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

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#401

Post by seanalltogether » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

saberdancer wrote: post #255

boffinism wrote: post #128

The BBC is currently dedicating hours of airtime a day to educational content to match our primary and secondary curricula because the schools are shut and lots of kids can't access online provisions. And still people complain about the licence fee in terms of whether or not they enjoy BBC gameshows...

What is the point of this license fee in this day and age? Everyone has a TV, so everyone pays the license fee. Wouldn't it be simpler to just use a part of the taxes already collected to go to BBC. My problem with this type of license fee collection is that it bring forward a number of costs associated with it that could be removed if it went directly from taxes and that today everyone has TV so it doesn't really "t…

I've brought this argument forward many times since I moved to the UK, and everyone I've talked to hates the idea of turning the fee into a general tax. It's a weird refusal that I genuinely can't understand as someone not born here.

Everyone seems happy enough with the idea of paying tax for public libraries or parks or other social institutions they may never use because it benefits society, but bring up the tv license and it's like arguing with a brick wall.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#402

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

criddell wrote: post #394

lotsofpulp wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ads just moved directly into the shows and storylines for Amazon Prime and Netflix (and most everyone else).

Has anything really changed? There have always been kids programming that was primarily about selling toys. I'm thinking of Care Bears, GI Joe, Transforms, Voltron, etc... When shows like that move to Netflix or Amazon Prime the native ads remain, but the interstitials are gone.

That’s true. I guess as an adult, I feel like I notice it more when the writing / photography blatantly and inorganically bring logos and certain products to the forefront.

A family member’s kids were watching a Christmas movie on Netflix, and while I wasn’t watching it, something jarring hit my ears. In the middle of the movie, Santa names the brand and model of a car, and then starts listing its specs as he gets into a car chase and praises its features. A literal car ad built right into the movie.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#403

Post by rvz » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:13 PM UTC

bitcharmer wrote: post #16

CodeGlitch wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Yes. Their content in BBC 4 and 2, History archives and Earth series has some quality there and is probably worth looking at.

Everything else on BBC Online (BBC 3, Reels, Entertainment section, Politics and Newsbeat) is not worth looking at.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#404

Post by rtkwe » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

sjwright wrote: post #107

rtkwe wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only for one time fees, most TV Licenses style taxes are recurring. If you try to base it off an 'expected lifetime' you're just guessing how often people will replace the TV and either get under or over charged based on how long they keep devices.

Perhaps you could make it mandatory for a voucher good for 1 year of license to be sold alongside every TV. You can then credit that voucher to your household account. (If you bought more than one new TV per year, your TV license account would be in perpetual credit. I don't see that as a problem.)

That's just a tax with extra steps of dealing with the voucher. The average replacement timespan is 7-8 years so what's the point of including it in the first year?

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#405

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:16 PM UTC

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #400

saberdancer wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the point of this license fee in this day and age? Everyone has a TV, so everyone pays the license fee. Wouldn't it be simpler to just use a part of the taxes already collected to go to BBC. My problem with this type of license fee collection is that it bring forward a number of costs associated with it that could be removed if it went directly from taxes and that today everyone has TV so it doesn't really "t…

> Wouldn't it be simpler to just use a part of the taxes already collected to go to BBC. That would make the BBC dependent on the government for its revenue, which definitely isn't desirable. The current system, where the BBC collects its own revenue under the authority of a royal charter, is intended to help insulate it from political interference.

That just sounds like paperwork. Legislation forcing people to pay a “TV license” and legislation forcing people to pay more tax and then transferring those tax funds to the BBC is effectively the same thing.

Except the latter is more efficient.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#406

Post by faceplanted » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #390

flower-giraffe wrote: post #211

I think the funding and governance (by Royal Charter) of the BBC have historically provided a huge benefit to society in the UK. Advertising free children’s TV (and radio) may have delayed the onset or rampant consumerism fuelled by commercial TV elsewhere. The BBC microcomputer project is arguably the origin of ARM CPU’s. Initially the license fee was for radios, I can’t find a reference but I remember being told as…

I wonder if people will ever notice how socially and psychologically toxic is advertisement business and regulate it stringently.

People have clearly noticed the social and political issues with advertising for a very long time now. The issue is that it's hard to rally against one of the most lucrative businesses ever to exist that inherently has an extreme amount of messaging power to defend itself.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#407

Post by 4ndr3vv » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:17 PM UTC

saberdancer wrote: post #255

boffinism wrote: post #128

The BBC is currently dedicating hours of airtime a day to educational content to match our primary and secondary curricula because the schools are shut and lots of kids can't access online provisions. And still people complain about the licence fee in terms of whether or not they enjoy BBC gameshows...

What is the point of this license fee in this day and age? Everyone has a TV, so everyone pays the license fee. Wouldn't it be simpler to just use a part of the taxes already collected to go to BBC. My problem with this type of license fee collection is that it bring forward a number of costs associated with it that could be removed if it went directly from taxes and that today everyone has TV so it doesn't really "t…

I'm not sure it was meant to be a tax on the rich; It was initially introduced in 1923 to cover radio broadcasts, and widened to become the television license in 1946.

Also, the appeal of this funding model makes it independent of Governmental cuts and the politicisation of programming.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#408

Post by philk10 » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:18 PM UTC

Hard_Space wrote: post #368

DrBazza wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My girlfriend would gladly pay for being able to access BBC UK series, but that's apparently impossible. There's the Britbox streaming service, but I have no idea whether it is international. Otherwise, there's limited amounts of BBC content on Netflix. But again, that may just be the UK version.

It's not international, and is jealously geo-blocked. As a Brit expat, I wish it was available. They are effectively refusing my custom, presumably because they can make more money from international licensing deals for terrestrial stations and higher-reach streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.

I'm a Brit expat who is very fond of his VPN service and wishes he could give the BBC the money instead of them...

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#409

Post by laurent92 » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:18 PM UTC

flower-giraffe wrote: post #211

I think the funding and governance (by Royal Charter) of the BBC have historically provided a huge benefit to society in the UK. Advertising free children’s TV (and radio) may have delayed the onset or rampant consumerism fuelled by commercial TV elsewhere. The BBC microcomputer project is arguably the origin of ARM CPU’s. Initially the license fee was for radios, I can’t find a reference but I remember being told as…

> What is absolutely clear from history is commercial media outlets fuel political bias, and it seems to be increasingly damaging to society.

Public broadcasting fuels political division a lot. The most worrying is that you don’t notice it.

It is increasingly worrying because when people are exposed to the other side, they immediately « catch fire », wonder why they have been lied to, and never trust public broadcasting anymore. With luck, they may smoothen their beliefs a bit later in life, for the most centrist ones.

To me, public TV, especially BBC, shouldn’t be one-sided as it is now.

Re: TV detector vans once prowled the streets of England

#410

Post by lotsofpulp » Tue, Jan 19, 2021, 2:19 PM UTC

faceplanted wrote: post #406

scotty79 wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if people will ever notice how socially and psychologically toxic is advertisement business and regulate it stringently.

People have clearly noticed the social and political issues with advertising for a very long time now. The issue is that it's hard to rally against one of the most lucrative businesses ever to exist that inherently has an extreme amount of messaging power to defend itself.

I think the issue is people really like watching TV and movies, and continuing to watch the content shows they are OK with all the ads. Never have people had more access to other content, or other ways of entertaining themselves.

I have no idea how people put up with the NFL in the US.