>>2323563
Watch online. I haven't watched normal tv for three years now.

Because they will cut you in your sleep.

>>2323568
Enjoy your v& when they check their IP logs.

We get HD free over the air and you have to pay for a TV license? Haw-haw.

If you don't own a TV, do you still have to pay?

If it's state TV why don't they just stick it in your taxes rather than pay for ad campaigns to hustle people?

It's bullshit anyway. My mom got a new house three years ago and several letters telling her to pay her tv license. She never did, and they never followed up.

In before Americans who know nothing about Britain start screaming "LOL 1984 ENJOY YOUR POLICE STATE"

>>2323611
well you're getting there, you can't argue with that.

>>2323611
LOL ENJOY YOUR CRUMPETS

>>2323611
Except the UK is actually a police state... And a shithole...

>>2323604

because it's not government funded

>>2323596
No.

>>2323573
Public libraries.

>>2323618
only someone from the uk would know about CRUMPETS

LOL 1984 ENJOY YOUR POLICE STATE

GET ONE OR GET DONE

>>2323642

take your time

>>2323639
Crumpets are English Muffins, the US has them too.

>>2323654
xcept nobody in USA says Crumpets because we're not retards

The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago notes that two-thirds of the countries in Europe and half of the countries in Asia and Africa use television licences to fund public television. TV licensing is rare in the Americas, largely being confined to French overseas departments and British territories

>>2323604 If it's state TV

It's not, the TV licence exists so that they can provide TV that is free from any commercial or political interests.

>>2323563
>Why do I have to pay the BBC even if I don't watch it?

Because it still watches you?

inb4 Soviet Russia

forcing you to fund tv shows you don't even watch is just another step towards totalitarianism

>>2323671
inb4 bender

I remember reading about some crackpot who built a tv that could only receive ITV but he still had to pay the license.

What if you don't have a tv?

>>2323699

I totally helped fund Life on Mars.

AWESOME.

>>2323702
yeah, then they made it illegal to do what the guy did

>>2323709
What if? You dont pay anyting

lol, you have to pay money for shitty low budget britshows and shows that came out in American last year?

This is what happens if you want public services.
You have to pay money for them. Roads? Public health care? All of that is paid by and for everyone.

Enjoy your equality. Personally I think the BBC is the best news on the planet, I only use them and I'm an american.

>>2323736

BBC news is free on PBS where I'm at

>>2323736
That's true, but what makes no sense at all is why they don't just take the funding out of taxes like those things you mentioned, instead of wasting money with vans patrolling neighborhoods and harassing people to pay for a stupid license.

>>2323736
BBC news is amateurish, Channel 4 is best

>>2323699 forcing you to fund tv shows

It must feel good to directly fund Top Gear.

>>2323746 BBC news is free on PBS where I'm at

Thank the TV-license paying Brits for that

>>2323671
Actually i would, would be fucking awesome

>>2323747
So that only those who actually own televisions have to pay for it.

Because Britannia is a bunch of fascist.

>>2323779
Nice try, but PBS pays to license it from the BBC, IIRC.

>>2323850
No we're not

>>2323834

BAWWWWWWWWWWW 5 shut ins will have to pay for something they don't use

>>2323671
THAT would be AWESOME.

>>2323877
No, they don't. And that's as it should be.

I don't mind paying the license fee but I really don't like how the BBC are dicks about it.
All their adverts and stuff about it are basically threats.
In OP's ad they might have well as just written "WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE"

>>2323904
Yeah, so? What're they gonna do about it, cry? It's Britain we are talking here. Our law enforcement is far from the best.

>>2323869

lol britteeth

Since you are a well of TV knowledge /tv/, my friend doesn't have a TV or a TV license but watches TV programs on the BBC iPlayer. He keeps telling me he doesn't need one to watch as long as he doesn't watch live TV online. Will I be able to laugh at him one day when he gets v& or is he right?

>>2323904

>>2323911
I just don't like the idea that I'm paying for an organisation to threaten people. I wouldn't mind if the ads just said stuff like "It is against the law to watch TV without a license" but instead they have to word it in an arrogant and twat-ish way.

Anyone who owns a TV in Britain and doesn't watch the BBC is a retard.

/thread.

>>2323914
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/01/iplayer_does_not_require_a_tv_1.html

>>2323604
This.

Even if is funded by a private company isnt the same shit at the end?.
Better to have a public station government funded.

TV licenses on the other hand must be the most stupid shit on the planet.

>>2323927
>I just don't like the idea that I'm paying for an organisation to threaten people

Go move to your own government-less island then.

I like that I am an Amerifag & I only watch BBC for news...but do not pay for it.

Thanks for paying for my kickass news, you limey wankahs.

>>2323779
PBS is funded by voluntary donations from "viewers like you". They have a large phone drive each year to continue to broadcast.

Though, they only show BBC programs like 20 years old. kinda sucks.

You can own a TV and not pay a TV license if you can prove you dont watch the BBC.

It's in exceptional cases, but it's possible.

>>2323927

You pay for the right to use a broadcast reciever, seeing as the airwaves are a public utility.

Here in Australia the ABC is paid for entirely through tax revenue, but they haven't been paid in real terms for at least a decade, meaning the government owes millions of dollars in back pay, on top of budget cuts, not to mention rising production costs. GG economic rationalism.

The TV license is a guaranteed stream of cash while ever people watch TV. It's how shows like Planet Earth are made.

>>2324656
>It's how shows like...

Oh and actual TV news services and analysis. Lest anyone forget election night on 4chan.

when i lived in london i remember the fee was 100 pounds or so a year

not so bad if you ask me

In Canada the CBC is paid for by tax dollars and is free to receive, but it's full of commercials too and a bunch of shitty US shows. CBCnewsworld is cool for news.

To be honest, I don't mind the TV license. Yeah, it seems like a lot of money, but it does pay for some good shows.

I think your license fee should be dictated by what you watch.

It irritates me to know that somehow I am paying for Cash in the Attic and Eggheads

>>2324774

I feel that way about pay-tv, a purely commercial venture with a grossly artificial packaging scheme that barely produces anything of its own. Stripping 80% of these channels out of my monthly bill would be fucking easy, but that would mean - baaaw - siphoning away their unproductive monopoly profits.

Basically I'm happy for geriatrics to have their religious programming and Schools Spectaculars, while ever Media Watch and a great deal of marginal radio shows remain on the air. Them's the breaks; in the commercial world none of it would exist.

TV licence is a bunch of catshit.
So they send you a letter if there isn't a licence registered to that to address, to which you write back LOL I DON'T HAVE A TV, or better yet, don't reply at all. Repeat once a month for 9 months.

Eventually they send someone round, you say you don't have a TV. They pretend to have some legal rights to come in, you say fuck off. The end.

It's fucking criminal that you should pay for the BBC. Hey want to buy a DVD of your favourite series from last year? LOL FULL PRICE. Want to subscribe to a station that plays old BBC programs? LOL PAY UP NIGGER.

what I don't understand is why people BELIEVE that there are vans capable of detecting if you are watching TV.

you think there are physicists getting paid minimum wage to ride around in the back of a van seeing who is using certain frequencies which doesn't even work for LCD tv's anymore?

I always thought mindless bitching about taxes going to something you might not be using was an American thing, good to see you foreigners are on board

I would much rather pay a TV licensing fee than have the conglomerate-controlled situation we have in the US.

>>2326820
you'd rather have a media monopoly like they do in the UK? people think it isn't beholden to special interests, but IT IS. who appoints the people who control the BBC? DUH, the government. who is labour beholden to? duh, unions.

>>2326900

We have a media monopoly here, too.

Do you know why we get HD for free over the air in America? Because in 1996, rather than selling the HD/Digital spectrum to media conglomerates (estimates placed it at $70 billion, not adjusted for inflation), it was GIVEN to them. Do you think any network would play ads informing people of their right to sell something to the networks? Of course not.

>>2326935
does it make a difference if it was given to them? we had free analog ota, now we have free digital ota. i'd much rather watch ads and have channel variety than a single forced government body which harasses you to give them money.

imagine if PBS sent people around threatening to arrest you if you didn't pay them money to have a licence to watch tv. and that they had spy vans that could tell if you were watching tv without a licence. that is just batshit crazy.

>>2327078

$70 billion in 1996 dollars? Yeah, I would say that matters quite a bit. That's free healthcare for the entire nation.

>>2327078

Haven't you ever seen that episode of The Simpsons? If you watch PBS without paying, Betty White sends the muppets to terrorize your home.

>>2327186 That's free healthcare for the entire nation.

lol, in kanada maybe

>>2323680
Yeah, we call scones "English Muffins" because "scones" is too hard to pronounce.

>>2327254

scones are different, they are bigger and don't come already split in half

>>2324395
I watch BBC America for the stupid shows, "You are what you eat", yeah, stop eating lard by the bucketload and you'll be healthier! Woohaw, big fucking insight there! "How Clean is your House", gee, pick up the cat shit around your living room and your house won't be as fucked up! Doctor Who (a few days before the same eps air on Sci Fi), the sausage fest that is Torchwood, and oh, the "Chef Ramsey Screaming Hour".

Top Gear is acceptable, however.

But it makes one wonder just how much of a gap there is between when Britfags and Amerifags actually see the same shows.

>>2327186
thats 200 per person

So if nobody was sick and we all just got checkups and immunizations you're right

>>2327263
That's because much like Britain, Americans can't be trusted with sharp objects either.

>>2327290
BBC America is really bad, the only good show they play is Top Gear and the occasional Peep Show. No I am not a Whofag.

>>2327254
Weird. I just looked up scone and they're nothing like what we call them in the Western US. Here, scones are just fried bread eaten with honey, butter, and powdered sugar. Maybe it's because of all the rocky mountain oysters we eat

Over here, most of those shows aren't actually broadcast by the BBC, think all of them except Dr who and Torchwood are Channel 4 shows.

>>2327353
Well, it's the closest thing in appearence at least.

>>2323596
Yes you do. If you own a computer and not a TV you need a TV license now, as you can access BBCiplayer.

A common word for Crumplets in England is Pikelets, also nearly every region has their own word for Bread Rolls e.g. Batch, Bap

Paying for PUBLIC TV how barbaric. Hate to see the bill for that & cable/satellite assuming the State will ALLOWS you to have one/service.

You're all so fucking stupid, you don't pay for BBC, you pay for having a TV. The money just goes to the BBC.

"TV licence", it's in the damn word, idorts.

>>2324604
>PBS is funded by voluntary donations from "viewers like you". They have a large phone drive each year to continue to broadcast.

That's what I hate about PBS, their pledge drives. Instead of once every four months, they're once a month and sometimes over the holidays! And the programs themselves: self-help gurus, doo-wop, Celtic Woman? Who watches this shit!?

Old and/or affluent people, and that's how PBS get's it's funding. From that and mostly from corporations. (read: ExxonMobile)

The only way I'll become a member is that they stop broadcasting these specials and broadcast regular programing during pledge drives. But you know that is not going to happen.

lol, socialized television

>>2327508

You can thank George "I hate edumakation" Bush. He slashed PBS's federal funding in half, now they have to rely on public donations more than ever. He did this at the same time he slashed the Department of Education's budget so he could give more no-bid contracts to Halliburton.

>>2327508
They probably air shows like Celtic Woman because the people who like those shows are the most willing to donate. I doubt they'd get that kind of response if they showed a Red Dwarf marathon or something.

>>2327524
yeah but the tragedy is that this is what's on our premium cable now

>>2327508
Yeah, PBS sucks ass now.

When I was a kid and it was all bill nye and wishbone and carmen sandiego... man, that shit was so awesome I didn't care that it was educational.

Shit like this makes me want to go to the US instead of Europe for my O.E.

>>2327534
Another problem is that PBS caters to the Highest Common Denominator. That means instead of real dramas outside the garden variety sitcoms and crime dramas. You get British import drama (Masterpiece Theater), dime a dozen cooking shows that no one watches, and business shows. The best stuff by PBS often does not get promoted and gets shown past midnight.

If you think commercial television in America is better, bear in mind that they concentrate on the Lowest Common Denominator. But there is one common thing they share, PBS and commercial television: Affluent audiences.

>>2327534
PBS focusing on earnings sorta ruins the whole point. Oh well.

Y'all oughta check out the video of Fred Rogers fighting for PBS in congress. Awestriking is a mild way to put it.

Of course, after Jim Henson, and then Mr. Rogers died off, the vultures waiting to commecialize PBS swooped in. Which is why Barney, et al, started airing.

>>2327617
This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

>>2327617

Mr. Rogers died like 5 years ago and the show only ended a bit before then, Barney started at least 20 years ago and is meant to educate very young children

>>2327556
Their kids shows are not as good anymore. Arthur has changed due to the voice actor alone. The rest of the programs are for ages 10 and under.

Damn shame that kids without cable,video games,PCs/internet ,or DVDs only look forward to either PBS or court shows, talk shows, and the so-called local-news (which their top stories always crime related)

Think about this

Most of us pay for HBO and get the best shows on television, Boxing, movies and good documentaries. While brits have to pay for BBC and get Doctor Who and shit.

>>2327643
Every time I turn on the channel it's goddamn Clifford for 3 year olds. All garbage.

They have all these awesome shows, why the hell don't they rerun them

>>2327630
I mentioned it in stages because it happened in stages. When Henson died, the commercialism started, when Rogers died, it went into a rampage.

Is there anyway to fix PBS, other than privatizing it? Because you know what will really happen if the US Government privatizes it.

Wait so how does tv work in the UK

In America you can pick up local broadcast for free and pay a cable or satellite provider for diffrent amounts of channels

In the UK you...

>Our database lists every home without a TV license.

OK, I know Britain's not a police state and all, but is there some context to that statement? If not, that is easily one of the scariest things I've read all night.

If it's already been mentioned in the thread, disregard this post, I suck cocks.

>>2327660

PBS is already privatized, in a way. It gets most of its funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (and the rest from federal money, viewer donations, and more recently through commercial sponsorship).

The best way to fix it is to undo the budget cut the Bush administration handed out.

And say what you will about PBS, but Bill Moyers is probably the most important journalist of our generation.

>>2327482
>idorts.

Someone needs to lurk the fuck more.

>>2327290 the "Chef Ramsey Screaming Hour".

SHUT UP YOU FUCKING DONKEY!!!!

>>2327482


why are they dirving ar getting people to pay a tv liscense for having the internet and being able to watch iplayer thern? My computer isnt a TV

>>2327703
>>OK, I know Britain's not a police state

Yet.

Won't be long now :(

You pay for the licence so the private company can afford to monitor licencees and enforce licence laws.

It's called privatisation - paying more for less.

In Melbourne we pay twice to use our shithouse train system. Once through taxes because technically it's state owned infrastructure, and second through ticket fares so Connex (the railway junta) can serve overseas sharedolders instead of the system's users.

>>2327683
in the UK you can pick up broadcasts for "free" OTA just like the US. however, you are "supposed" to pay for a licence to watch TV, just like a licence to drive a car. that money goes towards the BBC and the retarded TV licence enforcement company.

the TV licence enforcers go around threatening to get people arrested if they don't pay for a TV licence. legally, they have no power and you can tell them to fuck off, but they go around peeping through your windows and shit. they try to scare people by saying they have vans driving around that are capable of detecting if you are watching TV without a licence.

>>2327290
>"Chef Ramsey Screaming Hour"

drinking game: every time he takes his shirt off on camera, chug

Maybe you should eat the telly.

OP, your picture made me think of this lulzy image:

You only need a TV licence to watch or record live broadcasts. Most people choose to get one just to stop the harassment from the licence gestapo.


I personally will never own a TV licence and just use a TV for vidya gaems. All the shows I want to watch I will either download or watch on the iplayer.

>>2329746
not getting it....

>>2329785
Jean Charles de Menezes was a Brazilian national living in London. Menezes was shot dead at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground by unnamed Metropolitan Police officers. Initially witnesses reported in the media that he was wearing bulky clothing and that he had vaulted the ticket barriers running from police, this later proved to be untrue.

>>2327703
They have a list of those who have paid for a TV license. If you assume that everyone owns a TV then subtracting that list from the list of all homes (culled from public census data) will give you a list of basically everyone without a license.

Of course, not everyone has a TV.

Shops that sell TVs are also obliged to inform the TV Licensing Authority of the address of anyone that buys a TV.

What happens if you use a media centre PC to watch TV? Do they count?

>>2330324

Only if you've got it plugged into a proper aerial.

>>2330324
It's simple, if you watch live TV then you have to pay.
Use a TV exclusively for console gaming, watching DVDs or watching streaming porn on the Internet then you don't have to pay.

What do chavs think about the TV license?

>>2330439
why not just call a chav a wigger like they are supposed to be?

>>2330370
If you watch live tv you need to pay. If you own a tv capable of receiving the channels but don't watch them, and instead use it for gaming, you still need to pay. How are they supposed to know if you actually watched it or not?

>>2330866
Bzzzzt! Wrong.
I suggest you actually contact TV licensing or even just read their FAQ before opening your moronic gob.

>>2323563
The fuck? TV license?

Is Tales from the Afternow coming true?

>>2330896
A tripfag who is a moron?! Surely this must be a first.

>>2327579 dime a dozen cooking shows

Whut. Yan Can Cook and America's Test Kitchen is awesome.

If your TV is detuned and not connected to an aerial you are technically not forced to pay for a licence. This is the way shops can use regular TVs for surveillance CCTV.

>>2330896
You're right, they changed it in 2006. No need to be such as dick about it though, could have just said.

>>2330896
You're right, I check. No need to be such as dick about it though, could have just said.

As I'll take my computer to Uni with me, and my monitor's also my TV I'm curious. Without an aerial the only channel it receives properly are Film4, Channel 4 (the only two good channels) and one of the shitty History channels.

If someone questions me can I simply tell them to fuck off?