| Product: |
TV Licence |
| Date: |
15/08/00 (26 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: none
Disadvantages: Expensive and pretty pointless. A rip-off, in fact.
One of the things that most foreigners find increasingly amusing is how we pay a "TV tax" (I know that it isn't one as such, but it's the easiest way to explain it to outsiders). I mean, you already pay your TV service, if you have cable or digital or whatever, so why pay AGAIN?
My reasoning, however flawed, is that I already pay ntl for my cable service, which includes BBC in the mix. Why do I then have to pay the BBC again for the same stuff I already pay ntl for? That the BBC is part of the package I get with my cable company is not my fault, no more than I am at fault for getting Sky One or The Disney Channel or whatever. I simply chose a package out of the ones put together by ntl, so THEY put it in. If the BBC wanted to create the distinction between paying the License and paying for cable, then it shouldn't be a part of the cable package.
Anyway, the BBC usually is pretty bad so we hardly ever watch it. I had the impression (being foreign) that the BBC was this incredibly fantastic TV channel that the world looked up to, and that it was kept commercial-free thanks to licenses that the viewers pay. Now that I can actually watch the BBC I think that this is over-hyped and the BBC has some real bad stuff on it, some real boring shows and non-funny comedy.
Not only that, but it has no commercial breaks: no chances to do some dishes, go to the bathroom, call my mom, do some chores or whatever. If I do decide to watch something on the BBC (like The Simpsons reruns) I have to sit there the whole time with no breaks. This, they tell me, is an advantage of paying my license.
Well, I'd rather have the commercials than pay the license for such bad programming anyway. In the very least I can get some dishes done.
Summary:
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Last comments:
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- 25/08/00 ps, what do you mean you don't like Chespirito?? |
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- 25/08/00 Sorry bout the Spanish, don't get enough chance to practice but that's another story...I don't watch much television, so I'm not necessarily championing it, but I do hate the way most things are now being chopped up into bite-size portions because people can't concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time. It is a worrying trend, and unfortunately more and more of our kids will grow up with Playstations in their hands and commercials on their brains. What a beautiful world! |
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- 25/08/00 Dantes: if there is another television that I think is even worse than the BBC is Mexican television... yuk! I must say that the BBC is much, much better than that, of course. At least you are not over-saturated with kitsch telenovelas and I won't even GO there regarding Chespirito (strangely, the most popular TV show in Latin america, according to my Mass Media teachers). TV shows (some) can be considered a work of art, like movies, but I make that case of some commercials as well!
I guess it all has to do with the needs that TV satisfies: in me, it is a mild entertainment medium (I prefer to read, to be quite honest, and the movies) while for other people, maybe yourself, TV is a more sophisticated media that provides you with artistic fulfillment. Either way, I get your point. I think I am also VERY used to US television with commercial breaks, so this is what I prefer. I also thought I'd write in English so that everyone can benefit from this... |
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