Afternoon:
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About three weeks ago, our television stopped working. I promised my children that I would try to get it mended, or buy another one, or do whatever was necessary to enable the broadcasters to pump their usual bilge into the house.
For the first two weeks, my failure to do so was the result of nothing more than the usual inefficiency. But in the past week, it has become something more positive: a desire to be in the forefront of a movement which I suspect will gather pace and cause gratifying fury among the massed ranks of overpaid managers at the BBC.
The BBC's bosses are constantly under fire at the moment. If they're not being attacked for sacking presenters who say offensive things off-air, they're being lambasted for failing to sack presenters who say offensive things on-air. There's a gathering sense that the BBC has shot itself so often in the foot that quite soon it won't have a leg to stand on and sooner or later the Government will remove the crutch that props it up - the licence fee. The remnants of what was once one of the world's greatest broadcaster will then be sold to Al Jazeera.
That's the stuff the BBC is worried about; but I suspect its downfall will come not from politics but from technology. When our television gave up, my 11-year-old twins were distraught but my 18-year-old was unmoved. He has not watched television for some time. Watching television requires him to sit in the sitting room with his mother and sisters; the desire to avoid this fate, and the strange hours he keeps, have driven him to scour the internet for programming. So he wallows in his sty in the basement while watching American dramas downloaded from Chinese or Spanish websites at 3am.
Predictions about the transformative effects of technology often fail to come true because most people are too incompetent to use the stuff properly. But the BBC iPlayer and Channel 4's 4oD have enabled even me to stream or download programmes through the internet. I no longer have to shove undercooked food in front of my family to get to something I'm longing to watch. I can watch what I want, when I want - and without going to the trouble and expense of buying a television or paying a licence fee.
Sooner or later, the rest of the country is going to catch on to this. When it does, and the revenue from the licence fee starts to fall, the BBC's managers will run to the Government and argue for some other way of screwing money out of the public. They may have some difficulty.
People pay the licence fee not because they approve of it but because they are used to it. If the Government tries to slap a £200 tax on, say, computers to pay for an organisation of 24,000 people - 339 of whom are paid more than £100,000 - to broadcast Jonathan Ross's obscene phone calls and Jeremy Clarkson's abusive rants, inertia may turn into resistance.
* Major-General Andy Salmon, commander of the British forces in Iraq, says he would rather spend Saturday night in downtown Basra than he would in Stockwell, where he used to live, and where I live now. I'm with him. Basra's warmer, the food is better, and, if the British Army's figures and my back-of-the-envelope calculations are right, the murder rate in Basra now is less than two-thirds the rate in the borough of Lambeth.
Next to Robert, we all look good
The Baftas and Grammys confirmed a trend spreading through society: the rise of the wrinkly. As people in rich countries get older, so do actors and singers. After all the smooth-skinned starlets, it's rather a relief to see people like Mickey Rourke and Robert Plant up on stage. Their faces look not so much lived in as occupied by squatters who had a really serious party and were subsequently raided by the police. Compared with them, the rest of us look fresh as daisies.
Protest is a shoe-in for the post-Bush world
Globalisation allows the best of everything to spread swiftly around the planet. So we get movies from Hollywood, cars from Germany and now protest techniques from the Arab world.
Shoe-throwing is highly visible, non-lethal and more convenient than vegetable-chucking, since shoes tend to be more readily available than tomatoes. An Iraqi journalist put on an impressive demonstration of the art during a press conference of George Bush's in Baghdad in December. It was so well received that it spawned an internet game that allows players to pelt Mr Bush with footwear (www.sockandawe.com).
The practice has now spread to Cambridge, where a young German last week threw a shoe at Wen Jiabao, as the Chinese premier was giving a lecture about the world economy. Shoe-throwing seems to me a reasonable reaction to being lectured on the world economy, and the young man's openness to foreign ideas is to be congratulated; unfortunately, the police took a different view.
Emma Duncan is deputy editor of The Economist.
Reader views (17)
The BBC is well worth the £10pm to watch what is unquestionably the best television service in the world. Watching on a computer is useful if you have missed a programme but hardly compares with watching the BBC's HD programming on a big flat screen television. Emma wake up and smell the coffee!
- Michael Kaldezar, london England, 16/03/2009 22:29
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Am I correct in thinking it is only for BBC programmes that we are required to pay the licence fee for? If so fine. Remove BBC programmes from those who do not wish to pay for them, or in other words, make them available only to those who have paid. Surely advertisements provide the revenue for other stations? In so far as Net viewing goes as a "viewer" overseas this is the only way I can view UK TV on the move without a T.V/Satellite/Licence and believe you me...it's a great thing. I have NEVER agreed with the T.V licence anyway...at home or abroad. It is a nonsense. Thank you.
- Jules, France, 19/02/2009 04:54
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Emma - How do you think those programmes that you stream from I player and other sites are paid for? Take away the license fee, steal commercial content for free and how are the programmes including your son's illegal downloads (or is middle class crime OK?) going to be paid for to be made in the first place? Er, wake up.
- Jon, London, 11/02/2009 15:10
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At the moment, this is true, provided you are watching non-live programming. If you watch a streaming channel on the BBC, you DO need a licence. I would fully imagine the BBC will extend this to all programming if people like Ms Duncan become a majority.
In the meantime, good luck to you. I'll live with the £10pm I pay to be able to watch things on a decent screen without those annoying buffering moments....
- Jason, Nottingham UK, 10/02/2009 22:55
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"Why pay for a BBC licence when the net's made TV free?" Excellent point - however it also applies to newspapers!
- James, London, 10/02/2009 17:26
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TV License bad value? Another classic bit of British moaning... it's great value give the quality of the programming. I'm all for the BBC no competing with it's commercial competitors (no more dancing programmes please!). What I cant understand is why so many people on low incomes pay SKY £50 a month for endless sport and imported trash tv.
- Jonathan, London, 10/02/2009 17:24
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Ms Duncan, perhaps you would be kind enough to inform me of any public speaking you are planning in the near future.
I could then attend and aim a couple of my size 10.5 shoes at you. I am pretty sure, that even a near miss, might change your perspective on the practice. The problem with the chattering classes is that they often fail to analyse their own chatter!
- Trevor, Southend UK, 10/02/2009 16:22
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Reading your story about the tv licence, I have to agree.
When I moved to my present address there was a tv in the room and I asked for its removal. After all, why pay when I have a lasp top and watch bbc iplayer. Itv near live. 4od like yourself and now Sky do a pay as you go like 4od. AND, I watch WHAT I want, WHEN, I want. I am saving quids.
Best wishes
- Derek Flint, London, 10/02/2009 15:57
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Do you think the BBC is pumping milliong into it's internet operations while TV viewing figures are going down for the publics good ?. Seriously think it through because the BBC want a BBC Internet Licence to replace the TV one and it will come!
http://tvlicenceresistance.info
- Sao Paulo, Salford, 10/02/2009 15:38
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Actually, you only need a TV licence to watch TV on a laptop or PC if the device has a TV tuner or cable card and is displaying a feed from a live 'service', either over the air terrestial, satellite or via a cable company. If you watch any programming via a website, streaming site or download (bittorrent etc), you do NOT need a TV licence.
- James M, London UK, 10/02/2009 15:06
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Where exactly do you all think the money to make the programmes on the iPlayer comes from? That's right - the licence fee. If everyone switched to the iPlayer and stopped paying their licence fee, those programmes would pretty soon disappear. I know it's fashionable to sneer at the BBC, and I agree with the criticisms of Jonathan Ross et al, but the fact remains that they make some of the best programmes in the world. And no, I don't mean EastEnders. Try living in some other countries for a while, watching four lengthy ad breaks every hour, and realising that the ads are better than the programmes they're interrupting. Then you'll realise. (And no, I don't work for the BBC - I just grew up in one of those countries).
- Freya, London, 10/02/2009 14:28
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Steve, London: That means you could be paying Tesco over £500 per year if you rent a DVD every night. And you are only one person. Tesco must be raking it in for doing practically nothing.
- Pat, East Kent UK, 10/02/2009 14:16
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Erm. Hate to tell you this emma but you still need a TV licence - even if you watch programmes on your PC...
- Mike Curtis, Derby, 10/02/2009 13:23
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Or the BBC could shut down the iPlayer facility so people have to watch programmes or record them and license payers won't have to pay for this online service. The logic of the Beeb providing this service has always escaped me. Fair enough for radio programmes as there's no practical way of recording them if you're out when they're broadcast, but why do it for television?
- Cary, London, 10/02/2009 12:52
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If you are able to receive broadcast transmission you are required by law to have a license. That includes Laptops.
- Phil Johnson, Fareham Hants, 10/02/2009 12:52
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Here's an idea. Wait for the digital switchover and don't switch over.Keep an old analog TV just for watching old VHS videos and DVDs - and get the rest of your programs from the net. Ergo - no licence fee. ( The law states that a licence fee is reuired for reception of programs as they are transmitted. )
- Alan Walker, Lincoln UK, 10/02/2009 12:51
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I haven't watched TV for years now. If you think about, why let a tv program run how you live, ie. your life revolves around when a program is aired. That is unless you can record it and watch it whenever you want.
My reason for not watching TV is because you don't get to choose what programs are made, its the same old repeats and drivel. I don't think the TV licence is value for money, but since people are so "used to" TV, it will take some time before they stop watching it altogether. I think only programs like Eastenders are keeping BBC afloat since you hear people mentioning it all the time. I have better things to do i.e, going to the gym and feeling better and living longer. I'm not anti-entertainment, i either buy DVDs or rent them if i'm not sure. My local TESCO has a machine that charges £1.50 for a nights rental. HAPPY DAYS. 
- Steve, london, 10/02/2009 12:47
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