221–230 of 345 posts
How about a small flat fee everybody pays to sustain the national broadcaster? Whether they watch it or not is not relevant. It's a nation-wide service at their disposal. Either it's worth it to have, like a dam or a highway system or whatever, and it's ok for people to pay for it in taxes, or it's not, and it should close.
The warrant revealed that a BBC contractor had used an "optical detector" to reveal the possible presence of a TV.[10] The warrant stated that: "the optical detector in the detector van uses a large lens to collect that light and focus it on to an especially sensitive device, which converts fluctuating light signals into electrical signals, which can be electronically analysed. If a receiver is being used to watch br…
No, it sounds like a telescope focusing onto a single pixel (i.e. just the back of the curtains), and then using the output from this pixel with a lock-in amplifier tied to the broadcast signal. The sensitivity would be enormous due to the lock-in. With a CRT you would be able to do this with In today's LCD world, I guess something similar could be done for a whole pixel-average of a whole frame, and then look at the…
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The only things we (Americans) allow our government to exercise that amount of control over are psychoactive drugs/plants and female reproductive rights. With things like AR15s or TVs we require unfettered access with no paper trail, but if you want Adderall you'll need 3-sheet triplicate DEA forms and it's a federal crime in all 50 states to possess a growing number of naturally occurring plants and fungi.
Not to mention lawn darts or kinder eggs
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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.
"5 minutes of ads" thats not the BBC then is it.
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That's fine, a well funded public broadcaster is a great idea. The question is why in the world is it done as a license fee instead of as a much simpler to implement tax or a subscription where the OTA broadcasts are encrypted and a fee is paid to maintain the ability to decrypt.
We have / had a tax but not licence fee funded channel already: Channel 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_4 Although they're mostly funded by ads and selling their programming now.
Channel 4 is a bit of an odd one, as it's publically owned but not publically funded.
I filled out the form to get my refund and you have to choose an option for why you don't need a TV. e.g. you are moving, you are in the military, gone blind or something etc etc. Not an option to tick "I don't watch TV".
Anyway, I got the refund and within a week I was getting threatening letters from them saying I don't have a TV licence!
Great joined up IT guys. The letters have continued at a rate of one or two a month ever since.
I could probably make them stop by calling them, but I already filled out the form, I got my refund... I don't see why I should waste more of time helping them out.
I expect at some point someone is going to come to my flat and request to see in the flat to check I'm not watching TV without a licence. If they do they won't be getting let in.
It's the tone of the letters that is most annoying, they are quite threatening and they try to be intimidating. I can laugh it off and just bin there nonsense and ignore it, but I could see some people getting upset / intimated into paying, which is sad.
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> 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 infrastru…
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I moved to NZ. Glad to get out of UK's weather and rat race. Went to Hawaii for couple weeks one year ago. Experienced culture shock. NZ is probably best place in the world.
> NZ is probably best place in the world. Unless you're a woman of reproductive age.
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I moved to NZ. Glad to get out of UK's weather and rat race. Went to Hawaii for couple weeks one year ago. Experienced culture shock. NZ is probably best place in the world.
> NZ is probably best place in the world. Unless you're a woman of reproductive age.
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Netflix and Amazon prime are not TV and don't require a TV licence. https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ104 But indeed, watching any channel on TV (not just the BBC) requires a licence.
I think they make it incredibly clear in their message though: If you’re watching live TV, you need to be covered by a TV Licence: a. if you’re watching on TV or on an online TV service b. for all channels, not just the BBC c. ...