OT Rant BBC license any alternative?

[jgharston]

Sky's business model is that the subscription + the adverts pay for the service. If they got rid of the adverts, they'd have to raise the subscription. If they got rid of the subscription, they'd have to increase the adverts (like with FilmFour a couple of years ago).

I refuse to consider Sky as I refuse to have a monstrosity stuck on my roof. I'm on free cable, zero down and zero per month, about 30 channels of rubbish and half a dozen channels with occassional good stuff on from time to time.

JGH

[Tim Streater]

You mean so that I could get e.g. Sky without paying twice (once in actual dosh, second time in adverts)? So far I've refused to contemplate Sky for that reason.

[Mike Barnes]

And increasingly they're inserting items into the new bulletins that are actually thinly-disguised ads for programmes.

[Tim Streater]

Gets my vote.

[RobertL]

No, you need the licence even to watch ITV. the original ideal was that the fee funded the BBC and in exhcange it carried no adverts and so the advert revenue all went to ITV.

Robert

[Tim Streater]

That would be the reason for me. Except that they dress Beefy and Goldilocks in the corporate jackets like they do on shitty US TV. I'd have to learn to overlook that.

[Mike Barnes]

It helps to turn up twenty minutes after the advertised time.

Buy or read?

[Andrew Gabriel]

I don't believe you need a license to watch any of the "listen again" type services via the internet, only if you watch a program whilst it is also being broadcast. (The broadcast must be completely finished; e.g. no overlap with any part of your replay.)

You will get nagged silly about not having a license. They used to include a reply-paid postcard to indicate you don't have a TV and they stopped bothering you for a couple of years, but there's no longer an option to say you don't have a TV. They keep coming around, but no one has been in, so we get a letter left saying they'll be back. Actually, I think I was in once, but they just shoved the letter through without actually knocking (or filled in the wrong time on it).

[hugh]

In message , dave writes

Don't you mean £800k pa.?

[Mike Barnes]

Tim Streater :

That's where I usually prefer to sit anyway. I don't like anyone between me and the screen. I would only sit further back if the audience was very sparse.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Right. You want to be able to SEE all those skinny birds in front.

[Tim Streater]

Unless its a popular film, in which case you'll be in the front row.

[Mike Barnes]

Tim Streater :

I can stretch out and rest my head on the back of the seat. I don't need to move my head up and down because over the years I've managed to develop a special technique, which, without going into too much detail, I could describe as "moving my eyes in their sockets".

I wouldn't sit there if I found it uncomfortable.

[The Other Mike]

B & W is about 1/3 the price of colour, a saving of nearly 100 quid.

[Theo Markettos]

Indeed, but...

TV Licensing cover this:

: Black and white licences: : If you use TV equipment to record television programmes, you need a colour : licence even if you only have a black and white television as TV equipment : records TV in colour. A black and white licence is valid only if the digital : box is not designed to record television programmes.

[Tim Streater]

You must like getting a crick in the neck from looking straight up then as well as getting neck ache because you have to keep nodding your head up and down to see what's going on.

[John Williamson]

AKA a half-decent cup of coffee per week.

[Matty F]

NZ decided years ago to throw out charging for TV licenses. The cost of collection must have been ginormous. Now it's funded through income tax, meaning that the rich b*stards pay more than the rest of us to wach TV. All right and proper. Haven't you had a left wing government that could have done that years ago?

[Frank Erskine]

Not right at all. I don't have a TV set - why should I pay for a TV 'service' which I don't use?

[Mike Barnes]

Frank Erskine :

I'm sure your taxes pay for many, many services that you don't use (I know mine do). It's inherent in the system.