• Hundreds in Scotland still have black and white TV
    84 replies, posted
[QUOTE=mark6789;49433908]I'm glad there's no fees here. I picked up an HD Antenna from Goodwill and got 20 channels in Indianapolis for free.[/QUOTE] I'm glad there's a small fee here. I picked up a bunch of high-quality channels with minimal advertisements and unbiased news reporting, along with multiple high-quality TV shows.
To be honest its a really good tradeoff for having advertising free TV, ad breaks every 15 minutes annoy the living hell out of me
[QUOTE=Amiga OS;49434401]I've got two TV's, both with no terrestrial antenna or satellite connection, both completely detuned with, one with a chromecast plugged in and the other running Android internally. They are used for YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime TV and pulling films off my NAS. I don't pay a penny in licensing fees.[/QUOTE] nice i like to watch the news
[QUOTE=matt000024;49432370]holy shit tbh that seems backwards as fuck for a first world nation lmao[/QUOTE] it's a license to watch live broadcasted television. not own a tv. you could literally build a house out of tvs if you so wished and not have to pay the license provided you don't watch tv at the end of the day it funds the BBC which is advert free
[QUOTE=Shalaska;49432620]We've got it in Ireland, too. Sadly. Same penalties, as well. True, but it's still strange that we tax something like TV. We don't have mandatory broadband licenses, so why should TV licenses exist? I'm not 100% clued in on the facts, but I believe UK broadband license fees go to the BBC, which is absolutely ridiculous.[/QUOTE] I only realised how bullshit this is this year when I got an apartment. Its €180 for a tv license and you have to have one regardless of whether you use it to watch tv or not. We had it hooked up to a playstation but we're going to get rid of it and get a projector instead since you dont need a license for one of those.
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;49433705]I just can't see why the UK doesn't do an Australian-Canadian approach and have the national broadcaster (or broadcasters because Australia has ABC and SBS) into the federal budget where taxpayers pay for it regardless You still don't get government interference, they don't have ads (except for CBC(?) and SBS (mind you, theres a limit to how many they can display) and they're free-to-air[/QUOTE] I've seen the quality of Australian TV shows, no thanks.
[QUOTE=Trekintosh;49432347]Do you have to take a TV watching test before you can actually get your tv license?[/QUOTE] Yeah you have to prove you don't watch dumb shit on TV. [editline]2nd January 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=matt000024;49432370]holy shit tbh that seems backwards as fuck for a first world nation lmao[/QUOTE] holy shit you think we can't find backwards as fuck policies and practices in other first world nations, including yours? lmao [editline]2nd January 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=TheTalon;49433150]US TV is stupid. It's killing itself with ads and greed. Not only do I have to watch what they decide to put on, I have to watch it when they decide to show it, and then for every 60 minutes, 17 to 20 are commercials that interrupt the show. Some channels go beyond THAT even, like TBS, Who delete a single frame every second, which gives an extra 30 seconds over a 30 minute block for more ad time. And I think that's on top of speeding the show up by a couple % for an additional 30 seconds[/QUOTE] holy shit tbh that seems backwards as fuck for a first world nation lmao
[QUOTE=Wig Wam;49433834]Got one sitting on my kitchen counter right now, where it will remain until they send someone over. When I lived in student dorms like ... 7 years ago, the whole TV license thing was the boogeyman. I ended up shelling out £40+ for the first couple of months, even though the TV we owned was in the communal kitchen with no TV cable / aerial. (I didn't know any better, pretty sure scare tactics were used) But being a poor student forced me to call the licencing company and tell them I'd been paying for a TV licence without actually watching TV before, and they set me a fuckin' cheque with the full amount I'd paid back to me! It ain't so bad.[/QUOTE] They seem to love harassing students about TV license. There's a really silly twist to it. The posters say the standard 'Even if you watch live TV on your laptop its still illegal!!!' since it's the most likely way students would be watching nowadays considering uni rooms usually dont come with a TV, but [B]if your non-term time home is licensed, its still not required as long as your laptop isn't plugged in to the mains at the time of watching.[/B] That means even if you did watch live TV on your laptop and wherever you were staying [I]somehow[/I] had a way to identify that you were, they still wouldn't be able to prove if you had your laptop charger plugged in or not at the time. I have filled in the exemption form 3-4 times in the last few years for different places due to not having a TV and not once have I ever had an inspector turn up at my door.
[QUOTE=Cushie;49435955] I have filled in the exemption form 3-4 times in the last few years for different places due to not having a TV and not once have I ever had an inspector turn up at my door.[/QUOTE] At this point I'm certain there is only one inspector throughout the UK and the poor guy/gal has to go around from house to house trying to peek into peoples living rooms.
[QUOTE=Trekintosh;49432347]Do you have to take a TV watching test before you can actually get your tv license?[/QUOTE] Yes, you'll fail if you blink at any point during the entire Monty Python collection. It's a tax, not sure why it's called a TV License, it just means you've paid for the national TV service (BBC). They're going out of fashion as more people switch to Netflix etc. And no, you don't need one to own a TV. [editline]2nd January 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=TestECull;49433892]Ridiculous. Those have been standard on cars for forty or fifty years now, and available on them since the 1930s.[/QUOTE] Most of the things you use were invented before they were taxed. What's your point?
[QUOTE=RichyZ;49432570]Keep in mind that britbong television doesn't have 40 thousand hours of ads somehow warped into 30 minute time blocks, there's no ads on any BBC channel and all other commercial channels have 7 minutes of ads per hour block (compared to the US which has roughly 20 minutes of ads per hour) Also the licenses fund the BBC which can make some cool stuff when they feel like it.[/QUOTE] You can tell if something was made to air in america when they say they'll be right back after the break and then immediately returning several times during the show.
[QUOTE=woolio1;49433018]Seriously, man, it doesn't hurt to check wiki pages to understand what you're talking about before you talk about it. It's what I do, and why I know you'real making up half of what you're saying right now.[/QUOTE]Nothing I said was incorrect. I said they're a private non-profit corporation: [I]they're a private non-profit corporation.[/I] Funding aside, that is what they are. I said they dole out funding through grants: [I]funding from the CPB is in the form of grants.[/I] I said we don't have any equivalent to the BBC here at all: [I]we don't. BBC is [U]directly[/U] (not grant) funded.[/I] This is a different model than used with the CPB. I said the NPR doesn't receive [U]direct[/U] federal funding: [I]they don't receive direct federal funding.[/I] They receive grants from a corporation created out of a mandate made by Congress. ([url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/396]47 U.S. Code § 396 - Corporation for Public Broadcasting[/url]) I don't care what you do, going "NUH UH!" after failing to read precisely what I said [I]as a journalist[/I] does not actually help your credibility. [QUOTE=Sobotnik;49433971]there aren't such a thing as "detector vans" lmao[/QUOTE][B]From your fucking government's website regarding this very thing:[/B][quote=section about detector vans]We also have a fleet of detector vans that can detect the use of TV receiving equipment at specifically targeted addresses within minutes.[/quote] Huh.[QUOTE=Sobotnik;49433971]you're literally making shit up[/QUOTE]See, there are these things called "quotation marks" (I used them here so you can see what they look like) that indicates one is referencing something, or quoting, from another source other than their own. In this case it was from [url=http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/detection-and-penalties-top5]here[/url] which is, unless I'm mistaken, the place where citizens of the UK can and should get their information regarding this oh so very British subject. [editline]2nd January 2016[/editline] P.S. I still think dropping the license and then having a small amount of on-air ads would be a much more economical option. I said small amount by the way, I know some of you have trouble with these things, so just to be clear: there is not "a small amount of ads" on US television.
[QUOTE=JumpinJackFlash;49441945]which is, unless I'm mistaken, the place where citizens of the UK can and should get their information regarding this oh so very British subject.[/QUOTE] british people know that the vans don't exist in any operational capacity. they're used as a scare tactic occasionally but they aren't used lol the only people who believe that these vans exist are gullible retards
[QUOTE=RichyZ;49442117]The government is likely saying detector vans exist only as a scare-tactic to get people to buy the license, various news sources and leaked documents seem to point to them not actually existing in any real operational capacity. [url]http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-09-27/do-tv-detector-vans-exist-leaked-document-suggests-they-could-be-a-ruse[/url] [url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2445153/Are-TV-detector-vans-just-cunning-trick-For-decades-claimed-trap-licence-cheats-In-fact-theyve-led-single-prosecution.html[/url] (daily mail but you get the gist, googling tv license detector vans will give you a shitton of links debunking the idea) [url]http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/paul-blanchard/forget-the-bbc-tv-licence_b_4934067.html[/url][/QUOTE]Oh, I know, even if you're a dunce when it comes to this sort of thing it's pretty easy to deduce that it's basically impossible to accurately detect something that has no broadcasting capability. From the get-go the very thought is a dumb idea, but honestly it wouldn't have surprised me if they actually tried to look the part and drive around these useless things. The whole idea struck me as completely fucking absurd and yet it was somehow believable that the UK government would stoop [I]that low[/I] just so people would pay their licenses. [QUOTE=Sobotnik;49442317]british people know that the vans don't exist in any operational capacity. they're used as a scare tactic occasionally but they aren't used lol the only people who believe that these vans exist are gullible retards[/QUOTE]I know you were trying to make it seem like it's not that big of a deal, but I've been waiting for you to say this exact thing because that actually makes it [I]worse.[/I] So since "british people" already knew they didn't exist why did you try to claim I was making all this up? I didn't even know about this silly bullshit until this thread. [editline]Didn't feel like bumping the thread[/editline] [QUOTE=Sobotnik;49443706]because these vans don't exist, and only idiots think that they do.[/QUOTE]... That didn't answer my question.
[QUOTE=JumpinJackFlash;49443253]So since "british people" already knew they didn't exist why did you try to claim I was making all this up?[/QUOTE] because these vans don't exist, and only idiots think that they do. like even the idea itself is ludicrous and only entraps people without critical thinking skills
The worst thing about the TV license people is how absolutely awful they are about it. I got a letter through a while back saying I was 'under investigation' and liable to be fined a grand for not having a TV license at a house I didn't even live at anymore. They made it real easy to pay but next to impossible to get through to a person to explain this. When I eventually did the guy on the phone basically said that was just a 'general letter' so they basically send very threatening and somewhat scary letters out willy nilly to try and force you to pay up. They really do run it like they're debt collectors or something, one of my friends gets literally a weekly visit from them constantly asking if they can look around his house to see if he has a TV because he isn't paying the license. It's a stupid outdated thing that shouldn't exist and doesn't really help matters. It's a good job they keep occasionally debating getting rid of it, I doubt it'll be around for much longer.
Imagine thinking that you were so important the government has placed a van and crew outside your house under surveillance because you don't have a TV license. :v: I had a TV license for one year, realised it was bullshit and haven't had one since.
[QUOTE=Cypher_09;49449862]Imagine thinking that you were so important the government has placed a van and crew outside your house under surveillance because you don't have a TV license. :v: I had a TV license for one year, realised it was bullshit and haven't had one since.[/QUOTE]Every time I think about it I imagine some super rough neighborhood and this van just sitting there, "monitoring" and then armed robbers run up and toss the driver out and drive off with the van. Like these hardcore gangsta thugs just jack this government-issue van and just cut it up for parts like immediately and then later the government official is like "uh.. uh.. write down.. write down we have a fleet! Yeah! A whole fleet of them!" while standing in an empty garage. This is the real reason why we don't have TV licenses, all the detector vans would get stolen. :(
[QUOTE=Headhumpy;49432614]They call it a license but it's just a tax. Quit getting your panties up in a bunch.[/QUOTE] Basically it's a way to make taxmoney independent from the parties in power, our parliament can't decide what DR can or cannot use that money for. It's a pretty great idea in my opinion, even though I think it hits poor people too much.
There is literally no reason to pay the TV license in the UK, all you'll get is scary letters, some idiot at your door or the occasional copper with a dodgy warrant. As for their 'TV detector vans' while it's technically possible, particularly with CRT TVs I've never actually seen someone convicted with such evidence.
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