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TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

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Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#231

Post by forgingahead »

mrkwse wrote: post #192
forgingahead wrote: post #174

"Television license fees" are a peculiar concept if you've not lived in a country that requires them, but as another commenter pointed out, several countries, mainly in Europe but outside as well, have this "system" in place. Quite frankly it's ridiculous - imagine needing to pay a "fee" to CNN/Fox News/NYTimes/Yahoo/whatever-well-connected dotcom just because you have an internet connection and web browser.

> Quite frankly it's ridiculous - imagine needing to pay a "fee" to CNN/Fox News/NYTimes/Yahoo just because you have a internet connection and web browser. This comparison is ridiculous. The license fee is a little outdated in certain aspects but it covers more than just broadcast news as the orgs you mentioned do. The BBC has a broad remit to inform, educate, and entertain. Not in itself radically different to a lot…

While you're certainly correct about the ideals of the BBC, there are enough people who have decidedly stopped consuming their content, either because of the terrible decline in quality (I stopped reading BBCNews because of the clickbait years ago), or preference not to consume it in general. Mandatory license fees, and any enforcement to collect as such, is therefore completely ridiculous in this day and age.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#232

Post by flir »

bipson wrote: post #214
mytailorisrich wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a political issue and political issues are debated in Parliament in any case, and that includes the budget. It's no more easy to cut funding if it comes from the general budget rather than from a ring-fenced dedicated tax, and ultimately people will decide what they want when it's elections time (and I can tell you that the majority of people in the UK are very attached to the BBC). This applies for the UK bu…

Oh, you haven't been following Austrian politics in the last 10 years it seems. - Parties says x in elections, that doesn't mean they will do x. - Some parties/politicians will use every possible way to force public stations to suit their needs - regardless of what people think. Most people will never know - they just consume TV, radio or tabloids and believe everything they hear/read. - If you don't institutionalize…

In the UK Richard Sharp, the new chairman of the BBC’s board of directors, has in the past donated £400k to the Conservative Party.

Turns out keeping the license fee out of the general fund didn't do much to institutionalize independence after all.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#233

Post by shatnersbassoon »

offtop5 wrote: post #3

Pretty sure this was outted as fake. The idea of a van watching you is enough for many to change their behavior

Many but not all :) - Some buddies of mine used to live in a student flat in Bristol that overlooked the TV Licensing Authority offices. My friends watched them go about their business over the top of their unlicensed TV for 2.5 years.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#234

Post by mrsuprawsm »

jonathanstrange wrote: post #216
haspok wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in the UK there is content on TV worthy of watching (I got addicted to snooker while there, also some quite interesting shows like "Benefits Britain: Life on the Dole"), also, when I moved overseas they paid back the licence fee for the remaining part of the year, no questions asked. Now I'm in Austria and the "content" on TV channels is just ridiculous. Targeted at 70+ pensioners, but why should I pay for t…

BBC is awesome, their news is very good and they produce some of the best series in the world. It's a shame that they have split up BBC UK and BBC International so strictly and do everything they can to lock all BBC UK offerings to citizens of the UK. It infuriates me that I'm redirected from bbc.co.uk to bbc.com and are being displayed something else than people in the UK. If I go to bbc.co.uk, I do that to find out…

Unfortunately BBC news really isn't that good any more. It's been on a long slow decline since about 2005 or so, and now the majority of their news programming (with a few small but notable exceptions) are primarily cheering on the Tory government + ministers of the day.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#235

Post by tsuru93 »

mfontani wrote: post #141

In Italy the TV fee is automatically added to the electricity bill, and is IIRC non-optional. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_Italy

Every year (usually in January) you can ask for an exemption if you don't own a television.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#236

Post by gpmcadam »

DavidSJ wrote: post #145

Why not just tax TV sales? That's much easier to enforce, and has ultimately almost the same effect.

One of the alternate mechanisms for funding includes the proposal of a so-called "Broadband Levy" which would be included on all subscriptions in the country and would replace the license fee, given the nature of viewing habits have significantly changed in the past 10 years.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#237

Post by hnlmorg »

croon wrote: post #215
hnlmorg wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of those shows aren't BBC though. Take that list in question: - Taskmaster: Channel 4 (originally Dave. In fact before that it was a Edinburgh Fringe Festival show written by "little" Alex Horne) - Would I Lie To You: BBC - 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown: Channel 4 (interestingly it's a spin off of "8 out of 10 Cats" which was C4's sort of version of "Have I Got News For You" but C4 did an anniversary series o…

To be fair Channel 4 is kinda sorta BBC too. At least it's owned by UK Government Investments.

That's not fair, no. Channel 4 is a commercial station and doesn't receive any licence fee funding. Yes it is publicly owned but aside from that it shares no relation to the BBC.

It's probably also worth noting that the BBC does also have a few subsidiaries like BBC America which are also commercial entities and operate independently to BBC Television. They are at least owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (albeit sometimes only in part), unlike Channel 4.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#238

Post by kwanbix »

sleavey wrote: post #80
lqet wrote: post #38

> The United Kingdom is somewhat unique in the world for requiring those households which view broadcast television to purchase a licence for the privilege. I know at least three countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) which do the same (edit: according the Wikipedia [0], such a fee exists in basically every European country, Japan, Israel, South Korea and Namibia). In Germany, the situation changed a few years…

> In Germany, the situation changed a few years ago, every household has to pay now, even if they don't own a television or radio. This was literally the first piece of mail I got when I moved to Germany: a letter demanding I pay for the TV networks I don't watch. I didn't even own a TV by that point, nor would have understood much of what was being said! A German explained to me once that the forced payment by non-w…

IIRC in Germany Netflix €14, Disney+ €7, Amazon Prime Video €6. And all 3 I can watch whenever I travel. The TV/Radio Tax is about €18!!! and I can only "enjoy" it in Germany!!! Not only that, the quality of programming quite bad, and to make it even worse, I am forced to pay for it when I don't even watch it. When I moved to Germany it just blown my mind.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#239

Post by agent008t »

entropyie wrote: post #187
dsnr wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A German explained to me once that the forced payment by non-watchers is justified as it benefits society as a whole. Do they really believe these things? This is the Kool-Aid you have to drink as a society, in order not to go crazy when you pay for things you never use and benefit from. If you ever move out, make sure to let them know, otherwise they will keep hunting you for ever.

As an Irish person, I firmly believe this. While our our public broadcaster, RTE, is far from perfect (and sometimes mediocre), they are financed / run at arms length from government. They often run exposés on government mess ups and criticise their actions. On a more practical level, who else is going to make quality non sensationalist content specific to Ireland? One of the downsides of being a small native English…

TG4 is class!

Problem is, BBC (and to a lesser extent RTE) are not these unbiased services simply presenting facts. Their staff have certain views on political issues and they present stories in a way that is biased to those views. They effectively tell their viewers the range of acceptable opinions they are supposed to have.

A lot of their entertainment shows are junk too and I do not see why they should be funded through a license fee - if there is a demand for them, they could be funded privately. The BBC website is full of tabloid-like news - that is unacceptable.

If we are to have publicly funded media, it should be boring, i.e. serious. Host 2-hour long in depth debates on highly controversial issues between the most prominent people that oppose each other, carefully moderated (arguably it would actually be better to do this in print rather than tv format). Do cultural shows that promote "high culture" that people otherwise might not have engaged with. Counter the natural tendencies to look up to sports and entertainment personalities with a focus on scientists and engineers.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#240

Post by CodeGlitch »

chrisseaton wrote: post #222
CodeGlitch wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said elsewhere, I don't watch much broadcast TV, honestly have better things to do with my time. I've been successful in life so I don't see why you are insisting I need to watch this show. I get my news and current affairs elsewhere. Edit: I'd also like to add that no one in my circle has ever asked me "hey did you see that thing on the Today Programme last night?". In fact very little conversation about TV p…

> Like I said elsewhere, I don't watch much broadcast TV Today is a radio programme - this whole thread is about radio. So you won't 'see' anyone on it and it wasn't ever on 'last night'. > In fact very little conversation about TV programmes in general. Again... it's a radio programme. And I'd bet my life on the fact that whatever political media you consume actually does frequently has conversations about what happ…

Yes you are right - I was convinced it was a TV show. Thanks.
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