No Connection

Something which interests us at TV Licensing Watch is the lengths the BBC are prepared to go to in order to deny any connection between the BBC and Capita BBC TV Licensing™.  Perhaps the most prominent recent example of this is the shambolic stitch-up passed off as the BBC Charter renewal process.   So-called “consultations” and “surveys” referred only to the “TV licence” and no mention was made of Capita BBC TV Licensing™ and the nasty, bullying enforcement activities associated with the BBC’s “TV licence”.   In common with others in the anti-BBC TV licence fee movement, TV Licensing Watch, has encountered numerous ill-informed social media warriors who rush to defend the BBC and end up looking complete idiots trying to deny the BBC’s association with its TV Licensing™ trademarked activities.

The BBC is TV Licensing™.  The BBC is the UK TV Licensing™ authority.  The BBC has overall responsibility for all matters TV Licensing™; its administration and enforcement.  The BBC Trust investigates complaints lodged about the administration and enforcement of the BBC TV licence. An investigative duty which, it is obvious, it carries on with ill-concealed reluctance.

The existence of the anti-BBC TV licence fee movement means that the BBC is more than aware that its trademarked brand TV Licensing™ is very widely loathed and despised.  It is why, publicly at least, the BBC goes to absurd lengths in the plausible deniability games that it plays when it comes to BBC TV licence administration and enforcement.

TV Licensing™ website barely mentions its connection with the BBC. Like the BBC’s own domain, TV Licensing™‘s domain ends .co.uk  It is the domain of a private company.  The BBC’s own TV Licensing™ Management Team make great efforts to maintain arms-length plausible deniability even though they are charged with the task of monitoring Capita BBC TV Licensing™‘s administration and enforcement activities.  A task which they summed-up thus:

" . . . I have initially made enquiries of the BBC TV Licensing Management Team, and have confirmed that no one within the BBC holds material relating to the induction and training provided to all categories of TV Licensing visiting parties and visiting officers.
As these individuals are employed by Capita, their induction and training is primarily an internal matter for Capita.
Capita has no obligation to - nor does the BBC ask Capita to – advise it of these matters. . . "

The whole purpose of the BBC’s TV Licensing™ trademark is to ensure a cut-off between those private companies it contracts under the various TV Licensing™ contracts to do the dirty work for the BBC, scaring and bullying people into funding the BBC.  Make no mistake about it, the BBC retains overall responsibility for all aspects of TV licence administration and enforcement.

Under Section 180 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 the BBC took over that responsibility from the Home Office in 1991.

If after having read our blog you encounter anyone from "the BBC has nothing to do with TV Licensing" brigade, please put them right. The BBC is TV Licensing™ and the TV Licensing™ Authority for the UK.  The veneer of "authority" by which the BBC seeks to sanitise its trademarked TV Licensing™ nasty, bullying revenue raising enforcement scams and abuses.

The value of domestic CCTV surveillance and handheld video camera can prove invaluable in gathering evidence of the serial abuses and misdemeanours perpetrated by employees of Capita Business Services under cover of the BBC TV Licensing™ contract. TV Licensing Watch advise anybody who has the misfortune to have face to face dealings with Capita Business Services TV Licensing™ to make an audio-visual record of those dealings in their entirety covertly or overtly with CCTV and handheld video cameras.

For people who have not exercised their right to remain silent, TV Licensing Watch advise anybody who has had the misfortune to have face to face dealings with Capita BBC TV Licensing™ and have received a summons as a consequence to contact a licensed law practitioner if: there is the slightest discrepancy between the actual situation regarding viewing habits and/or what actually happened during the interview compared with what has been written on the TVL178 Record of Interview self incrimination form.

Borrowed time?

. . . “But the BBC also has a role as a beacon of enlightened values of openness, freedom of thought, toleration and diversity.”. . .

The BBC is no beacon of enlightened values of openness, freedom of thought, toleration and diversity when it comes to people who do not want the BBC and do not want to fund the BBC.

As readers of this blog know, TV Licensing Watch, has absolutely no time whatsoever for the BBC, its in house and contracted out BBC TV Licensing™ support operations and particularly, its trademarked, contracted out arms length, plausible deniability revenue raising operation, target driven, commission rewarded Capita BBC TV Licensing™.

TV Licensing Watch has never made a secret of its dislike of and disdain for the BBC and of Capita BBC TV Licensing™, and the officially endorsed structured deceits and intimidations that are passed off as Capita BBC TV Licensing™ enforcement. Since it did not actually investigate and review Capita BBC TV Licensing™ enforcement activities, the so-called review of BBC TV Licensing™ enforcement done by David Perry, QC, was in our opinion, and in the opinion of many who read the final report, a non-review, was a flawed and shoddy piece of work. Having read the terms of reference for the Perry Review into TV Licensing™ enforcement, TV Licensing Watch, decided not to participate, and those in the anti-TV licence fee movement who did participate were, and still are, disgusted by the Capita BBC TV Licensing™ carry on “business as usual” outcome of Perry’s “review” and justified TV Licensing Watch’s decision not to participate.

When the Department for Culture, Media and Sport called for submissions for their BBC Charter Review, TV Licensing Watch decided not to lodge a submission. An interesting development in the DCMS’ BBC Charter Review process was the disruptive participation of several pro-BBC lobby groups which led to the delayed publication of the Charter Review. The BBC Charter Review report published on behalf of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee was, as TV Licensing Watch fully expected, and the rest of the anti-TV licence community expected, something of a rubber stamp exercise to sanitise the BBC Charter renewal process. As with the Perry Review into TV Licensing™ enforcement, matters of Capita BBC TV Licensing™ enforcement were very largely ignored, well, to be honest, completely ignored and once again, justified TV Licensing Watch’s decision not to lodge a submission.  We perceived and continue to perceive a sustained cosy little BBC Charter renewal stitch-up between, DCMS, and the, BBC, at the expense of people in the UK.  Along with many others in the anti-licence fee community, TV Licensing Watch, expected it.

However, on reading the BBC Charter Review report, apart from the expected pro-BBC gush, TV Licensing Watch noted the following from the Introduction:

. . . “New technologies and ways of accessing programmes are pushing the BBC to consider long term alternatives to the licence fee.” . . .

. . . “And finally, the BBC’s Director General has argued that the licence fee is viable for the coming Charter period. But as commercial and technological pressures converge, as the BBC’s market share continues to fall and a new generation consumes its media in innumerable new ways, there is the question whether or not the licence fee funding model can be sustained.” . . .

” . . . build revenue streams and consider options beyond the licence fee.”

The language deployed is subdued as language in such official reports usually is. TV Licensing Watch, does, however, intuit that the courts enforced BBC TV access tax and its nasty, devious contracted out target driven enforcement regime is on borrowed time and that due to opposition an enforced BBC household levy may not come about.

 

It is a scandal that during the entirety of the next BBC Charter, if things stay as they are, there will be an expected 4,000,000+ prosecution statements taken from households across the nation and 2,000,000+ Capita BBC TV Licensing™ prosecutions as a consequence. Change it seems means no change at all. Along with others in the anti-TV licence fee community, TV Licensing Watch awaits the publication of BBC Charter white paper, expected in May 2016, with interest, even though the white paper may very well be the official publication equivalent of white toilet paper.

By law people in the UK have to pay a TV licence to a private company just to be "allowed" to watch live TV. Think about that.

The value of domestic CCTV surveillance and handheld video camera can prove invaluable in gathering evidence of the serial abuses and misdemeanours perpetrated by employees of Capita Business Services under cover of the BBC TV Licensing™ contract. TV Licensing Watch advise anybody who has the misfortune to have face to face dealings with Capita Business Services TV Licensing™ to make an audio-visual record of those dealings in their entirety covertly or overtly with CCTV and handheld video cameras.

For people who have not exercised their right to remain silent, TV Licensing Watch advise anybody who has had the misfortune to have face to face dealings with Capita BBC TV Licensing™ and have received a summons as a consequence to contact a licensed law practitioner if: there is the slightest discrepancy between the actual situation regarding viewing habits and/or what actually happened during the interview compared with what has been written on the TVL178 Record of Interview self incrimination form.