Thank you all for the very useful and insightful replies. It's good news too, 140 odd pounds that will be put to better use
I rather agree with sonofasailor about the obsolescence of this way of doing things. I find it really interesting that countries with very different approaches to taxes and to the public sector in general end up having such similar systems for tv licensing. In France tv licensing is paid along with what would be council tax in the UK, on an opt-out basis. This makes a lot of people likely to pay when they don't need to, either because they're already paying for it in their main home (there's supposed to be a substantial discount on your secondary residences if i remember correctly), or because someone else is already paying for them at their home (has most chances to happen when kids stay t home but make enough money to start their own tax reports). If you opt out, you agree to have controllers show up to your door, not sure about whether you have to let them in or anything. As i said, owning a tv is enough to owe the tax. In Germany it is actually including radio stations as well, and for them owning a radio is enough to have to pay, let along a tv. Actually even having a laptop is enough. There seems to be a rather nasty campaign of controls too and it is becoming virtually impossible to avoid paying it once you're on their radar - at least that's what locals were telling me there.
That's for differences. But in both countries the system has been revised fairly recently - the past decade, say. The goal was to adapt and absolutely not to try and phase the thing out. They are both trying, rather successfully, to expand dramatically the number of people actually paying the tax - in France before that reform it was an independent tax on an opt-in basis, and about 1/3 of the people estimated to owe it were actually paying it.
And it's also interesting that the amount to be paid is very similar, a little higher for Germany perhaps, a little lower for France. It is, unlike other taxes, not linked to income at all. Although perhaps very low income people may get out of it, and I know that in France rather broad categories of disabled people are exempt as well. It not linked to a number of people watching either, but on a "per home" basis, in all three countries. The tax does not stop, but limits somewhat compared to private channels, the recourse to commercials in France and even more so in Germany. Don't know about that in the UK actually.
And I also have to say that in all three countries, what you get from it is very decent in quality, and would be greatly missed by a majority of locals if it were to be replaced entirely by private sector television/radio.
I wasn't planning on writing an essay, sorry
It just is really interesting that you find something so similar and seemingly outdated in these relatively different countries. Thanks again for the answers!
