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500,000 households cancel TV licence putting BBC future in jeopardy (inews.co.uk)

submitted 1 day ago by thehatfox@lemmy.world to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[–] agentTeiko@piefed.social 31 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I mean you're not going to pay for telly if you can't afford food or AC.

[–] LSNLDN@slrpnk.net 8 points 19 hours ago

I and many others cancelled tv licenses due to the BBCs complicity in genocide

[–] bl4ckp1xx13@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AC is not a thing here. Our houses were built when the climate was correct, and we needed to keep heat in.

That's why we complain about heatwaves that bring us the same temperatures as the US experiences, we don't have respite.

[–] agentTeiko@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago

I know AC is not a thing hence the need to pay to put it in. I know central Air is out due to no ducts but my uncle had AC installed in his conservatory last year and it was not cheap.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I'm pretty sure that a lot more Brits presently have a television than air conditioning.

searches

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2025

In 2025, there were 29.0 million households in the UK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom

In March 2024, there were 23.9 million licences, of which 3,600 (0.015%) were monochrome (black and white).

So about 82% of households have a TV.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/28/air-conditioning-uk-homes-heatwave

An estimated 4m homes have an air conditioner, double the figure from three years ago.

And about 14% have air conditioning.

EDIT: Also, the TV number might be higher, given that I imagine that there's some portion of the population that owns a television and just isn't paying the licensing fee. This would just be a floor on the number.

[–] SouthEndSunset@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago

I don’t know anyone with AC. I don’t know anyone without a TV.

Do consider, a TV starts at around a few hundred quid. AC, for a single unit installed, is £3.5k.