The BBC under threat from the government

You enable conditional access to receive BBC services on your mobile connection, and pay the provider accordingly. If you are already paying for a fixed line connection, then one or the other becomes zero charge ? Fair amount of admin required, and open to abuse I'm sure.......

I don't think conditional access is the way forward.

I'd much rather lay out a narrower set of responsibilities for the BBC and have it funded by general taxation.

I think general taxation is a mistake, as it makes the BBC a political football, and it removes the direct link between viewer and broadcaster.

The Swedish and German models of a fixed personal or household fee seem a better way of funding it if you ditch the licence.

General taxation does have the benefit of reducing evasion rates, although it does mean everybody has to pay it regardless of if they choose not to have a TV.

Stick 10% on council tax. Someone living on their own in a flat will pay less than someone in a 20 bedroom mansion. Seems fair enough to me.

And people living in residences in the same Council Tax band in different Council areas pay very different amounts for the same service? Seems unfair to me!

I suppose it would have to be a flat rate.

I'd favour a tax on subscription TV services but I think it would be too much to swallow.

Realistically if you can afford to pay £85 a month for everything but the kitchen sink for Sky TV on its own, then you can probably afford the extra levy on it.

But that being said, Sky (and presumably Virgin) do the entire haggling thing for purposes of retention, so it may well be an unintended consequence that if you are fortunate enough to be able to get 30-50% off your Sky deal (which is not particularly difficult to get in in the first place), your subscription to the BBC under this models goes down by 30-50% as well. In other words if its literally slapped on top of your Sky bill and then discounted (as is the norm) it could cost you nothing.

There are pros and cons to every potential solution to replacing the fee I feel. No solution is perfect.

£15 on an £85 Sky bill is easy enough to justify. £15 on a £7.99 Netflix subscription is a non-starter.

But if your sole TV viewing is Netflix and Prime and you don't watch live TV, then you don't need the licence anyway, So it doesn't need to be a starter.

Sky and Virgin yes, since their model(s) - and Now TV as well - are built around live viewing with catch-up tacked on.