What's the TV license at now? 180 pounds or ~275 US? If it came with access to iPlayer, 4oD & iTVoD I'd probably be willing to pay for a UK TV license.
That's an interesting model - pay the full price for a TV license and only use the web services. There would be technical difficulties, of course (guaranteeing a decent connection to the BBC servers, possibly adding international data centres) but it certainly provokes thought.
On the other hand, how exactly will the government justify collecting tax from non-citizens (even worse, non-residents!)?
> On the other hand, how exactly will the government justify
> collecting tax from non-citizens (even worse, non-
> residents!)?
How do the US justify taxes when I (in the UK) buy something from Threadless which is based in the US? Or my subscription to Backblaze? Or the sales tax when I visit the US (where I'm neither a citizen nor resident)?
It's pretty much a non-issue.
Technically though it probably wouldn't be a tax. A tax is collected by the state and this would almost certainly go through a limited company which while ultimately owned by the state is legally different.
(I'm in Canada)