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Kept meaning to to get it fixed but never did, so 3 years or so down the line I threw the TV out dp you know I dont miss it.
When I watch it around a friends house I cant beleive how involed they become with the plots of silly soaps, it all seem so unreal I cringe at the thought that I too must have been like that.
Another plus is that I know read more which is far more sitmulating.
Anyone else?
I can tell you from 23 years of experience that there's no point in writing to TV licensing or returning the little form they send you, because you just get a letter back with words to the effect of "We don't belieeeeve you!".
There's not much worth watching, anyway.
What I would reeally like to do ( for another thread perhaps) is hook up my laptop to the TV through a wireless device to get my desktop on that big screen. Has that even been made yet?
Either way I don't want a replacement, there is nothing left worth watching.
The TV Licence is part of the British way of life! A large bureaucracy collecting an unfair tax - what could more define Britishness.
Pay the same thing in Sweden, here we simply tax the hell out of people. After that we add fees for everything else and then we add tax on those fees. It helps building a large nice government with lots of people in it doing important stuff like going to retreats drinking beer, going to striptease bars and discussing important aspects of how little money they have to spend.
There is no common baseline for deciding something is inherently untaxable cos a politician somewhere will have their eye on it.
Though those UK TV licence collectors are especially tenacious.....I've never had a TV but, if I'd kept all the demands and reminders, I could paper a room. The trick seems to be requesting a Welsh speaker calls in person (assuming you don't live in Wales) as per one of the options on the form. That seems to stop them for at least a year.
I would definitely not have one the the house now I have a child.
My experience is that once you get rid of a TV and realise what a time-waster it is, you will never want one again. Those who still have them try it and see.
For Brits with problems with TV licensing: I found a nasty letter works, if not just throw the letters in the bin. Are they still putting up those posters saying something on the lines of "3 houses on this road no not have TV licences?"? I always wanted them to do it to me so I could put up a notice saying I was one of them, and what would they do about it (OK, so its childish, but its would be fun).
The TV Licence is part of the British way of life! A large bureaucracy collecting an unfair tax - what could more define Britishness.
I don't think it's unfair at all, you get something so you pay for it. The only unfair bit about it is there is no relationship between how much you watch and how much you pay - even if you never watch BBC.
If I had a TV I am sure I would watch a lot more than that so I'd effectively be watching things I'm not that interested in.
The BBC licence people... had a visit some years ago, get the very occasional letter asking if I have a TV which I return as "No". Never been questioned.
The advantage of the licence is that is frees the BBC from comercial censorship.
A rather facile example is Top Gear, a programme about cars, compare that to the comercial channels' version where all cars get 8/10 for slightly different reasons.
The comercial companies cannot be negative about their pay-masters products.
zoo
Plus the animal programmes are getting better and better at the moment. The Meerkat Manor is pretty cool.
In fact, I just this week cancelled my cable TV account and now just have a digital terrestrial box. Freeview [freeview.co.uk] (one of the package operators on digital terrestrial) carry all the quality channels anyway; so i've gone from around £30 / month to £0 / month and still have 90% of the channels I watched. I do miss Discovery Real Time - great for relaxing infront of; half watching some guy build something out of wood whilst half asleep at the same time!
The biggest thing that puts me off TV these days is the significant percentage of any 1 hour's programming that is NOT the program you are actually sitting down to watch. Take the format of your typical "World's funniest kitchen accidents" type program. It goes something like this:
a) Coming up in "World's funniest kitchen accidents"...
this segment shows almost all the action shots coming up in the next hour, basically all you want to seeb) About 5 minutes new material padding out an accident.
c) Coming up after the break in "World's funniest kitchen accidents"
this segment contains all the action shots remaining, repeating the initial "coming up" segment at the start of the showd) Program sponsorship segment "World's funniest kitchen accidents is sponsored by MegaSharp Knives, inc.!"
e) Channel identity bumper
f) Unrelated program preview
g) Commercials
h) Another unrelated program preview
i) Channel identity bumber
j) Program sponsorship segment
k) Still to come on "World's funniest kitchen accidents"
all the remaining action shotsl) Welcome back to "World's funniest kitchen accidents", before the break; we saw "$unlucky_person have $accident"
this segment basically repeats the action shot from the first part of the showm) GOTO b)
I'm not paying a subscription to be subjected to that.
If it weren't for the BBC, you'd think it was commercial pressures for advertising etc.
The BBC do just the same, and they make up for the lack of third party advertisment breaks by running even more trailers for their own programs.
Even BBC News 24 (which you would expect to be News, from the BBC, 24 hours a day) has frequent breaks to show trailers for other BBC programs on other channels. Not only that, but they start showing 'Recorded News' once you hit the early hours (when I normally finish work), or even worse, CNN News (come on guys, surely you know that you're the BBC - and you're meant to be 24 hour?) - neither of these late night visual treats have subtitles either.
On the subject of subtitles, arguably the most important channel on the BBC, BBC Parliament - the only way for most British people to keep in touch with the actions of their elected representatives... appears in a tiny quarter screen and has... no subtitles.
At work when I hear frequent conversations about the latest dumb show or sports event I think about how they are losing out on so much of life while sitting in front of that thing.
...we get Top Gear on BBC World and while I like J. Clarkson...
Oh, Lord! Not Jeremy Clarkson in two threads - it's all too much to take!
Syzygy
we get Top Gear on BBC World and while I like J. Clarkson I hate the current format of Top Gear
That's a nice show, they always do something fun. I have a friend in the auto industry who hates it though, he thinks they are biased towards british cars and that all other cars from abroad are crap no matter what. He might have a point but I still enjoy the show.
I don't think it's unfair at all, you get something so you pay for it. The only unfair bit about it is there is no relationship between how much you watch and how much you pay - even if you never watch BBC.
Exactly!
For non Brits ... this is not a tax like all the others. The licence fee goes towards the financing of the BBC and keeping it commercial free. As I have already said I seldom watch TV but I don't get too upset about paying the licence fee. It gives me the best channels available and I can watch programs undisturbed by all the inane advertising I must suffer on the other channels.
(The ones with the two guys from 118 118 who are sponsoring the Sopranos rerun on More4 make me feel particularly suicidal. I hate 118 118 because of this and I would never use their service. What are they trying to achieve?).
No, I believe that the BBC is worth paying for. Its program output is respected worldwide. This must earn the UK as a whole a lot of respect so what is that worth?
It all started with a move to a rural area with no reception.
The greatest and quickest benefit I saw was with our children. They became kids again, with all of the creativity that kids are known for. And, they did things like homework, recreational reading, etc. (even chores without too much arguing!)
I would recommend no television for any household with children. I do make a distinction between TV and home theater though. We now have a big screen on which we watch the occasional movie (about 2-3 a week).
WBF
The license is not just related to your TV though. It covers you to listem to radio etc, I guess if they really wanted to get a non payer they may also be able to take the internet into account. If you can get a TV reception on it you need to pay!
Mack.
No, I believe that the BBC is worth paying for. Its program output is respected worldwide. This must earn the UK as a whole a lot of respect so what is that worth?
It also earns the BBC a whole lot of money...
During 2004/05, BBC Worldwide's activities help achieve record profits of £55m, up 50% on last year, and sales of £706m, up 7% on last year, while cash flow to the BBC hit a new high of £145m.
From BBC Worldwide [bbcworldwide.com].
BBC profits seem to be rising at a rate higher than the annual licence fee increase.
Syzygy
Not many of those in Essex.
Mack.
..this is BBC Worldwide...
Oh, so it's not connected to the BBC at all then - the one that's funded by the licence fee?
Syzygy
It always surprises me how many people on this board claim not to watch/own a TV. Being a person who grew up in suburban North America, I can not think of one kid in my neighbourhood who did not have a TV or 4 at home. It must be more part of the culture over here, and frankly I am glad.
I LOVE TV! Touch my remote control and it wont be pretty!
My satelite receiver has a bigger hard drive than my computer, and it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I've found that radio (the BBC site allows you to listen to all the radio shows on the internet) is much more fun. I can listen to all the radio programmes I want and listen to loads of music (I review demo/obscure CDs on one of my sites) and do some website programming at the same time. The problem with TV is that it takes visual and auditory attention.
I would much rather read entertaining threads on WW and listen to music than sit watching near unknown celebrities try to get public attention.
the greatest thing since sliced bread.
We all ..I suppose ..slice our bread sometime ..some of us prefer to decide how for ourselves ..the original use of the "sliced bread" referred I think to pre sliced bread ..
most TV is like force feeding geese at Xmas ..
I prefer radio ..and can now get BBC radio4 :))..listen to that or BBC world service radio and you wont be so impressed by your TV ..and you can do something else while you listen ..
I think the world divides into Radio or TV people ..
If the BBC ever ask me to pay to listen ..I'll have no problem with that .
