TV license? A Monty Python skit or what?

[Neal Stevens]

Is this a real commercial?

WTH is a TV license? Is that for real?

Big Brother... what can you say about people who let this happen to them? That's bizzare!

[Arclight]

In the United Kingdom and the Crown dependencies, a television licence is required to receive any publicly broadcast television service, from any source. This includes the commercial channels, cable and satellite transmissions. The money from the licence fee is used to provide radio, television and Internet content for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and Welsh-language television programmes for S4C.

Seems similar to the fee you pay to the cable company. Here in Holland (US too?) you only have to pay for the commercial stations, but apparently in the UK you have to pay for public ones as well.

Would explain where a public station like the BBC gets the money for all those excellent documentaries.

[Thomen]

In Germany you need one as well. But not just for TV. They want to see monies for every kind of device that is capable of receiving public broadcasts.. TV, Radio sets, Car stereo, PC's, etc etc

Those guys are even more hated then the tax collectors.

[OneToughHerring]

We have the tv-licence system here in Finland too. When I lived in my student flat I didn't pay for it, usually when someone rang the doorbell unannouced, I didn't open and just stayed really quiet. Off-duty cops get extra money by scouring the neighbourhoods for people watching telly without a licence. It's the truth, although Americans probably won't believe it.

I used to have a graphics card with the option of watching telly trought my cp, I guess I should have paid the licence for that too although I never let the cop inside the apartment to check the situation.

[porphy]

In Sweden we do have TV-licences. Link to Radiotjanst
If you own equipment to receive TV broadcasting you are obliged to pay a yearly sum, which finances the national non-commercial TV-channels. The idea is that everyone should contribute to the channels that work without commercials or specific interests, that is TV as public service.

The video you linked to is both real and humorous at the same time. In Sweden you can get a knock on your door if you haven't paid for a licence, and a guy will ask you if you own a TV. They presume most people do. The thing with a van using mobile tracking equipment to track a TV-set inside a house is more of a spoof.

Myself, I don't own a Tv-set, so the whole thing doesn't apply to me at all. If you own a TV and don't pay you basically just have to refuse the guy to get inside your house. Of course it's not that easy to deny ownership of a TV if you have the TV set blaring in the background or a 40" screen visible from the front door, when the guy pays you a visit.

cheers Porphy

[Tribesman]

Off-duty cops get extra money by scouring the neighbourhoods for people watching telly without a licence.

Really ? thats not very efficient .
I thought most authorities now just go on the assumption that every house probably has a tv and just call to any residence that hasn't bought a licence .

[OneToughHerring]

Originally Posted by Tribesman

Really ? thats not very efficient .
I thought most authorities now just go on the assumption that every house probably has a tv and just call to any residence that hasn't bought a licence .

Well actually when I think about it they must be on duty but just in civilian clothes. It's a kind of a extra job that cops do. And yes, sometimes they call, sometimes they just appear at the door, I'm not sure by what logic they carry out the tv-licence control operations.

And I've had the tv-licence cops at the door even when the licence was paid, not sure if that was a mistake from their part or what. Don't like the buggers too much, I might add.

[clive bradbury]

Well, Neal, you got me started!

1. As mentioned above, the UK TV licence funds the BBC, and it is an offence not to own one.

2. The monitoring system is not quite as advanced as the licensing authority likes to portray. I know someone who used to work for them, and the electronics are all pretty much a smokescreen - the technology they use most of the time is simply looking through the house window to see if a TV is there - the vans with the electronics are false.

3. Their methods are rather aggressive, though. I went for about five years without a TV, but as one had previously been licensed in the house the authority bombarded me with letters wanting me to pay up. I refused to answer them, on the grounds that it was not my duty to tell them I did not have a TV, so the letters came almost weekly - which I threw away every time. My argument was that the onus was on them to prove I owned a set, not the other way around.

4. Personally, I would love to see the BBC become a commercial station and let's get rid of the licence. Yes, the programs can be good - would 'life of earth' ever be funded by a commerical enterprise, I wonder? Pretty expensive and time-consuming to produce. But, conversely, the BBC waste a lot of public money as well - especially over-paying performers, so I would like to see the licence go. Why, for example, should the taxpayer fund the obnoxious antics of people like Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. Search the web for the recent controversy involving those charlatans and the 'Andrew Sachs' incident. Should we be paying for that?

[August]

What if you just have a TV and only use it to play DVD and video tapes? Do you have to pay for a license then?

[OneToughHerring]

Originally Posted by August

What if you just have a TV and only use it to play DVD and video tapes? Do you have to pay for a license then?

Now that we have digital television system in place and one needs to have a box-thingie to watch telly I'm not sure if they charge you for just having a tv-set.

[Tarrasque]

This is related to the UK variant.

As long as you have equipment 'capable' of receiving television signals then you are legally obliged to pay. They even insisted to my sister that if she could access the Internet then she needed a license.

They are as irritating as hell. When I was at Uni, I didn't have a TV in the first two years and they kept on sending letters insisting that if I didn't have a TV then I had to write to them and then they would 'at a time of their choosing' come round and I would have to open the door for them so they could verify I didn't have a TV.

It's a bit flawed system though. They are NOT allowed to enter your property without either your permission or a warrant. So if you don't have a license and they turn up, you tell them to bugger off and then you either get a license/remove your TV!

[August]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

Now that we have digital television system in place and one needs to have a box-thingie to watch telly I'm not sure if they charge you for just having a tv-set.

You don't need a analog to digital converter to watch DVDs so I doubt it but who knows?

[gandalf71]

Originally Posted by August

What if you just have a TV and only use it to play DVD and video tapes? Do you have to pay for a license then?

Here Germany that makes no difference, you have to pay in any case if you own a device which technically allows you to receive the TV program, no matter if you use it or not.

The methods are quite similar to the way Clive described for the UK.

br
Michael

[OneToughHerring]

Originally Posted by August

You don't need a analog to digital converter to watch DVDs so I doubt it but who knows?

Like Tarrasque said they can be pretty persistant and demand a licence in pretty much every case. And they come around and peek through the window and stuff. What a glorious profession, being a police officer.

[August]

So how come you let them get away with this kind of strongarm tactics? Peeking in windows? Wow!