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Old October 27th, 2020 #27
Stewart Meadows
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BBC exodus: Britons reportedly overwhelm phone lines & website in rush to cancel TV licenses


25 Oct, 2020 13:57

It appears that so many people want to cancel their TV licenses in Britain that the BBC cannot cope with the outflow. However, some critics suggest the broadcaster is deliberately hampering the process.

“We have more calls than usual at the moment, and they are taking longer to answer as we operate in accordance with Covid-19 government guidelines,” a spokesman for the BBC told the Express newspaper, when asked why its phone lines were clogged.

The BBC is the primary beneficiary of the British TV licensing scheme. Anyone who wishes to watch or record live television in the UK has to pay a £157.50 ($205) annual fee. And the tens of thousands of people who dodge it face prosecution and fines each year – and may even be sent to prison.

However, the broadcaster has recently been facing an outflow of paying license holders, in part because an increasing number of Britons believe that the BBC does not deliver on the promise of being politically non-partial, which is enshrined in its charter.
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“The BBC appears to be deliberately preventing people from cancelling their TV licences by bouncing them back and forth between their website and call centre, neither of which are currently functional,” campaign director Rebecca Ryan told the newspaper.
https://www.rt.com/uk/504520-bbc-lic...s-overwhelmed/