I just saw somewhere that there is a 187 per year tax on TV's in the UK??? Is that per TV?

Sean in NC

I just saw somewhere that there is a 187 per year tax on TV's in the UK??? Is that per TV?

Per household. Is that 187 in USD? It's currently GBP116 for colour (less for B&W). The money goes to the BBC (or a lot of it does), financing advertisement-free national TV and radio. There used to be a corresponding radio tax, but that was done away with some time ago.

Peter

It's supposed to be per TV, but most people just pay per household, BUT the tax pays for the ENTIRE BBC, which is the most amazing value you could imagine:

TV:
BBC1
BBC2
BBC3
BBC4
CBEEBIES
CBBC
BBCNEWS24

RADIO:
RADIO 1
RADIO 2
RADIO 3
RADIO 4
5 LIVE
BBC6
BBC7
WORLD SERVICE
+ local services all over the UK

I pay Mr Murdoch £396.00 just so I can watch around 20 games of rugby a year.

Nope, per household. As a result you get 7 TV channels and a load of radio stations all without adverts. It funds the BBC who I might add are my employers so I think it's excellent value for money, I can't stand adverts.

Have a read of this

And they were the driving force behind DAB (digital radio) in Europe, amongst a lot of other things.

they were the driving force behind DAB (digital radio) in Europe

They then proceeded to piss all over DAB cramming lots of extra stations onto their multiplex by slashing their bitrates to unacceptable levels. When they launched DAB Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 were all broadcast at 192kbps or more (mp2). Nowadays my beloved BBC Radio 4 is down to 64kbps mono a lot of time time, so I don't use DAB

As far as I am concerned the BBC is incredibly good value, we are very lucky to have it.

P.S. the licence fee doesn't pay for the BBC Worldservice, that is paid for from the Foreign Office budget (about £200m a year).

The licence management is dealt with by TV Licensing which is separate to the BBC. If you *don't* have a licence they send vaguely threatening letters every now and then.

The attached letter was sent to our office a few weeks ago - I just retrieved it from the bin. You do not have to tell them if you don't have a TV and you do not need to let an inspector if they do not have a warrant. If they visit or call I will tell them that our rates are £60/hr + VAT!

The letters sent to private residences are quite a bit more forceful because they find it impossible to believe that some people can't live without a TV! I know of one personwho arrived home to find an inspector in their garden with their face pressed to the window. Needless to say they were ejected from the premises and told to go to court for a warrant if they wanted to have a look around!

Also, the law states that you need a licence if you own equipment capable of receiving television broadcasts and if it is ever used for that purpose. It has been ruled that a television that is not tuned to a broadcast signal and is used for other purposes (eg. prerecorded casettes or as a computer mointor) does not need a licence. Also, a TV card that is not set up to view TV broadcasts but is used as a webcam would also not require one.

Gareth

Taxes are just hidden more on American TV (if you subscribe to cable or satelite), but really give us less. Most if it probably stems from the dislike in our culture of "Goverment programs". The BBC is a great resource not only to the UK, but to the entire world, and honestly I don't believe it would exist like it does if the taxes didn't exist.

When I was at university they would do a blank mailing of everybody. What was amusing was that the cleaning cupboard would get a letter as well

They then proceeded to piss all over DAB cramming lots of extra stations onto their multiplex by slashing their bitrates to unacceptable levels. When they launched DAB Radio 1, 2, 3 and 4 were all broadcast at 192kbps or more (mp2). Nowadays my beloved BBC Radio 4 is down to 64kbps mono a lot of time time, so I don't use DAB

I love Radio 4, in fact it's the whole reason why I didn't buy an empeg car. I agree that the quality's not all that but if you want to record Radio 4 for later listening then DAB on your PC (Wavefinder or Modulartech PCI card) using dabbar (www.dabbar.co.uk) is heaven, can't do that with FM

Heh, do they still do the "TV detector vans" I've seen referenced or portrayed in certain old TV shows?

I seem to remember one featured prominently in a Dr. Who episode...

Heh, do they still do the "TV detector vans" I've seen referenced or portrayed in certain old TV shows?

Yeah but I've never seen one driving around. It's more a scare too really, though I'm sure they have a few real ones. I heard that somebody saw what appeared to be one but when the rear doors opened it was just a normal minibus. I also heard about one parked up outside a train station where they were handing out leaflets - it had a normal satelite dish on top!

They do have some real ones, and they also have little handheld detectors that let them walk right up to a flat and tell if one is being used inside. If an inspector used one of these and submitted a declaration to court it could be enough for a warrant.

An average of 40 women a year are jailed for non-payment, 398,000 households are "caught" without it and £146m is spent recovering the fees. Over 75's get the licence free which is pretty neat.

Gareth

> 40 women a year are jailed for non payment

Only women?

-brendan

To get decent TV in the U.S. you have to pay for cable so that's like 40$/month * 12 months = $480 and you still have to watch advertising. Put aside your american fear of taxes for a second and do the math and you will find the BBC and the TV tax would be a better value.

Heh, do they still do the "TV detector vans" I've seen referenced or portrayed in certain old TV shows?

It's alleged that they do, but as they have complete databases of (a) all households and (b) all TV licences, I expect they just subtract (b) from (a) and menace whoever's left over. They had a billboard campaign recently along the lines of "13 houses in Mill Road, Cambridge CB1, have no TV licence" (obviously with local streets to the various billboards round the country).

Peter

LOL

How exactly would a tv detector work anyway, we are talking about broadcast TV right? EMF leakage from the TV tube? How accurate could that be, could they know for sure it wasn't a computer monitor for instance?

EMF leakage from the TV tube?

Yep. That's how it's alleged to work. There's some complicated mumbo-jumbo (Patrick?) which means that, allegedly, they can even tell which channel you're watching.

You can detect the output of the local oscillator used in the tuner. The frequency the LO is set to depends on what channel you're watching.

The loony detector van, you mean... from the Ministry of Housinge ;-)

You can detect the output of the local oscillator used in the tuner. The frequency the LO is set to depends on what channel you're watching.

Is that the same for digital?

I would guess so. Digital terrestrial still needs an RF tuner. There is no way they can tell if you are watching satellite or cable though (unless you've got it connected via RF coax).

I hate commercials. And you guys say there are none on british television? What is the immigration policy?

Theres no commercials on the BBC channels, but theres commercials on ITV, Channel 4 and 5.

It should be noted that the quantity of commercials on those channels is far less than on US television. I attribute that to the fact that they do have to compete against channels with no commericals. I also think that this keeps the value of those commerical slots fairly high, and hence keeps the 'quality' of commercials reasonable.
The US appears to be in a viscious spiral of increasing quantities of commercials, and presumably lower commercial slot prices.

Apparently the majority of prosecutions result from inspectors knocking on doors during the times people are most likely to be watching TV - ie. when Coronation Street/Emmerdale/East Enders is on.

Ok, on the "40 women" thing - my source only mentioned them! I think the story was about discounting it for low-income households, and single mothers are usually the lowest of those.

Gareth

It should be noted that the quantity of commercials on those channels is far less than on US television

I would debate that. There are about half the number of breaks (typically one break during a 30 minute show) but the breaks are about twice as long. US breaks seem to almost always be over in two minutes where as UK breaks can easily last four. I guess this makes sense when the shows are made for US television (either imported or for export).

Rob

Actually, with the right gear you can see an image of what is being watched. A pretty poor image but, an image. Remember it takes some pretty high voltages to drive a CRT. Take the rf leakage from that, and a knowledge of television signal formats...

FWIW, primetime network TV shows usually have a runtime of about 25 minutes per half hour. Everything else has a runtime of 22 minutes per half hour.