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Please do not write below the line

(www.bbctvlicence.com)
362 points dcminter | 4 comments | 21 Oct 24 18:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.657s | source
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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.

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Zak ◴[21 Oct 24 19:38 UTC] No.41907684[source]▶
Many European countries are worse about it than the UK; even people who do not own a television are required by law to pay.

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

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throwawayffffas ◴[21 Oct 24 22:29 UTC] No.41909254[source]▶
The absurdity in the UK is that it's a License fee and that there is this whole absurd enforcement system. In other countries it's a tax if you don't pay it, you are essentially not paying your taxes. I am OK with a universal tax for a universal service even if I don't use that service. What I am not okay with is fraudulent threatening letters, weirdos creeping in the bushes trying to see if I am watching TV and goons showing up at my front door to collect what they think I owe them.
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1. seoulmetro ◴[21 Oct 24 23:01 UTC] No.41909454[source]▶
Had a white van with huge antennas parked out front for a few days when they were refusing to believe that a large share house of young people didn't watch TV. This was in 2015. We didn't own a TV nor watch.

The van soon left after a few days but left a full bottle of yellow liquid. Makes a fun story, but yeah they threaten you a bunch and it's quite sad.

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2. marcus_holmes ◴[22 Oct 24 01:44 UTC] No.41910369[source]▶
I lived on the Isle of Man for a few years back in the 90's. The white van would be spotted on the ferry coming over and a small notice in the paper would appear. Everyone hid their TVs for a couple of weeks, until the paper said the van was back on the ferry.

It sounds so farcical now, in our age of ubiquitous surveillance capitalism.

3. jayflux ◴[22 Oct 24 12:32 UTC] No.41913583[source]▶
I doubt what you saw was a TV licensing van in 2015. They stopped doing the van stuff in the late 90s / early 2000s.

Even if they could “detect” TV in your house they’d have no way of knowing if it’s a live broadcast or streaming/on demand.

It may have been an OB van or something else.

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4. seoulmetro ◴[23 Oct 24 02:47 UTC] No.41921267[source]▶
I know, I think this was always a joke, especially with the yellow liquid.