should tv licence be payable when analogue signal ends?

brightonman123

so, if you have an old (non freeview/digitised) box by the time the big swutcheroo comes along, i am thinking that as there is no signal to receive anymore, the need for a licence is debi=unked.

i am going to regret this when i sover upm for sure..

gazoakley

You already don't have to pay for a license if you don't use the TV for receiving actual broadcast services. I used to have a TV in halls for playing games and DVDs. Just ring up TV licensing, explain you no longer use the TV for receiving broadcast pictures and they'll stop bugging you to pay for another year. They'll probably ask you over the phone to ensure you keep the aerial lead disconnected and the TV not tuned to any channels (they did to me).

Hope you've sobered up lol :rotfl:

Andy_L

What gazoakly said :-)

Rock_Bottom

It's all a rip off anyway - if only we all knew the truth about how all the money is used there would be a riot. I read once that the BEEB owned a private jet, paid for by license fees, for all the top nobs use. :eek:

DatabaseError

brightonman123 wrote: »

so, if you have an old (non freeview/digitised) box by the time the big swutcheroo comes along, i am thinking that as there is no signal to receive anymore, the need for a licence is debi=unked.

i am going to regret this when i sover upm for sure..

you sober yet? if you still want to watch telly, you'll need a digital receiver of some kind (as you know) and then you should pay.
plan b, stick with the analogue telly, just use it to watch videos and dvds, should be no licence payable

Coveredinbees!!!!

How's the hang over?

storminbalder

Rock_Bottom wrote: »

It's all a rip off anyway - if only we all knew the truth about how all the money is used there would be a riot. I read once that the BEEB owned a private jet, paid for by license fees, for all the top nobs use. :eek:

A lot of people say that and then happilly hand over 5 times the amount to Rupert Murdoch for hundreds of channels of repeats (which were produced by the Beeb anyhow) and other rubbish. It's bonkers!

I persobnally think the license fee is far too low. I would happily sell my house and all my belongings just to help the BBC.

PROLIANT

storminbalder wrote: »

I persobnally think the license fee is far too low. I would happily sell my house and all my belongings just to help the BBC.

You are seriously off your pickle wor kid, you are joking right? :rolleyes:

rmg1

AFAIK, the rule is that you watch TV channels, it because the equipment is capable of
receiving the channels.
The rule used to be, if you have a B&W TV and a separate video recorder/player, you still needed a colour licence as the video was capable of playing colour pictures.

Nilrem

The digital broadcast is still a signal, so it's still covered under the existing rules if you've got any device still receiving a signal it can use - it's the same reason that if you've got no terrestrial aerial fitted but are using Sky or Cable you still need the licence.

You don't need the licence if you've got no devices receiving a usable signal - IE you've not got any aerial, cable or satellite receivers in use.
So if all you do is watch DVD's and use it for the games systems you're fine without a licence at the moment.

Personally I'm more than happy to pay the licence fee, as the BBC is the only one of the UK broadcasters who invests heavily in new material, especially material that doesn't have massive appeal for the people the advertisers like (proper science stuff).

The likes of Sky and VM's channels either buy in most of their content from abroad, use archive/back catalogue content from the older broadcasters (the BBC's stuff especially), and what new content they do commission tends to be low quality high popularity stuff "worlds wildest nights out in the Algarves", and the other terrestrial commercial broadcasters seem to be trying to get out of the terms of their broadcast licences as adhering to them costs them money and advertisers.

I guess what i'm saying is, that I suspect without the BBC acting as a baseline for UK broadcasting we'll see very little new UK content, and certainly a decline in the quality and breadth of what is made.

Blue_Fairy_3

I'm pretty certain we'll all have to carry on paying the licence fee, even if the current rules didn't cover digital signal, I'm sure they'll change it!

Silly question, but if you just watched tv programes on your computer/laptop (eg. on iplayer, 4OD) do you still have to pay the licence fee? I'm sure I read somewhere when the beeb first launched i-player, that they couldn't charge the licence fee for it as the programmes weren't being broadcast live, they are downloads. (Although I'm sure they will have modified the rules for this also, even if it was true!)