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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: 0.611s | 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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lifeisstillgood ◴[21 Oct 24 20:20 UTC] No.41908142[source]▶
The BBC is prized in the UK, and rightly so. Most national broadcasters have strong public interest provisions but the Beeb has a history and culture of strong independent journalism, incredible childrens and family output and acts as a mainstay anchor to support a creative industry.

There is plenty to criticise but the weird ring fenced tax that we pay is incredible value for money (films, tv, web, journalism for the price of Netflix

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colonwqbang ◴[21 Oct 24 22:20 UTC] No.41909167[source]▶
I appreciate state TV content and watch it regularly. But this argument just doesn't hold water. The service is so wonderful that they had to make it a criminal offence not to be a subscriber? And surely an "independent" TV station would have to be one which is not completely controlled by the state.
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renjimen ◴[21 Oct 24 23:11 UTC] No.41909522[source]▶
It's only an offense if you watch live TV [1]. They could have just lumped it in with your taxes, like they do in many other countries with state TV, but this approach in theory lets you opt out, even if they like to check up on you all too regularly. I suppose one downside of the BBC approach is tax is usually proportional to your income, while the TV license fee is not, and in fact you need to pay it even if you have no income. We had great games of hiding our TV in the closet as students whenever the license people came down the street.

[1] https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/t...

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1. hypeatei ◴[22 Oct 24 00:50 UTC] No.41910119[source]▶
> hiding our TV in the closet as students whenever the license people came down the street

There are people going door-to-door to check TV licenses? Are they cops, what kind of power do they have? Seems extremely annoying and dystopian.

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2. ◴[22 Oct 24 05:36 UTC] No.41911491[source]▶
3. _Wintermute ◴[22 Oct 24 08:49 UTC] No.41912402[source]▶
They have zero power, it's just a man with a clipboard asking to have a look around your house, the correct response is to shut the door in their face.

They rely on a uniform and vague threatening language to trick people into thinking they have any authority.

4. Doxin ◴[22 Oct 24 09:09 UTC] No.41912509[source]▶
Not a UK citizen, but from previous discussions on the topic:

> There are people going door-to-door to check TV licenses?

yes

> Are they cops?

no

> what kind of power do they have?

none. I mean write you a fine if you admit to illegally watching TV I guess. But as far as I've been told you can have the TV on and visible to the guy and go "nah that's an aquarium" and be fine.