filling my tank with 45 litres of unleaded costs an extra £4.50 - almost a 10% rise on the March price. Before tax is added the UK has the cheapest diesel in Europe, after tax is added it is the most expensive (the shortage of capacity in European production apparently explains the inequality between the price of diesel and unleaded).

I read in the paper today that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling arrived at the recent emergency oil summit in a Jaguar and a Range Rover - vehicles which probably struggle to achieve 10 miles a gallon on a good day. Apparently MPs have asked for an increase in their travel allowances to cover the new petrol price hike. Well why not - after all last year Prime Minister Gordon Brown charged taxpayers for light bulbs at his home and Deputy PM John Prescott claimed some of his food bill. While the rest of us make cuts to other areas of our spending why not insulate our legislators from the fuel pain too?

The Inland Revenue allows the self-employed to claim 40p a mile in lieu of calculating the full cost of running a car for their business. I'm sure the Revenue will feel our pain when we all start making the full running cost calculation for this tax year.

We can moan all we like, but we have to change our behaviour. Fuel isn't going to get any cheaper.