the end of horsemouth's (limited) engagement with streaming services

there's a discussion in the government (allegedly) about making people pay the BBC licence fee if they use streaming services (but don't use the BBC). 

he thinks this is just trolling. politically it would be a move of starmer-like stupidity (though he thinks no move is too stupid and authoritarian for labour party central office). 

this would (in the unlikely event of it happening) probably mark the end of horsemouth's (admittedly limited) engagement with streaming services. 

whatever is behind a paywall he can live without. 

at the moment horsemouth is heavily reliant upon youtube (and has been since the pandemic). before that he serviced his watching habit with DVDs from out of the libraries and charity shops. 

in the event of him being charged for using streaming services he would probably go back to reading more and listening to more music (off physical media - he can barely remember the last time he listened to a CD or a record). 

horsemouth likes the hunt to find those CDs, DVDs, and books  (but possibly he doesn't like listening, watching, and reading things off physical media as much).   

the main thing youtube replaces for him is magazine type stuff - podcasts, interviews, current affairs etc. 

for many years successively horsemouth lived without a TV (he barely even watches it now, pretty much only when his mum watches it). 

he guesses the more tech-savvy people will torrent the whole lot or keep up with the latest VPN or some such. maybe it would drive some digital peer-to-peer form of tape trading similar to napster (now there's a nightmare to conjure with). 

it is important to remember that the streaming services were a reassertion of control over digital copyrights after the pirate years of napster and torrenting. it would indeed be strange if the BBC as national broadcaster received special treatment this late in the game. 

horsemouth guesses such a decision would be deeply unpopular. the demographic who were loyal to broadcast media are fading out. the demographic who just expect access everything all the time on their smartphones are fading in. 

in fact he thinks it is a complete non-starter. 

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last night it rained. today more rain.