Falklands : Falklands People Reject Service Charge for BFBS TV Payment
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 16.05.2008 (Article Archived on 30.05.2008)
The people have spoken but will Councillors listen. The Jury is out.
PEOPLE REJECTS SERVICE CHARGE PAYMENT
An Editorial by J. Brock (FINN)
It became apparent that the majority of the people who phoned in to express their views over the FIRS programme on Wednesday night do not want the cost of TV licences put on their service charge. Yes, there is support for BFBS and the programmes that are offered, though admittedly they are targeted towards the Military market.
Evidence from the number of people who called leaned towards taking the money for TV out of Tax revenues instead of having it placed in with the annual service charge.
It is a concern that if people are faced with the charge added on to the invoice for water and trash removal that many who object will first try to pay for everything but the TV charge and if they have no opt-out, they will refuse to pay the full invoice.
Considerable time and money would be spent trying to get the essential services paid for and the whole “simple solution” could go pear shaped rather quickly.
If BFBS is that popular, people will pay for the additional charges to have the signal encoded. I am told by those in the know that encoding a TV signal isn’t that expensive.
Making people pay for TV on the annual service charge is a non-starter and it is hoped that Councillors will listen to the people and take their views into account when deciding how to generate TV revenue. If the service is that popular then FIG will have no problem getting people pay for an encoded signal.
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