[Jimbo2022]

So we have a situation where the BBC is moving towards only being available in HD but they still sell a black and white TV licence?

The BBC don't but it is ironic.

Of course equipment needs to be connected TO a black and white set now for it to work but yes they are still around.

Here is a list of charges and historical ones. Black and white licence is currently £53.50 a year.

en.m.wikipedia.org 

Television licensing in the United Kingdom (historical) - Wikipedia
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  Source: en.wikipedia.org

Despite the title the fee history is on that page

[i.h]

I suspect that anyone who applies for a *new* B&W licence and isn't associated to an old one in some way (eg moving address) probably attracts particular scrutiny.

Though I'd wonder if anyone actually has a working B&W set these days, outside of the enthusiast community who probably do have Freeview/Freesat in glorious 405 lines via a standards converter

[Jimbo2022]

I suspect that anyone who applies for a *new* B&W licence and isn't associated to an old one in some way (eg moving address) probably attracts particular scrutiny.

Though I'd wonder if anyone actually has a working B&W set these days, outside of the enthusiast community who probably do have Freeview/Freesat in glorious 405 lines via a standards converter

Or a black and white 625 lIne UHF set. There were plenty of those even in the early 80s.

[Keith]

I suspect that anyone who applies for a *new* B&W licence and isn't associated to an old one in some way (eg moving address) probably attracts particular scrutiny.

Though I'd wonder if anyone actually has a working B&W set these days, outside of the enthusiast community who probably do have Freeview/Freesat in glorious 405 lines via a standards converter

I'd have thought there would be a strong case for essentially phasing out these licences over the next few years, by large rises to bring it closer to the £159 standard colour licence fee. Whilst at the end of March 2022 there were only 4200 B&W licences in force I wouldn't be surprised if a significant number of those now have colour TVs, but perhaps "don't realise" the £53.50 they're paying is only for a black & white TV. The difference in revenue is approximately £443K, which is almost enough to cover Alan Shearer's BBC salary (according to this year's list).

[Brekkie]

It should have been phased out at DSO really.

Quite surprised how quickly the BBC are turning off the SD channel though I guess they may get data that shows it is very little used, and Sky has been HD by default since the latter Sky+ days. Freesat may be more of the issue.

Have the SD simulcast of other BBC channels already gone?

[gottago]

I wouldn’t be surprised if the BBC had worked out that a lot of those still on a B&W licence would likely just ditch their licence altogether if they were forced to pay the full amount. Better to have half the income from them than no money at all.

[i.h]

Were there ever a significant amount of Freesat SD boxes? I don't remember them being on sale for long. I'd imagine there are more antique Sky boxes still in use (and it still surprises me that Sky were never aggressive about getting them changed over for subscribers, esp. as people upgraded to Q and there were probably tons of HD boxes floating around)

I suppose the rationale is that there is a considerable saving on transponder costs, or they can repurpose it for DVB-S2 and spread the load (I think there's currently one BBC HD region that sits on a Sky owned transponder?)

[Nick Harvey]

(I think there's currently one BBC HD region that sits on a Sky owned transponder?)

Yes. BBC One South HD is still on a Sky transponder.

[CCFG]

Were there ever a significant amount of Freesat SD boxes? 

They are fairly uncommon, correct me if I'm wrong but I believe a lot of them were given out at DSO.

[IanJRedman]

Slightly OT, but BBC One South HD has a habit of occasionally pixelating/breaking up on our Freesat box. Maybe our dish is slightly misaligned, but it only happens on that one channel, which makes me think it's perhaps an issue with our dish's reception of that particular transponder? Seems most common during the news, for some reason. Anyway, I'm hoping when it eventually moves back to a BBC transponder, it'll fix it!