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    (www.bbctvlicence.com)
    362 points dcminter | 15 comments | 21 Oct 24 18:42 UTC | HN request time: 1.152s | source | bottom
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    cooper_ganglia ◴[21 Oct 24 19:34 UTC] No.41907633[source]▶
    A "TV License" is one of those things I alway assumed people were making up to satirize the claims of over-regulation & bureaucracy in the UK.

    Finding out it was real was a mixture of hilarious and sobering.

    replies(19): >>41907663 #>>41907684 #>>41907721 #>>41907726 #>>41907766 #>>41907792 #>>41907811 #>>41907864 #>>41907881 #>>41907917 #>>41908104 #>>41908142 #>>41908609 #>>41908757 #>>41908807 #>>41909327 #>>41909601 #>>41909804 #>>41911273 #
    kamaitachi ◴[21 Oct 24 19:43 UTC] No.41907726[source]▶
    It’s not just a U.K. thing. Many European countries have something similar, although it might be called something else.

    It’s a form of tax that pays for public service broadcasting, including radio stations.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence#

    replies(3): >>41907906 #>>41907932 #>>41911409 #
    busterarm ◴[21 Oct 24 19:58 UTC] No.41907906[source]▶
    Yes, but the UK is the only country with a license ridiculous enough to offer you a 50% discount _if you're blind_.
    replies(6): >>41908015 #>>41908055 #>>41908265 #>>41908859 #>>41909034 #>>41912638 #
    1. gs17 ◴[21 Oct 24 20:09 UTC] No.41908015[source]▶
    It sounds weirder than that to me:

    > colour TV: £169.50 per year; monochrome TV: £57.00 per year; blind people: 50% discount

    People who can't see their color TV at all pay more than people who can but have an old black-and-white one?

    replies(6): >>41908139 #>>41908216 #>>41908301 #>>41908487 #>>41909049 #>>41909516 #
    2. madeofpalk ◴[21 Oct 24 20:20 UTC] No.41908139[source]▶
    Do the discounts stack? If you’re blind should you just buy a monochrome tv and pay £28?
    replies(1): >>41913022 #
    3. Ellipsis753 ◴[21 Oct 24 20:30 UTC] No.41908216[source]▶
    Weirder still, the discounts stack! So blind people can benefit from buying a black-and-white TV for an additional discount.

    I've given this a lot of thought in the past. The best I could come up with is that "legally blind" could still allow for someone with _very poor_ (colour) vision...

    4. dom96 ◴[21 Oct 24 20:38 UTC] No.41908301[source]▶
    this is making me want to buy a black and white TV (or grab a monitor and set it to always show in black and white) just so I can buy the monochrome TV license for giggles
    5. soneil ◴[21 Oct 24 21:01 UTC] No.41908487[source]▶
    People who can’t see their colour TV pay more than people who can’t see their B&W TV.

    Oh to be a a fly on the wall when the inspector has to explain the difference to a blind person.

    I think it made a lot more sense in the past. The license is set up so it’s a consumption based tax rather than taxing everyone. So only people with TVs paid TV tax. If colour increased the costs, only people consuming colour paid those increases. I imagine it made much more sense before consumption was ubiquitous

    replies(1): >>41909824 #
    6. TheRealPomax ◴[21 Oct 24 22:08 UTC] No.41909049[source]▶
    That's... not what https://www.gov.uk/find-licences/tv-licence says at all.

    If you're blind, you almost certainly qualify for a free license.

    replies(1): >>41909432 #
    7. giobox ◴[21 Oct 24 22:58 UTC] No.41909432[source]▶
    No, it really does say this. There is expressly no free TV licence for being blind, instead a 50% discount.

    https://www.gov.uk/free-discount-tv-licence

    https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/for-your...

    8. Xophmeister ◴[21 Oct 24 23:10 UTC] No.41909516[source]▶
    Since the switch to digital, presumably there’s no longer and signal for B&W TVs.
    replies(1): >>41911835 #
    9. rescbr ◴[22 Oct 24 00:00 UTC] No.41909824[source]▶
    A novelty product opportunity: plug together a Raspberry Pi, an USB TV tuner and a BW LCD display to pay a smaller TV licence.
    replies(1): >>41929726 #
    10. manarth ◴[22 Oct 24 06:49 UTC] No.41911835[source]▶
    There has rarely (if ever) been a separate broadcast signal for B&W vs colour. Broadcasts began in B&W, over time upgraded to colour, but there wasn't a need to broadcast Channel <whatever> in B&W and broadcast the same channel in colour on a different frequency.

    One single broadcast signal, and different capabilities of receivers.

    replies(1): >>41917245 #
    11. account42 ◴[22 Oct 24 10:47 UTC] No.41913022[source]▶
    On the other hand you might end up paying quite a bit more for a monochrome tv than for the cheapest color tv you can find.
    replies(1): >>41929746 #
    12. Xophmeister ◴[22 Oct 24 18:31 UTC] No.41917245{3}[source]▶
    But surely B&W TVs only exist with analog tuners?
    replies(1): >>41922742 #
    13. manarth ◴[23 Oct 24 07:39 UTC] No.41922742{4}[source]▶
    Oh, I misunderstood the point you were making.

    I guess you _could_ have a modern digital receiver with SCART-out (if such a thing exists) to a B&W TV. This BBC article (2018) claims 7,000 people watching TV with a B&W licence – whether they were actually watching it in B&W is not known :-D

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46125741

    14. chihuahua ◴[23 Oct 24 22:13 UTC] No.41929726{3}[source]▶
    When I lived in Britain in 1989-1992, at the time the rule was that battery-powered TVs were exempt from the license fees. I had a tiny TV that could be powered by 6 AA batteries. The screen size was approximately 3 inches / 7.5cm.

    I don't know if the rules have changed since then, but if they are the same, then a battery-powered laptop would also be exempt (even in color.)

    15. chihuahua ◴[23 Oct 24 22:15 UTC] No.41929746{3}[source]▶
    Maybe you can just turn down the color setting to 0, and break off the knob.