Does anyone in the UK have a TV licence?

I don't have one because I don't need one. As a result, I receive a letter from TV licencing every few weeks threatening "enforcement visits" and "hearings in my local court" unless I buy a TV licence or explain why I don't need one. I just throw the letter in the bin.

One I received today stated that they carried out 10101 enforcement visits [b]every day[/b] last year. As they claim to visit at weekends as well as weekdays that makes a total of 3 686 865 enforcement visits. As there are approximately 28 million homes in the UK ( http://visual.ons.gov.uk/uk-perspectives-2016-housing-and-home-ownership-in-the-uk/ ) that means they visit approximately 1 in every 7.6 homes. I've never had such a visit so obviously they don't visit everyone who doesn't have a TV licence. I also presume they don't visit people who do have a TV licence.

The figures suggest hardly anyone has a TV licence - or are TV licencing's claims just more bullshit?

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ArishMell · 70-79, M

I have no TV, and do occasionally receive these rather frightening letters. I went through a period of them being fairly frequent, so when the next appeared after a much longer interval I wrote, with humour intended, "Oh there you are! I was getting worried about you!" on the return slip.

I listen to the radio instead, and I pick what I wish to hear between Radios Two, Three and Four. And sometimes, I don't switch it on at all.

Let's nail the "rubbish" accusation, because it's almost invariably merely a comment on the viewer's/ listener's personal tastes, not programme range or quality; and too facile to take seriously. By all means comment unfavourably on quality or policy if you feel it below standard or wrong, but do so constructively.

I do not listen to programmes I don't like. Simple. I don't merely dismiss them as "rubbish".

How much is the Licence, which is really a subscription? Less than £4 a week - for 5 main radio and assorted local, radio channels and 2 (is it 2 or 3 - I'm not clear on that!) television channels, from the BBC alone.

You cannot tell me you cannot find anything of interest to you in that lot, but I admit that any useful radio listings are limited to just one magazine, [i]Radio Times[/i] - and that gives more about TV than radio.

Any other broadcaster in the UK is either advertisement-ridden ITV or costly subscriptions services like Sky.