A bit of a rambling post, but hopefully covering some points of interest. I haven’t had a TV for thirty years, but when I moved to my present address seventeen years ago I almost immediately started getting demands from the licensing people. After a year I got a visit from an inspector, who I did let in on the basis that I was establishing the fact that I did not have a TV. The letters stopped...for about a year and then restarted, gradually becoming increasingly threatening. They still appear at roughly monthly intervals. What I particularly objected to was that there was no way of contacting them without spending my money. Stamps or telephone calls may not be expensive, but why should I have to pay to tell someone that I have no obligation to have a contract with that I don’t have a contract with them.
I have just spent a year in a care home which had a TV in each room (some residents could do little more than lie there staring at it). After a period of binge-watching I gradually cut down so that after a few months I was watching the BBC news and little else. Countryfile was just about the only regular viewing: it is a bit of a twee and dewy-eyed townies’ view of the countryside, but Adam Henson’s pieces about farming could be of interest. Otherwise it was a few documentaries and the odd curiosity on Talking Pictures. There were only two accurately titled programmes: The News and Pointless Celebrities. It was a wonderful day when they were able to dig out a remote (probably due to someone in a room with the same type of TV having died) and I could get Radio 3.
I don’t object to the basic principle of a licence fee, although it is a bit of a sledgehammer. The BBC at least makes an effort to be impartial, but not uncritical, and sets a standard that others will be measured against. If it disappeared or was emasculated other stations would be able to let their standards slide and avoid anything that might upset their proprietors or advertisers, who don’t want to upset the (any) government. As with newspapers, you don’t need to dictate what should appear, just hold the purse-strings and the power to appoint your supporters to crucial posts.
End of rant, though I have probably forgotten something that I really wanted to mention when reading earlier posts.