Each day close to 200,000 letters are plopped through door slots and slammed into the post-boxes of households across the UK, demanding the payment of £180 per year for BBC services. It is one of the most absurd traditions of British life, one that gets increasingly bizarre and hard to justify as time goes on.

The letters grow sequentially more threatening, sometimes wrapped in bright red envelopes. If you ignore them for long enough, they warn someone will come to your door and demand to see your television.

In 2024/25, the public broadcaster’s TV Licensing arm sent out 72 million pieces of correspondence, including 46 million warning letters. That is something like 460 tonnes of paper, or roughly eight thousand trees fired through the chipper to demand £15 a month for (what feels like) another subscription – one of the most expensive media “subscriptions” in the country.

It might have made sense back in the day, I but I don’t know many people that watch terrestrial TV anymore. And I wouldn’t pay £15 a month for iPlayer (especially in this economy) when I can get better content somewhere else for half the price. Most of the people watching TV these days are older, it’s why the TV licence is free for those on pension credit. Meanwhile, young people are gobbling up news and entertainment online or on social media. For free.

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Can Glasgow really become a 24-hour city? Yes it can - so let's get started

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