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Tax on PCs May Replace BBC Licence Fee
Concern over TV viewing for free on the Internet
A tax on personal computers is reportedly being considered as a replacement for the BBC licence fee.
Technological advances would mean that a fee based on "television ownership could become redundant", Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said.
More than six million UK households have access to broadband connections and the BBC has begun broadcasting video clips over the Internet.
A legal loophole identified by the communications regulator Ofcom allows viewers to watch television over the Internet for free, The Times reports.
Ofcom predicts that more than half of Britain’s households will be watching television over the Internet by 2012.
Although the licence fee is being retained at least until 2017, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Green Paper setting out the BBC’s long-term future proposes a solution that could end the traditional fee.
It suggests "either a compulsory levy on all households or even on ownership of PCs as well as TVs", according to The Times.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it was not worried for now, but insiders told the newspaper that the department would act if Internet viewing took off.
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PS. I've never watched TV or listened to the radio on my PC. Try telling that to the taxman.
