TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England • Hacker News Board

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#31

Post by mhh__ » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:49 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #12

myrandomcomment wrote: post #4

I have said this before and I will say it again...Dear BBC, please allow the rest of the world to pay for a subscription to the iPlayer. Just take my money, really, please?

Geniune question: what is on the BBC that you would want to watch that you can't get elsewhere?

The BBC's peak output isn't all that different from anywhere else, but the professionalism and quality of median BBC show exceeds pretty much anywhere else I find - History documentaries that aren't about Ancient Aliens (low-hanging fruit, but still).

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#32

Post by rock_artist » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:50 PM UTC

Israel had similar fee for many years. (The public television was deeply inspired by the bbc).

But here they solved it by a much easier way.

* once you got married, you were automatically assumed to have a TV set.

* any tv that was sold were reported to the communication ministry.

* a car owner would pay by default. Assumption was all cars would have and use a radio.

* to show you don’t have a TV set or it’s not receiving any over-the-air broadcasts you were suppose to wait for random check ups. Once finally someone came, they can decide if you don’t need to pay.

But the most interesting story any Israeli know is the “mehikon” (Eraser in Hebrew) and its counterpart (anti-mehikon).

Back in the days, the countrie’s manifest at least was socialism. It wasn’t “fair” someone would have a color tv while others can’t. So the communication ministry required the broadcasters to wipe colors. So even color tv was shown as b&w. in order to “fix” that, The anti-mehikon was made. A device to “restore” the faulty tv signal and get the colors back.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#33

Post by jeremycarter » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:51 PM UTC

mhh__ wrote: post #21

myrandomcomment wrote: post #4

I have said this before and I will say it again...Dear BBC, please allow the rest of the world to pay for a subscription to the iPlayer. Just take my money, really, please?

Britbox is supposed to be that, I think, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the BBC cannot legally sell iPlayer subscriptions as easily as you'd think because the BBC's copyright library (especially music) is unbelievable [1] compared to most other organizations, so they'd have to make multiple versions of everything on their books to deal with licencing issues. Lots of British shows get their soundtracks neutered…

Is this because they operate radio stations or some other licensing deal?

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#34

Post by joezydeco » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:51 PM UTC

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

I've done some work with Buckman Hardy in the UK, they developed and sold a handheld detector to the BBC. They're a legitimate engineering company, I doubt they would admit to being in on the gag if this was fake.

http://www.buckman-hardy.co.uk/portfolio/television-detectio...

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#35

Post by hwestiii » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:52 PM UTC

I think this is the basis of the "Cat Detector Van" skit on Monty Python's Flying Circus

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#36

Post by chrisseaton » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:52 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #30

chrisseaton wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's called a 'TV licence' but know that it also pays for all your radio. I don't watch much TV but I do listen to a lot of radio every day, like many British people.

I've not listened to the radio in 10+ years - my audio consumption is all from Podcasts, which IMHO blows any radio out of the water. It's not live but I don't need it to be.

> Podcasts, which IMHO blows any radio out of the water

Can you please share which breathtaking podcasts you're listening to, because I've never found anything even close to as good as landmark BBC radio shows like Today, PM, Today in Parliament, In Our Time, The Moral Maze, Blood, Sex, and Money, From Our Own Correspondent, The Essay, and Night Tracks.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#37

Post by bitcharmer » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:53 PM UTC

CodeGlitch wrote: post #27

bitcharmer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BBC has awesome content in areas such as nature, science, history. For example go check out BBC Earth or BBC knowledge series.

Check out History Hit TV [1] - a lot of stuff by Dan Snow who is a great presenter IMHO. [1] https://tv.historyhit.com/

This is great; very valuable content. Thanks for sharing!

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#38

Post by lqet » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:53 PM UTC

> 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 ago, every household has to pay now, even if they don't own a television or radio. When I was a freshman student 10 years ago, things were a little bit different: an inspector (the "GEZ man") came by my apartment a few months after I moved in. He wanted to have a look inside. I declined. He came back a few times, but I didn't open the door. I never paid the fee (and I didn't have to, because I received BAföG [1]). Even if I would have had to, there was just no way for them to prove I was actually owning a television. Here, those "detector vans" have been an urban legend for 60 years. I am pretty sure I read somewhere that they never existed and where basically "created" to fear people into paying the fees.

[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rundfunkabgabe

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesausbildungsf%C3%B6rderun...

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#39

Post by ktpsns » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:54 PM UTC

The situation was (is) the same in Germany: There is a fee of about 20EUR/month per household in order to fund the public service broadcasting. And in the last century, these "TV detector vans" also have been a thing in Germany.

While the detecting technology can work in theory, it will perform poorly in practice. Think of any dense settling, such as apartment blocks. It will be kind of impossible to determine the exact source of radio signals from the street, at least in the frequency domain and signal strength in question.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#40

Post by IshKebab » Mon, Jan 18, 2021, 9:55 PM UTC

> To encourage compliance, TV Licencing regularly sends sternly worded letters to those who have let their licence lapse or have not purchased one.

This is an understatement. It would be fairer to say they constantly spam you with scare mail.

> In the event this fails, they may arrange a visit from enforcement officers.

That's what they want you to think. In practice it never really happens. Too expensive. Hence the spam.

> These officers aren’t empowered to forcibly enter homes, so in the event a homeowner declines to cooperate with an investigation, TV Licencing will apply for a search warrant.

I would be quite surprised if this has actually ever happened.

It's pretty obvious they don't do any fancy detection these days (if they ever really did). It's just way too expensive.