Yet Another TV license thread

[Admiral]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
Here we have public television that is on a voluntary pay scheme. Seems to work out pretty well.

You have public television in the US

[agallag]

Public TV (PBS) in the US is usually 5 minutes of "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom", followed by 30 minutes of them begging you to donate to the station, then repeat.

[ZokesPro]

Then there's the local cable comapnies who BEG for people to show their garbage to fill so many empty slots. One of my buddies had an actually decent videogame review show and later got a job as a beta tester for UbiSoft.

[Byock]

How much does it cost? per year? That is crazy, I don't watch TV, but I own 3 or 4 of them.

[dbdg]

Over £100 per year in the UK, not sure, haven't purchased one for years.

[GNEP]

£116 p.a.

[gt40]

do you still need to pay the fee if you only use the TV for watching DVD's or tapes???

[KvHagedorn]

Does the fee apply to each TV, or to the entire household?

[Tempest]

Here the license applies to a household. Theoretically, one must own a license to use any TV watching apparatus, such as a computer TV expansion/AIW card. If you want to own a TV but not pay any fees, you will have to prove that your TV is incapable of receiving TV transmissions, that is, provide them with evidence that the said feature has been disabled in your set.

Avoiding TV licenses really is a popular hobby here as well. The yearly fee is currently EUR 186,60.

Edit: If you get caught using a TV without a license, you can end up with a fee of 100 EUR (inspection fee) + a double fee for the time you've used your TV without a license, with a maximum of one year. That adds up to EUR 473,20

[GNEP]

Pretty much the same system as Finland for the UK except I think the fines are higher...

[Umfriend]

In the Netherlands, they actually abolish TV licensing fees. They raise the money through income taxes now....

I don't mind that neccesarily, but I do mind the ads we get on public TV (and radio). I hate the fact that they are trying to entice my kids to buy (or ask dad to buy) all sorts of useless shit.

When I was a kid, we had commercials before and after the 20.00 and 23.00 news bulletins, not on sundays. That was fine, fun even! But now we have it before and after Sesame street even. It makes me angry each and every time. Luckily, my eldest is beginning to understand that commercials only goal is to make us buy buy buy and that that is not what makes us happy.

Whenever I'm in London (every 3 to 4 weeks or so) I am always very pleased to switch on BBC, just for the relaxed way you can watch a program, albeit shit sometimes (I mean, snooker? getouttahere!).

[GNEP]

Snooker? Hey, I'll bet the dutch will be there soon as well as in darts....

[Byock]

That is outrageous! I would rather watch commercials

[dbdg]

Fine is up to £1000 in the UK, according to the 30 letters/warnings I have recieved.

I don't have anything in the house that can receive a signal (I think they can count video players).

The projector doesn't have a tuner so it is exempt, as is the DVD player.

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Admiral
You have public television in the US

Pay no attention to agallag.

We have Public Television, and it's very good.
Of course there are many shows that are not my interest, or silly, or bad.
But, generally it is quite diverse and well done.
And MUCH better on average than what is produced by any of the private networks.

We have Public Radio that is very good too.

So much for many people's one dimensional impression of the US
chuck