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TV detector van

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Re: TV detector van

#141

Post by gambiting »

DanBC wrote: post #78
jfindley wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much enjoy the right to opt out of paying for the BBC, whose programming I no longer have any interest in watching. I'm extremely glad that it's not paid for by a compulsory tax.

But you have to opt out of watching all live tv for your method to work.

I haven't had live TV at home for the last 9 years. We spent a week at a cabin few weeks ago which had a TV and my wife put it on out of curiousity - I think I was mostly just shocked that people pay for this crap, you get like 15 minutes of whatever programme followed by 5 minutes of ads? In 2019? And people still pay a licence for this? Insanity.

Re: TV detector van

#142

Post by amaccuish »

tomxor wrote: post #134
amaccuish wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "If you live in the UK and own a TV you must pay the BBC whether you want the BBC or not!" This isn't true.

> You need a TV Licence to watch or record live TV, no matter where it is broadcast or distributed from. This includes satellite or online streamed programmes from outside the UK or Channel Islands, such as sporting events and foreign shows. https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ16 > If you’re watching live TV, you need to be covered by a TV Licence: [...] for all channels, not just the BBC https://www.tvlicensing.co…

Yes. I was replying to your comment ("If you live in the UK and own a TV you must pay the BBC whether you want the BBC or not!") that suggested that merely owning a TV meant you have to pay the license fee.

> If you’re watching live TV, you need to be covered by a TV Licence: [...] for all channels, not just the BBC

Is this not because part of the license fee goes to the upkeep of the transmitters and other infrastructure which all terrestrially broadcast channels use?

Re: TV detector van

#144

Post by UK-Al05 »

amaccuish wrote: post #85
tomxor wrote: post #43

You might think these vans were crazy then, what's more crazy today is how they continue to force their opt-out licensing upon everyone like it's still 1946 and they are the only broadcasters in town. If you live in the UK and own a TV you must pay the BBC whether you want the BBC or not! I'm one of the minority who don't own a TV in the UK and even then they make it their business to inform me every two years about…

> "If you live in the UK and own a TV you must pay the BBC whether you want the BBC or not!" This isn't true.

For most people it is though. They don't want to take the risk even if they don't use a TV...

Re: TV detector van

#145

Post by sys_64738 »

arprocter wrote: post #30
agurk wrote: post #7

I lived in a flat in England in the early 2000s which kept getting letters from the BBC saying we didn't have a TV licence. The letters were sometimes more threatening for a period, then sometimes more reconciliatory. They were also running TV adverts at the time claiming they had detector vans about, and if you didn't have a licence you'd be caught. I did some research at the time, and it seemed that evidence from a…

I believe when you buy a TV retailers are required to take down your address I bought one once and evidently they managed to typo the house number, so our neighbour down the street who didn't have a TV kept getting the 'we know you have a TV but no license threatening letters

Not just TVs but the did this when you bought a VCR. I remember being required to give my name and address when buying a VCR back in the 90s from Comet. Otherwise I wasn’t allowed to buy it.

Re: TV detector van

#146

Post by smsm42 »

petercooper wrote: post #74

Have to laugh at all the Americans saying this is crazy or nonsensical when it's legal to carry guns in much of your country :-D That aside, lest anyone think TV detector vans are all over the place, in my almost 40 years of living in the UK I've never seen or had interactions with one. They may as well be the Loch Ness monster for how mythical they are.

I heard The Great Britain, having solved the gun problem, is finally dealing with the scourge of fully automatic assault potato peelers: https://dailycaller.com/2018/05/03/british-man-arrested-for-...

I think this is the only approach that makes sense. They should've done forks first though - it's four holes in one strike, can you call any country which allows such weapons among its populace anything but crazy?

Re: TV detector van

#147

Post by celticninja »

gambiting wrote: post #135
Balgair wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also remember the coin operated tellys. Yes, every 6 months or there abouts the coiny-telly man would come about to collect the coins. It was a real hassle, as you had to be at your flat all that day. Otherwise, the coiny-telly man would just pass you up. Thing was, the little bin that the coins fell into would fill up every 9 months or so. So, if the coiny-telly man passed you up, you'd have to ration when you cou…

I honestly can't tell if this is satire or not.

It sounds a bit four Yorkshire men but these TVs and this service did exist.

Re: TV detector van

#148

Post by gambiting »

umvi wrote: post #73
noodlesUK wrote: post #13

This is such nonsense. In my opinion the BBC should be paid for by a proper tax, as an informed public benefits everyone, or they should just give up on calling it a license. The people going around houses just send threatening letters, and act as though they have some right to enter your home and inspect it (they don't). They go around terrorising people who don't know their rights, but don't watch TV anyway. I rout…

Wait what, this is still going on today? I thought this was a historical thing. What if you buy a TV for "offline" use only (i.e. Nintendo Switch)?

You go on a website, enter your address, confirm like 3 times that no, you don't use your TV to watch live programmes and that's it, you won't get another letter for a couple years at which point you just need to re-confirm that again.

Re: TV detector van

#149

Post by criddell »

jrjarrett wrote: post #132
monkeynotes wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ads were hugely dystopian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw I am an ex-pat and as an adult I am have become quite disillusioned with the UK and glad to have gotten out a decade ago. I miss nothing about England except my friends, and I'd feel sorry for them, but they all seem mostly happy with life. Paying a license to have a TV (and it's assumed you must watch TV), opt in porn on the internet, CCTV ev…

I don't know where you moved to, but is the US anything admirable lately? Guess I should cross the UK off the list of places to flee to.

Don't flee, get involved and help fix things if you can!

Re: TV detector van

#150

Post by ben_w »

joezydeco wrote: post #110
tantalor wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too many false positives: recorded videos, video games, computers

There's a bit too much confusion as to what era the BBC vans might have been using optical means instead of RF means. In the 1950s there wasn't much else on British television sets other than the BBC, right?

It doesn’t matter, the offence is “watch TV without a license” (and previously was, I think, “possess a device capable of watching TV”), not specifically the BBC.

(iPlayer is not important to this discussion but complicates things a bit).

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