BB...ah I C (TV Licence)

Member Name: babajane32

Product:	TV Licence
Date:	03/12/03 (2720 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: BBC?

Disadvantages: Poor value for money, Possibly against our rights, A government scam?

I was so pleased to find this catagory.
Why?...because I get outraged on a daily basis about this darn liberty that government forces down our throats!!
You may already be picking up vibes about my feelings on this matter,but please read on,the concept of it does have a few merrits.

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What is the tv license?

I find this question very hard to answer fully,although basically it is a license that permits us to watch or recieve BBC television programs.I have searched extensively for a specific definition,both on the net and in a host of books.What I do find are endless statements outlining why we need one,what will happen if we don'thave one or how much they cost.Even prolonged and continuos searching of the BBC home website has failed to yield details about what exactly it is.
It has to be paid for on an annual basis and provides the basic revinue for the BBC.The basic idea being that it enables the BBC to remain free from advertising.

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Why would I want or need one?

Because you want to watch tv is the basic answer,but to elaborate and stick to more factual information the statement that the BBC issues and I believe is the legal statement/requirement for the need of the lisence reads -
Using television receiving equipment to receive or record broadcast television programmes without the correct licence is a criminal offence.
You could therefore face prosecution and a hefty fine of up to £1,000.
However,it does not elaborate as to whether this includes non-BBC programs or not.

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The cost and paying for my tv license -

Currently a colour TV License costs you £116.00 and a black and white TV Licence £38.50.There is a small reduction though if you are registered blind.
Payment can either be by outright payment.Direct debit (on a monthly or quarterly basis),or by payment card on a weekl
y/fourtnightly basis.
Each household's license fee cost under 30p a day for all BBC services - but that may depend on whether your standard tv/video/audio equipment has the means to receive all the available services.
This years rate is noteably higher than the last due to an above-inflation licence fee increase.

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A few extra facts and info about users,abusers and how the BBC tell the difference -

On average people spent nearly 20 hours a week with the BBC - over a fifth of their leisure time and 40% of their viewing and listening.
BBC services were used by 93% of the UK population and overall approval of the BBC continued to rise.If you use or install television receiving equipment to receive or record television programme services you are required by law to have a valid TV Licence.
The BBC has various means of detecting abusers,including mobile vans,hand held scanners (these two monitor frequncy waves to do with transmission/reception),and information gathering on equipment owners.
The Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967 (as amended) requires any dealer who sells or rents TV receiving equipment (whether the equipment is new or second-hand) to notify TV Licensing within 28 days of each transaction, giving full details of the buyer or renter.
Don't forget this also includes:

Computers fitted with electronic broadcast cards (TV Cards).

TV Cards themselves.

Set-top boxes.

Failure to do so may mean a £1,000 fine per offence.

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The potential -

Ok,so we have a system that says..watch the BBC and pay for it.For this you do not have to have endless commercials and advertising rammed down your throat.
The government makes a few bucks off the profits and there's money to put into producing the programs and films.

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The problems -

No advertising? That
has got to be the biggest joke!! They can advertise their own tv guides,and how often to we blatently see strategically placed boxes of cornflakes or Nescafe jars?Depite supposedly rigorous checks by a monitoring body to make sure these things don't happen.there is plenty of advertising obvious.
How many BBC channels are there? Quite a few,however most of us don't have digital tv's or the set top boxes to veiw and recieve them on.We of course can pay a heap load of extra cash for the privalledge or recieve it with out sky/sattelite package that again we pay heavily for.Many of these products incidentally make money for the BBC on thier sale.Also I'd be interested to know how much the satellite companies pay for the hundreds of BBC re-run programms that they constantly replay.
It's also notable that in many foreign countries BBC 3+ can be recieved at no charge, yet at home on terrestial tv we simply cannot recieve them without sattelite, or additional expensive set top boxes.
I buy a tv..I dont want BBC,I don't watch BBC,in fact all I watch is the videos I bought for £10+ a throw..many of them produced in the past by the BBC,thus some of my £10 has already gone into their coffers!! I still have to have a TV lisence!! I am not technically breaking the law,as I am not watching or recieving the BBC services,but if they come to my home and check...find my tv working (regardless of what it is tuned in to)..well then it's hiya missus...we're taking you to court!!
The worst thing is,that the court will find me guilty!!.If I have an uninsured car on my property I am commiting no crime until I actually drive it on the roads....aren't I?
It is also worth knowing that a fine related to no TV license is a unit fine.It is made up of units,thismeans the normal fine/custodial rules don't apply in the same way.For example;if I owed £195 to a court for a fine,then I could go to prison for up to a maximum of a week,thus end
ing the fine.With the tv fine...well there is no maximum...they could make the custodial sentance as long as they like and I'd still owe the money!! It's a potientially lesser and cheaper sentance to rob a bank!!
The quality of what we are paying for is to say the least dubvious.There's one heck of a lot of revinue from the payment of lisences,yet I haven't ssen much worth watching on my BBC channels lately,but then their income is gaurenteed,unlike other companies who have to attract funding by proving their ratings.
I could go on,the problems are endless and the system flawed to the exreme,but surfice to say that there are some big questions about both the running,the legalities and the justice of such an enforced lisence.However I feel it unlikely that answers will be forth coming as long as the relevant parties continue to make so much dosh,and have no one to answer to.

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A final word -

I am convinced that there is a potential for this sytem,how ever it enforcement and inability to allow freedom of choice leads me to conclude it is niether fair or legal as it is now.Had I a heap of spare time and a wad of cash,then I would make it my project,my aim in life and my task to take on the BBC and government bullies and haul them through the court of human rights and any other court that might make a difference.I am convinced that this enforced license for something I may not use,nor wish to is and must be contravening my rights.I live in a country who's juditial system works on the need to prove guilt,and where guilt is the act,not the possibility of being able to commit it.Or maybe they'll be coming for me when I next go to make a sanwich..after all think of the things I could do with a butter knife!!

~ ~ Thanks for reading my moan for today ~ ~

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