Comments on: Did you know: The UK TV tax, and TV Detector Vans

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:40:44 +0000

Here in Australia we Don’t pay any TV tax to watch any free to air, We recieve the ABC1, ABC2, ABC3 in Digital Quality for Free. If the government tried to introduce a tax such as this there would be anarchy. I can recieve around 30 free to air digital channels where I am, and they are introducing another 15 (about time), I think it is crazy you need to pay a tax to watch free to air, and that the retailer will pass your details on when you buy a new set, You may defend this if you are used to it, and you may agreee to this money runnig the BBC, but there should be another way of funding this. In AUS the ABC is funded by the government and indirectly by our taxes, which I don’t have a problem as they produce some very good programs, We have free Radio / TV (ABC1, 2, 3, Triple J) stations which cover the entire country, Although I would object to paying another tax on top specifically for this. It is interesting that our Pay TV has commercials on it, this is crazy as you pay to NOT see these, this is partly why Pay TV takeup has been very poor in AUS.

By: Abolish_BBC_Tax

Abolish_BBC_Tax — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:15:14 +0000

£2,500,000,000 (US $4,000,000,000) BBC tax is paid by 30m tv owners in the UK. Hundreds of other media outlets compete without annual government controlled BBC tax and subsidies. There is nothings special about the BBC which is nothing more than a UK government mouth-organ, racist and excludes visible ethnic minorities from top key decision making processes. The illogical BBC tax must be abolished, and the BBC privatised. Just like hundreds of commercial tv channels, radio stations and the print media, BBC must be made to earn from ad-spend in the real world. Commercial media outlets must not be fear BBC claims of losing ad-spend and marketshare.

By: mark conover

mark conover — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:51:09 +0000

you could always do a sort of boston TV party thing its worked in the past……

By: me

me — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:14:12 +0000

in Germany and Switzerland, you also have to do this. The Taxes are been set up to fund the non-advertise-financed television and radio stations that are maintained to inform the public with reliable and more or less secured information, news and (cleaner) entertainment.

By: Al

Al — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 22:18:54 +0000

DANNY.

I would advise you to take a look at http://www.magic1170.com/tvl.htm

and the links from that page. It should answer some of your questions.

Also download the PDF File, VERY interesting.

By: danny

danny — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 15:48:05 +0000

I’m not a great fan of the ‘idiot box’ but i own a t.v, only to watch DVD’s and play my games console every once in a while, even though i have no aerial i am still constantly harrased and looked at as a criminal by the TVL. Ontop of that, some east-end looking thug can turn up on my doorstep anytime of the day/night and demand to be let into the house and have a look around. Surely this is not legal.
As i live with 7 other people he would have to constantly come round playing a hit and miss game with the house because its rare to find everyone is in the house all together. This means more intimidating letters.
So if i do let him in where does it stop, is he allowed to look into my wardrobe, my car boot, our garage??
And when he does turn up can he stick in an areial he probably carrys with him into my T.V do a quick tune up and say ”there you go, you just watched abit of t.v”
For real law abiding citizens, it is a worry, especially for women who live alone and elderly people.
The Rules are not clear!!!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:54:08 +0000

Also as a person who pays their tv lincense ( which you need to watch any television, not jsut the BBCs output) i am happy that they try to make sure anyone who is watching tv is paying one. If there was no tactics to make sure people would pay, far less people would. Which would kill off the BBC and also would leave a massive hole in the British media.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:46:55 +0000

I am sure one day these Tv linceses will become outdated and a new system will come in place. But for now the BBC is a “apolitical” corporation that is used throught the world as a source of relable news. It doesnt have advert breaks every 5 minutes, and the BBC is at the forefront of the british media, creating some of the best programs radioshows etc. To say its another movement towards a Big Brother culture is slightly untrue because Tv licensing started around 1946 when it was combined with the Radio lincense which was introduced in 1922 when radio started.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:21:52 +0000

It is about #131 for a colour and #44 for a black and white television licence. The BBC does not have the right to levy fees or taxes on television viewers but have a mandate from the governement to be paid fees.The fees are collected by the TV Licensing Authority who have a database of every person in a UK household (EOE).

If you buy a new television from the shop, they are required to register it and the Licensing authority sends you a demand for License payment. You cannot buy one without giving your name and address for registration. It is also a criminal offense if the shop does not notify the TV Licensing authority of your details within 28 days. If you are registered blind you will only have to pay half price, fat lot a good that is….

More on the License itself. The colour license not only has to be paid for a television. It must also be paid if you own a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a satellite receiver (or even just a satellite dish), a video player or a PC receiver card, but you only have to pay once. One license covers all devices in the household. If you own any of these devices regardless of if it is functional or not, it is an automatic requirement to purchase a colour license. Even if you do not have a television in the house but own one of the devices… you still have to pay the full price as if you had a colour tele. you can’t use the excuse that the device is not functional either, the law says”as long as the device is able to receive colour television signals.

You have to renew the license once every year.

If you move to another residence you have to have the registration changed otherwise it is completely invalid even if you just bought it yesterday. If the EVIL investigators come and detect you are using a television and you do not want to show them your license or cannot find it, it’s off to court with you. It’s just the same to them if you do not have one or cannot find it. upon conviction from the Magistrates Court you will have to pay #1000

The periodically come around with detection vans which are pretty accurate unless you run a lot of computers.I found that Sun 2 workstations cause a tremendous amount of interference with their vans even though they are operating within their allowed frequency emission ranges. Moreover, it is a criminal offence to watch a television in your home without a license for it.

Oh, and the Police have direct access to their database and are able to grab what-ever private information they want from it.

By: john

john — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:56:43 +0000

alot of your replys are confusing and inaccurate.I live in the uk and here is the truth.
1 – if you have a tv and is connected to recieve a broadcasting channel you need a licence no matter what channel you are recieving…….it is as asimple as that!!!!!
2- reason – bbc has no commercila adverts.
3 – bbc must answerable for the quality of its programs to the public (it needs to produce quality programs to justify tv licencing price increases).
4 – price for a 12 month licence is £131.50 (£1 = $1.83)
5 – You only pay for one licence per a household NOT PER A TV.