People in GB please explain this to me.

I wonder what the suicide rate for that job is?

 

The Japanese standard 8%.

 

There's fines for not paying licenses in the UK. I dunno what it is there, but it's €500 here for not paying our licenses, and you can end up in court too (I just heard an ad about the TV licenses on the radio about 10 minutes ago, coincidentally). And in Ireland we only get 4 terrestrial TV stations - beat that! 3 of them are paid by licenses (and they all have ads unlike BBC channels), and one of those is in Irish 95% so it's pretty useless (the only thing I can think of right now that they show in English is the crappy old 50's Superman cartoon and Super Friends). The other channel (TV3) is mostly owned by Granada, so most of its prime time viewing is now identical to ITV (Coronation Street, Emmerdale, etc. - on at the same times and everything!) - which also means it's shit.

So for €155 a year we get 3 crap analogue TV channels, one decent radio station and 3 crap ones (all analogue) - and all with ads - a shortwave news radio station that about 6 people listen to, a website, the same radio and TV channels on Astra 2 DVB-S satellite (but only if you have a Sky Digital card), and... that's about it.

Over here and in the UK there used to be cheaper licenses for just radio but they are long gone. There also used to be cheaper rates for black & white TVs, but that probably stopped in the 80s.

I've always wondered how this worked too. But I do know that CRT TVs do make some RF intereference - if you put an AM (especially LW/SW) radio near one then turn on the TV you'll notice this. But they don't produce much interference - God knows how someone can get it outside your house. And LCD/Plasma sets produce a lot less...

 

I think the fines about £1k, but I'm not sure.
And there is amazingly enough still a B+W TV Licence - £40 compared to £120 i believe.

 

Yep the fine can be up to £1K.

 

Well, watch TV inside a padded metal room in the basement ;-)

Edit: oops, sorry for the bumping, I am catching up on 3 days' worth of board topics so I didn't notice this one was old.

 

So not only do you have to pay to watch regular TV, but you have to may more if your television is in color? God damn that sucks. Do you have to pay more if you have a LCD or plasma tv?

Hey, why not just keep the TV in the basement, or an upstairs room, and when the guy comes over tell him it doesn't work?

I can't help but imagine that there's a lot of people in the UK who have figured out how to get around this bullshit law. Am I right?

 

yeah lots of people dont have a tv license and its half easy to get away with it. But due to the fear they put into people via the tv ads and the letters they write to them.

So alot of people just pay up.

 

I still think it's worth it. You get good shows, no ads and such. From going to the UK (no ads or one every 15 minutes) to Canada (1 ad every 5-10 minutes, no exceptions, plus the TV sucks) I say, all for TV Licenses.

 

Whilst I don't have much interest in a topic that is becoming personal opinion, I'll put in my two cents worth...

The license fee does, in majority go to the BBC. For this, we have at least two channels (more if you have Digital) that are WITHOUT ADVERTS. Imagine that. Yes, we watch X-Files without adverts every 10 minutes. Yes, we watch sports events (such as the World Cup) COMPLETELY uninterrupted. No coming back to find Germany scored two goals during a 5 minute ad break! So we get something out of it. The license, however, is really licensing you to have a television receiver.

To be honest, I think it sadder that people pay for 200 channels of shite, with EVEN MORE adverts! Oh my god, you PAY for more adverts. I'd much rather just pay for good quality programming (yes, the BBC still has lots) WITHOUT adverts.

In fact, commenting on the Red Dwarf comment - go backwards from the last series of Red Dwarf through the BBC comedy. There's hundreds of series of comedy, most of which were superb. Throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, the BBC produced SUPERB comedy. They have produced SUPERB documentaries. Their schools coverage is great - covering from the age of 5 up through GCSEs (bitesize is a great idea - wish we had it!), A levels and degrees with OU. The BBC still gives factual information every day via Ceefax (what Sky channel does this?). For those in the US, Ceefax is a teletext service, with news, television schedules, a what's on guide for cinemas, theatre and other local events, weather, games, programme information - you name it. Basically the forerunner to the BBC website!

Anyway, moving this back ON topic.

Yes, the King used to be very important. And taxes were introduced by Kings - remember Robin Hood? You either have a Monarchy or a Republic - can anyone in a Republic say their President is any better? Royal members are born into their position, and spend their life learning how to lead. Politicians basically blag their way to the top with false promises.

And to be fair, the Queen has now paid her own taxes for several years, so I'm not sure what that article is going on about! She also has an importance still, and the Prime Minister will still consult her on decisions affecting the country.

Both the Queen and the BBC are part of our heritage, and should remain! Without them, we would be ruled by lying politicians, and have our viewing spoiled by crappy ads. And I'm sorry, but I never want to see that fecking frog on the BBC EVER!!!!