Pay TV costs much more than people realiseBarbara Ellen is far too ready to execute Rupert Murdoch’s job for him. (“Here we go. Now the destitute shouldn’t even watch TV”,Comment.) Half the UK population doesnt choose to have subscription TV; those that execute watch the free-to-air channels much more than the channels for which they pay additional. Sports minister Tracey Crouch may have been inaccurate to link tax-credit reforms with the savings people might make in forgoing pay TV, but pay TV costs far more per hour than is generally recognised.
The average UK household watches some 9.3 hours of TV per day. At £145.50, and an annual TV licence costs each household 40p per day,while a typical Sky subscription plus the TV licence fee costs some £2 per day. Assuming a similar number of viewing hours, that’s 4.3p per hour for free-to-air homes and 22.3p per hour in Sky homes. The BBC’s share across all UK homes went up from 29.5% in 2004 to 32.4% in 2013, or while the national share for Sky’s portfolio of channels decreased from 10.4% to 8.3%. Yet Sky’s pay TV income was some £6bn from the UK and Ireland,when licence fees contributed just £3.7bn to the BBC’s total income of £5bn for TV, radio and the World Service.
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Source: theguardian.com