After the news broke that the BBC was considering the possibility of introducing pay-per-view section to the iPlayer - in order to fund the task of making it's huge archive available to the public - we ran a PC Advisor poll to see what our readers thought about this. See: Do you think the BBC should charge for some iPlayer use?
After a whopping 1,453 votes in seven-days, over a quarter (26 percent) of respondents thought that "there shouldn't even be a Licence Fee. The BBC should be commercially funded."
A third of poll participants (33 percent) also demonstrated their displeasure with the BBC, by voting that the BBC shouldn't charge for use of it's iPlayer as the "Licence Fee is already too high". This takes the combined total of people who are unhappy with the current price of the Licence Fee up to 59 percent.
Interestingly nearly one in ten (9 percent) thought the idea of the BBC charging for some iPlayer use was a good idea. Five per cent of these agreed entirely with the proposed method of bringing extra-content to the iPlayer, voting for the "micro-payments are a good way of funding extra BBC content." option. The remaining four per cent, thought that charging for iPlayer use was a good idea selecting "The current situation is unfair because of the varying quality of internet access across the UK" option. A surprisingly small, one percent, of respondents were not sure if it was a good idea or not.
Pollers from all side of the debate decided they wanted to express their opinion in greater detail and took to the PC Advisor forums (as they were encouraged to do so). Carver was one of the more succinct forum posters and his view was "If I had to pay to use iPlayer then I just wouldn't use it, I think the fee is already high enough for the BBC without having to pay extra".
nickcroker had a strong view on the matter too and stood up for the BBC and its Licence Fee, "I think [those] that think the licence fee is too high or should be abolished really don't appreciate how good the output of the BBC is - have they never seen any foreign television" he went on to add "It's not all about money".
A certain Joseph Kerr seemed to be somewhat blasé about our poll saying "I'm not really bothered. If they do, I wont use it, but I find it hard to get excited either way." and forum regular Covergirl was in a particularly sarcastic mood, announcing he "would gladly sell my house and all my possessions to fund the BBC".
Comments
Guest said: Its not so much the charging for iPlayer that is a problem its to do with what we currently get or dont get for our licence money right now When we can get truthful unmanipulated news news that hasnt been carefully weeded and selected beforehand to leave out the things they dont want us to know then the licence fee might be acceptable I wouldnt use iplayer anyway theres nothing Im that desperate to see
Maccyroo said: The license fee concept is totally outdated and should be withdrawn In this day and age where TV is accessed over the internet andby cable satellite freeview etc the BBC has plenty of opportunities to fund itself via commercials as others soITV have introduced 1 channels and ITV3 and ITV4 are on most of the day Whilst the stingy BBC only schedule programs on BBC3 and 4 from 7pm It is a disgrace considering all the money they get through the license The program quality is no better than many other commercial channels and I hardlyever tune in to any BBC channelapart from Dr Who of course So why should I and others with similar viewing habitshave to pay such an astronomical fee It was different when the BBC were responsible for over 20 of available programs but now that figure is more like 2 and the license is outdated and a rip off