Missed Opportunity
I fully support the TV licence system as the best way of keeping the BBC advertisement-free.
However, think they missed an opportunity to sort out the problem of TV licence evasion once and for all with the digital switchover.
Why wasn't it mandated that every digital TV receiver must have a smartcard reader, from Day One? Then the BBC channels could simply have been broadcast scrambled, requiring a viewing card to watch or record them. No payment, no pictures. Simple!
It would have altered the payment model from per-address to per-device; but I don't see a problem with a person who lives alone swapping their viewing card from one receiver to another as they move from room to room.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
