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Please do not write below the line

(www.bbctvlicence.com)
362 points dcminter | 2 comments | 21 Oct 24 18:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.419s | 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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1. umanwizard ◴[22 Oct 24 14:00 UTC] No.41914369[source]▶
It’s not a criminal offense not to be a subscriber… it’s a criminal offense to pirate their content without being a subscriber.
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2. chihuahua ◴[23 Oct 24 18:24 UTC] No.41927881[source]▶
Pretty much the same as using Cable TV or Satellite TV without paying for a subscription. I don't see much difference between paying the BBC and paying Comcast.

In the case of Satellite TV, in the 1990s there were companies that sold decoder boxes so you could use a dish antenna without paying the Satellite TV company. You'd pay the pirating company instead. Lots of cat-and-mouse games involving changing encryption methods.