TV licensing...

[mercalia]

Left to my own devices, I wouldn't bother with a telly, but my wife is something of a telly addict so there's no point paying for a licence if we can have one free. I suppose I do quite a bit of passive telly watching (cf passive smoking.)

AFAIK, there are no moves afoot to make it compulsory.

In Germany it is compulsory already, every household pays €200 pa approx even if one only has a radio
There are lots of good jobs in the 'Staatsfunk', National Broadcasters

yes I read they even go after people who just live there for a short time and take money from bank accounts if you refuse to pay up?

I cant see that happening here though. If the BBC/govt tried that i think you would find the yellow jackets on the streets

[Mick F]

Just thinking ...................

A TV Licence is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, and to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer. This could be on any device, including TVs, desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, games consoles, digital boxes, DVD, Blu-ray and VHS recorders.

What happens if you don't watch, but only listen? If you can't see, you can't watch.
I understand that blind people only get a 50% discount.

[rjb]

Just thinking ...................

A TV Licence is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, and to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer. This could be on any device, including TVs, desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, games consoles, digital boxes, DVD, Blu-ray and VHS recorders.

What happens if you don't watch, but only listen? If you can't see, you can't watch.
I understand that blind people only get a 50% discount.

Looks like your betamax is ok to record on, better get it down from the loft.

[Mick F]

Do profoundly deaf people get a 50% discount just like blind people?

Oh, sorry ........... the TVL is to WATCH telly, and listening or hearing is besides the point.

[al_yrpal]

A newspaper article today claimed that the Beeb is going to step up efforts to get the millions who dont pay to pay because of the expected loss of income from providing free licences to the over 75s. Capita are handling it.

So expect a blizzard of demands through the letterbox. Great for the wood burner

Al

[Mick F]

And another thing ..............

If you're over 75 and in perfect physical health, you get a free TVL.
If you're in your 20s or 30s and utterly blind, you only get 50% off.

Where's the fairness in that?

[[XAP]Bob]

Who said anything about fairness...

[philvantwo]

Why is Mick F bothered? He claims not to watch TV? Maybe he only listens to it

[mercalia]

Why is Mick F bothered? He claims not to watch TV? Maybe he only listens to it

Freeview radio dont need a license

[kwackers]

Why is Mick F bothered? He claims not to watch TV? Maybe he only listens to it

Not watching TV is his veganism. A badge of honour.

It's not really about anything else except letting us know.

[Mick F]

I raised the "blind" subject and the "watching" subject due to a conversation we were having with one of our daughters. She said she knows loads of people who don't have a TVL because if they watch anything at all, it's on a mobile device away from the home. She reckons it's the end of the line for it as it's completely unenforceable. It was nice to hear it from her completely unprompted by me.

I looked up the law on it, and found the word "watch".
Not "listen", but "watch" hence raising the anomaly of a blind person licence only getting 50% off, when in actual fact if they didn't pay, they wouldn't be breaking the law as they couldn't "watch".

[kwackers]

In the 'old' days when TV's were analogue you could of course listen to the audio using a radio.
AFAIK no license was required (unless you go even further back to when radio licenses existed).

Which suggests that it's the type of device that you pay a license on not how you experience it.

[Mick F]

Yes, in the 405 line VHF and 625 line UHF TV days, the audio was frequency modulated (FM) and the video amplitude modulated (AM) in one combined radio signal. You could indeed listen to either of them with the correct waveband radio. The video was just a buzz.
From memory, I think the audio and video elements of the combined signal were frequency separated so they didn't interfere with each other.

No doubt these digital days, you could do similar, but the equipment isn't readily available, to my knowledge, to decode the audio from the complete signal. Digital is probably still UHF as the analogue aerials will work with digital.

[merseymouth]

Hello all, With regards to blind persons using a tv to get audio only, yet having to pay for a TV License?
If I remember correctly it used to be possible to buy a squawk box that put out the audio part of a TV signal? So No TV, No License needed.
One thing that puzzles me is the quoted 50% discount for blind persons, I thought that the discount was considerably less?
Take us back to the old days - TV License, Radio License, Car Radio License or even a License if you took your Tranny in the rot box!
Hang the dodgers like MickF . MM

[Mick F]

One thing that puzzles me is the quoted 50% discount for blind persons, I thought that the discount was considerably less?

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if- ... aired-aud5
I think that they think, that if you're blind, you must live with a sighted person, or a sighted person could visit, so therefore the sighted people can watch your telly.