TV licence

[beorhthelm]

...

By all means don't pay for one - you don't have to - but just don't connect your TV to a device that can receive broadcast televison signals

you mean buy a Monitor? Technically you pay the licence for any device capable of being tuned within the TV broadcast range, including TV cards for computer. But not including VCRs strangely. in theory you can connect a video to a monitor and not be liable to pay the licence, or so im told...

Anywho, the blanket licence is there as it was/is the only way to ensure people dont get away with paying for the public funded services. In all likely hood in the next 15-20 years we'll all have set-top boxes that can detemine the TV usage and charge accordingly. So if you dont watch BBC you wont get charged. But then you'll get charged for using ITV, Channel 4, XYZ Channel etc.

How many people will like that solutiuon though?

 

[Highfields Seagull]

By the way, Channel 4 also receives some public funding.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

excellent - you've formed an opinion of me over half a dozen postings on a chat site.....where is your reality now?

christ girl get a grip, don't take it so seriously.

 

[tedebear]

christ girl get a grip, don't take it so seriously.

easy way out of a discussion mate isn't it....

 

[Tom Bombadil]

easy way out of a discussion mate isn't it....

Actually I was trying to back away from the argument as you seem to be going a bit troppo on me.

NB some posts may not be entirely serious.

 

[Gazwag]

Paying £120 odd quid a year for the privilage for no f**king adverts every ten minutes is an absolute bargin

 

[Storer68]

So you never moan about the taxes you pay? ever?

Do taxes affect the way you vote? they do me! Tax is something we all should be able to have a say in - I believe my taxes should go to social services which I/my family and community will need - not to fund something which promotes sitting on your bum in front of a box being a couch potato?

Selfish you say? no - its an educated opinion to which I'm entitled...

no its a very ill-educated opinion (which you are entitled to).

IT'S NOT A TAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

its a licence permitting the holder to access services - it does not preclude anyone from owning a television set.

the government do not get a penny out of it. it all goes to fund the BBC.

How do you know which services you will need in the future. imagine if we decided that most people don't need hospitals (lets face, they are not used by evryone day in day out) presumably you would not wish to fund hospitals. i mean i don't go to school anymore, so why is there a feckinm huge education budget fudned by government. However i do recognise the benefit of having education so I don't see it as unreasonable to fund something that i have no further use for.......................

oh, but you were VERy eloquent!

 

[Storer68]

In all likely hood in the next 15-20 years we'll all have set-top boxes that can detemine the TV usage and charge accordingly. So if you dont watch BBC you wont get charged. But then you'll get charged for using ITV, Channel 4, XYZ Channel etc.

How many people will like that solutiuon though?

How.

if you using terrestrial then we have yet to find a way establishing a return path that will allow this. Satelliet can only do it through a telephone line (cable obvioulsy can do it)

 

[Yorkie]

its a licence permitting the holder to access services - it does not preclude anyone from owning a television set.

If you have a television set on your premises you have to prove that you have no intention of using it. Preferably by removing the plug so that you cannot get power to it.

When Ned went to Huddersfield Uni he shared a house with another bloke and they chose not to have a tv.
The licensing people just wouldn't believe that they didn't watch tv and kept hounding them and hounding them.

Ned did have a black and white portable in the celllar that they didnt use and took the plug off so that if any detector vans called on them they could show it wasnt usable.
They must have had dozens of letters in the two years they were at that house.

 

[Storer68]

I find the tv license a dreadful nanny state tax.....

why if I have a box in my living room that has a glass bulb in it hooked up to an aerial do to have to pay this tax??

what if I never watch a BBC program?? what if I only use my sky box?

This is a tax to line the pockets of the bbc - and ensure their existance.....

I never asked to watch it so why should I pay?? I am quite happy to go without any bbc channels if I don't have to pay the tax!!

However I will gladly pay my taxes for the ambulance / police services as I would like to be able to use them when I need!!

Theres the difference!!

How many of the 250+ channels that you pay for on Sky do you ever watch.

Avid viewer of UK Food+1, Sky Travel extra, Gay date TV, God 2, The Advert Channel are we?

Me thinks probably not.

 

[London Calling]

What will you lot moan about paying for next?

The BBC is the envy of the world.

Sky isn't.

Its a great service and supplies a great deal of material to the other indistries.

It also set the standards for media training and I believ trains more people in Broadcasting than any other station.

It therefore helps to support the quality of other services.

£120 isn't much, just pay and shut the up.

LC

 

[tedebear]

no its a very ill-educated opinion (which you are entitled to).

IT'S NOT A TAX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

its a licence permitting the holder to access services - it does not preclude anyone from owning a television set.

the government do not get a penny out of it. it all goes to fund the BBC.

How do you know which services you will need in the future. imagine if we decided that most people don't need hospitals (lets face, they are not used by evryone day in day out) presumably you would not wish to fund hospitals. i mean i don't go to school anymore, so why is there a feckinm huge education budget fudned by government. However i do recognise the benefit of having education so I don't see it as unreasonable to fund something that i have no further use for.......................

oh, but you were VERy eloquent!

very good point - it isn't a tax - but it may as well be from my perspective.....

I don't understand your point about services though? The NHS is something that I or my family may at some time need - and I believe in funding the NHS for this main reason, I have used the education system so am paying for my and maybe in the future my childrens need - how does this equate to making us pay to watch TV?

Why is my opinion ill educated?

 

[perseus]

If you have a television set on your premises you have to prove that you have no intention of using it. Preferably by removing the plug so that you cannot get power to it.

When Ned went to Huddersfield Uni he shared a house with another bloke and they chose not to have a tv.
The licensing people just wouldn't believe that they didn't watch tv and kept hounding them and hounding them.

Ned did have a black and white portable in the celllar that they didnt use and took the plug off so that if any detector vans called on them they could show it wasnt usable.
They must have had dozens of letters in the two years they were at that house.

Do you think the TV Licence people were born yesterday? That is the old trick of sticking the bare wires into sockets on the wall.

They would not believe if you put an axe through the screen. Getting the TV in the first place is prima facie evidence of installation and therefore you are guilty. And that applies if you just popped in next door and somebody else had turned the television on. There is no defence.

If they have cut off your electricity, they will get a Magistrate's warrant and search under you bed and in your garden for portable generators and battery packs.

 

[tedebear]

How many of the 250+ channels that you pay for on Sky do you ever watch.

Avid viewer of UK Food+1, Sky Travel extra, Gay date TV, God 2, The Advert Channel are we?

Me thinks probably not.

Was that some kind of pointed barb? I hardly find that funny....

Most of our viewing is sky sports actually...when the tv is on that is, which I must say is not that often.....

 

[Storer68]

Was that some kind of pointed barb? I hardly find that funny....

Most of our viewing is sky sports actually...when the tv is on that is, which I must say is not that often.....

Not a barb - but just an exapmple of paying for channels that you may noy watch.

 

[tedebear]

Not a barb - but just an exapmple of paying for channels that you may noy watch.

Yes my point was that I chose to watch sky and pay for that choice, no matter how many channels I get? If i don't want sky anymore I cancel my subscription...we watch the football on sky mostly....

Whether or not you watch the BBC you don't have a choice but to pay? Is that fair was my inital point?

yes blah blah its only £120 but some people can't afford that...to answer London Callings point....hypothetically if the BBC was privatised and the fee (tax) went up I think a few of you would be having a complain...

I like SCR for game days - if I hand in my tv and only have a radio in my house should I have to pay??

 

[Storer68]

very good point - it isn't a tax - but it may as well be from my perspective.....

I don't understand your point about services though? The NHS is something that I or my family may at some time need - and I believe in funding the NHS for this main reason, I have used the education system so am paying for my and maybe in the future my childrens need - how does this equate to making us pay to watch TV?

Why is my opinion ill educated?

Let me explain (without going into the minutiate of Government Accounting).

No-one is making you pay to watch TV.

However, if you wish to do so LEGALLY then the licence is a necessary requirement for you to watch TV -
in the same way that a driving licence doesn't enable you to drive a car (that can be done whether you have a licence or not) but the licence permits you to do so legally.

On a technical matter

Your TV can receive broadcast signals. These on their own mean nothing to the set.
So it can receive signal from a transmitter.
all the broadcasts are carried on the same signal.
The clever bit is the tuner that decodes the information caccried on the signal and turns that into sound and pictures.. This is waht the industry calls "services" - most pople call them channels.

 

[tedebear]

Let me explain (without going into the minutiate of Government Accounting).

No-one is making you pay to watch TV.

However, if you wish to do so LEGALLY then the licence is a necessary requirement for you to watch TV -
in the same way that a driving licence doesn't enable you to drive a car (that can be done whether you have a licence or not) but the licence permits you to do so legally.

On a technical matter

Your TV can receive broadcast signals. These on their own mean nothing to the set.
So it can receive signal from a transmitter.
all the broadcasts are carried on the same signal.
The clever bit is the tuner that decodes the information caccried on the signal and turns that into sound and pictures.. This is waht the industry calls "services" - most pople call them channels.

yep - I understand all that - what I disagree with is that the license is a legal requirement and you have no choice about having to acquire one at cost....

 

[beorhthelm]

How.

if you using terrestrial then we have yet to find a way establishing a return path that will allow this. Satelliet can only do it through a telephone line (cable obvioulsy can do it)

well theres many options i can think of: ADSL, wireless, top-up cards (which could bedone today). Given a 15 year time frame these could easily be implemented and there's bound to be new technologies on the horizon.

 

[Yorkie]

Do you think the TV Licence people were born yesterday? That is the old trick of sticking the bare wires into sockets on the wall.

They would not believe if you put an axe through the screen. Getting the TV in the first place is prima facie evidence of installation and therefore you are guilty. And that applies if you just popped in next door and somebody else had turned the television on. There is no defence.

If they have cut off your electricity, they will get a Magistrate's warrant and search under you bed and in your garden for portable generators and battery packs.

Ned had the tv before he went to Uni and yes they did believe him because they never used it in the whole time they shared the house.