jemetpl

At current exchange rates the costs of the full Sky package (£40 per month) and the TV tax (£116 pa) works out at just under $90 per month.

Of the TV tax charge, quite a lot goes in administration to the authorities rather than into actual programmes. Even if the system were efficient there are still civil liberty issues.

Why is it impossible to buy a TV from a shop in the UK without having (by law) to give them your name and address so that they can pass your details on to the authorities?

Franklin

The BBC extortion (and that is what it is) fee when you buy a TV in the UK is simply outrageous and should end. The BBC has grown arrogant and smug. They have a guaranteed flow of revenue. The private TV companies don't get the free ride that the beeb does. Their smugness and holier than thou attitude was disgusting and remains so. I would like to see how far "TV Detector Vans" would get here in the USA.

Tone

Anyway anybody know the fella's name ?

Webbie

Patent Attorney

Patrick

Richard Head
Hugh G Penis
W Anchor
I have a throbbing anus where my mouth should be
Gob Shite


Am I close

Patrick

Manc

just call the man a cock and be done with it, are you some sort of prude man?

doctor scrumpy

By God Patrick are you ill ? Not like you to be so polite !

Patrick

I was going to put - **** faced wazzak but I thought I might infringe Michael Jacksons copyright

Patrick

Pulaski

Er, .... because it is the law that you must have a licence, without exception.

.... A few years ago a blind person tried to claim that they shouldn't have to buy a TV licence (they apparently owned the TV so that they could listen to programs), and even that claim was rejected!

doctor scrumpy

The blind get a quid or so discount. You even need a colour licence if u have a black & white tv with a vcr. The vcr can pick up colour images & that is what they get u on.

rogerpenycate

Just replying for no other reason than, in 1978 I lived in Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach.
It was fantastic on Xmas day, lying on the beach drinking a few beers in 100 degrees, and our flatmate shouting from the balcony "Dinners ready". Just to stroll across the road, have roast turkey and then back onto the beach.
Is that club still at the end of/on the beach like a working mens club/league club ?
Also is the Bondi Lifesaver club still open ?
Cheers

tweakr

I agree that the TV license is a total scam. The lack of choice is undemocratic to the max and what annoys me is that the company has it's head up its own ass... many British stick by it by saying that "it's much better than what the Yanks get on TV".

I'd have to disagree. From watching basic American cable channels I'd have to say that thy're just as trashy as British ones,
but at least they're not BORING.

Luckily with analog TV ready to shut down in Britain by the end of the decade, digital systems with their conditional access setups, with the possibility of access cards etc., are gonna give BBC less to hide behind.

dgsyd1

Just wait until you've lived here a while, then you'll realise just how bad US television can really be. I'm a fan of a lot of things American, but sadly the TV isn't one of them. And to get any half decent channels you have to pay upwards of $40 a month. It makes the license fee seem like the bargain of a lifetime!

Taffyles

Amen to that- the quality of BBC programming, their documentaries in particular, is literally stunning after being in the US for 12 years. I buy a lot of boxed sets- I Claudius, Only fools and Horses, Dramas etc- my co-workers fight to borrow them first.

Must admit, I used to grumble about TV and the licence too, sometimes, when living in UK. We have a good laugh over that now- didn't know when we were well off. You have to see how bad, and expensive, TV can get in the US, before you appreciate the good stuff, I guess.

Up until recently, we were paying $174 a month for our programming- and its not a patch on BBC 1 and 2.

elfman

Lack of choice? undemocratic? Fool. You really have no idea what you're talking about. How much more "choice" do you want in the UK? you can, after all, choose a multitude of different cable/satallite/digital/sky etc packages in addition to the bargain 10 quid a month for top quality (compared to here) terrestrial TV.
If you're not careful in the UK you'll end up with the kind of "choice" that I have in the US: I live across the Hudson River from Manhattan and the terrestrial signal is so (deliberately?) piss poor that the only "choice" we have is to pay $60+ a month for cable TV or have no telly at all.

And as for the content of the programming, well lets just say GOD I MISS THE BBC. I'll be the first to admit that some of the individual shows on US TV are excellent (feel free to disagree, but I'm thinking of stuff like ER, Sex and the City, The Sopranos), but they are very much small islands of quality amid oceans of crap. Also the quality of news/current affairs and documentaries is breathtakingly low across the board, and as well as the actual programme quality, I often find US TV to be virtually unwatchable due to the relentless commercials and the utterly thoughtless scheduling.

Really I haven't missed much about the UK since I left 15 months ago (a decent pint springs to mind), but the BBC and the other terrestrial UK channels (except channel 5) easily top the short list.

God bless the Beeb and all who sail in her.