Television licence

A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is an official record of payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence fee paid. The licence is sometimes also required to own a radio or receive radio broadcasts. A TV licence is therefore effectively a hypothecated tax for the purpose of funding public broadcasting, thus allowing public broadcasters to transmit television programmes without, or with only supplemental, funding from radio and television advertisements. However, in some cases the balance between public funding and advertisements is the opposite - the Polish TVP broadcaster receives more funds from advertisements than from its TV tax.

Whilst TV licensing is rare in the Americas, half of the countries in Asia, a few countries in Africa, and two-thirds of the countries in Europe use television licences to fund public television.

BBC Television

BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television broadcasts is dated to 2 November 1936.

The domestic TV BBC television channels are broadcast without any commercial advertising and collectively they account for more than 30% of all UK viewing. The services are funded by a television licence.

History of BBC Television

The BBC operates several television networks, television stations (although there is generally very little distinction between the two terms in the UK), and related programming services in the United Kingdom. As well as being a broadcaster, the corporation also produces a large number of its own programmes in-house, thereby ranking as one of the world's largest television production companies.

Early years (before 1939)

Baird Television Ltd. made Britain's first television broadcast, on 30 September 1929 from its studio in Long Acre, London, via the BBC's London transmitter, using the electromechanical system pioneered by John Logie Baird. This system used a vertically-scanned image of 30 lines – just enough resolution for a close-up of one person, and with a bandwidth low enough to use existing radio transmitters. Simultaneous transmission of sound and picture was achieved on 30 March 1930, by using the BBC's new twin transmitter at Brookmans Park. By late 1930, 30 minutes of morning programmes were broadcast Monday to Friday, and 30 minutes at midnight on Tuesdays and Fridays, after BBC radio went off the air. Baird broadcasts via the BBC continued until June 1932.

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom, headquartered at Broadcasting House in London.

The BBC is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, with over 20,950 staff in total, of whom 16,672 are in public sector broadcasting; including part-time, flexible as well as fixed contract staff, the total number is 35,402.

The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBC's extensive radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. From 1 April 2014, it also funds the BBC World Service, launched in 1932, which provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic, and Persian, and broadcasts in 28 languages.

Television licensing in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies, any household watching or recording live television transmissions as they are being broadcast (terrestrial, satellite, cable, or internet) is required to hold a television licence. Businesses, hospitals, schools and a range of other organisations are also required to hold television licences to watch and record live TV broadcasts. Since 1 April 2010 the annual licence fee has been £145.50 for colour and £49.00 for black and white. Income from the licence is primarily used to fund the television, radio and online services of the BBC. The total income from licence fees was £3.735 billion in 2014–15 of which £613.4 million or 16.4% was provided by the Government through concessions for those over the age of 75. Thus, the licence fee made up the bulk of the BBC's total income of £4.805 billion in 2014–2015.

Operation of the licensing system

Licence fee collection and use

The TV licence fee is a tax collected by the BBC and primarily used to fund the radio, television and online services of the BBC itself. This type of tax (ie. one raised for a particular defined purpose) is known as a hypothecated tax. Licence Fee collection is the responsibility of the BBC's Finance and Business division.

Matt Allwright

Matthew "Matt" Allwright (born 14 April 1970) is an English television presenter and journalist who specialises in consumer affairs, best known for presenting shows such as Watchdog, Rogue Traders, Food Inspectors and Fake Britain for BBC One as well as The One Show.

Early life

Allwright was educated at two independent schools in Berkshire: at Dolphin School in Hurst (near Reading) and Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning, where he was Head Boy, followed by the University of Manchester, where he gained a degree in English.

Career

In 1997, Allwright got his big break as a feature reporter on Watchdog, after contacting the programme to complain about his mother's faulty washing machine. The BBC saw potential and requested Allwright present the report himself.

This led to a regular reporting slot on the show, which is where Allwright developed his laidback and humorous style, many of his early Watchdog stints also guest-starred his actual mother, as a consumer commentator.

In 2001, Allwright also began presenting another programme; Rogue Traders with Dan Penteado. The show was a 30-minute undercover consumer programme in which Allwright and Penteado investigated and confronted rogue tradesmen.