which stipulates that it is illegal to watch and own a television without a licence? because where i am from in the UK, and stupid as it sounds and it is, everybody who watches tv on their tv set or through the internet have to pay for it and anybody who does not comply with this end up with a fine, and even end up in jail and with a criminal record. people have to pay for the tv licence every year, which is disgusting. i very much doubt that you folks living in north america have something similiar on the lines of this, at least the US and canada are free countries unlike here in the UK

That's beyond ridiculous & we have no such law here in the U.S.

That's beyond ridiculous & we have no such law here in the U.S.

its disgraceful and the thing is the television licence fee pays for the people working at the BBC- one of the world's most recognised media corporations in the world- and get this, because the funding usually comes from advertising revenue and sponsorship deals, the BBC does not have commercials or advertising so therefore, the money that they do make comes from charging people- ordinary working people- out of their pockets by taxing us and making us pay for the tv programmes and films we watch on bbc1 and 2. and yet around 99.9% of what they show is pure crap:mad: i know a lot of people, particuarly americans have raved about the bbc saying they make great programmes. but what you guys need to know is that those shows are funded, produced and shown on tv by means of using people's hard-earned money, and that is sick:mad:

There's no TV license in Canada. The CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/) and SRC (http://www.radio-canada.ca/index.shtml) are funded by the gov't and traditional advertising.

Are you billed by a cable company on top of the liscencing fee?

We do not have to have a license but we are billed mothly for any cable services. If you are caught "stealing cable" i.e spicing from someone else of buying illegal Sattelites then you can be fined or charged

I would pay for commercial free television.. You know like cable was when I was a kid... Now we pay for cable and it has commercials.

Are you billed by a cable company on top of the liscencing fee?

We do not have to have a license but we are billed mothly for any cable services. If you are caught "stealing cable" i.e spicing from someone else of buying illegal Sattelites then you can be fined or charged

no, the licence is a separate thing altogether and thus it is made legal by the UK government. however, the tv licence covers all tv- be it on the internet, tv, cable, satalite. the only exceptions to this obscene rule are hand held tvs.


The culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, has announced another outrageous increase in the licence fee. This follows a completely phoney so-called consultation on the licence fee, which has utterly ignored viewers and listeners.

We can reveal that the BBC’s own research shows that far from considering the BBC good value for money, 58 per cent of viewers WOULD PAY NOTHING FOR IT, IF THEY HAD THE CHOICE. Read the BBC’s report here [PDF file, 4.8Mb].

Under Jowell’s latest hand out to the BBC, viewers of any television station may go to prison if they do not pay the £131.50 tax to the BBC. The BBC board is appointed by the government and its income is controlled by the government, making its claims to independence ridiculous.

The fee, recently reclassified as a tax by the National Statistics Office, is monopolised by the BBC, which uses the proceeds to launch services for which there is no public demand. The BBC unfairly monopolises broadcasting spectrum and unfairly launches products subsidised by the licence fee tax in competition with independent ventures.

Thousands of people are prosecuted every week for not having a licence. Most of them are poor and they are typically female and single mothers. An average fine of £150 is increased for subsequent offences and can escalate to prison sentences (usually of young women) of those who are unable to pay their fines.

As the BBC launches another hateful, intimidating advertising campaign intended to scare people into paying up, and claims the right to conduct electronic surveillance without a search warrant to generate further prosecutions, it is censoring from its own airwaves the crucial debate on the future of public broadcasting in Britain. It is not surprising the BBC must resort to threats, to make people pay.

The latest above-inflation, 4.2 per cent increase in the licence fee is only the starter. The licence fee will rise to £200 by the end of a new 10-year settlement.

We get done over in the uk! tax on everything what next? taxed for breathing? :mad:

We get done over in the uk! tax on everything what next? taxed for breathing? :mad:
Well, its pretty much the same here in Canada, excpet that radio and TV licenses are long gone.....still, it beats paying low taxes, and having bridges come down. Tax revolts are nice in the short term, but, not in the long term.

Well, its pretty much the same here in Canada, excpet that radio and TV licenses are long gone.....still, it beats paying low taxes, and having bridges come down. Tax revolts are nice in the short term, but, not in the long term.


Except that part of our regular taxes go into supporting the CBC, aside form hockey or Olympic coverage the CBC has nothing I want to watch.

As stated already, we don't pay for a license, but since most of us recieve a whopping cable bill every month, we're not exactly getting "free" TV either.

The last time I remember having "free TV" was when I was in grade school.

;)

So dont you guys have to pay for regular tv then?:confused:

So dont you guys have to pay for regular tv then?:confused:
Nope

So dont you guys have to pay for regular tv then?:confused:

We can get 2 channels where I am without having to go to a cable company. After that we pay

Technically, TV in America is free, but you will only get a few channels at best going that route with a regular TV antenna.

In order to get more channels, you have to go with cable in some form and overpay for it. I think cable is the biggest ripoff, given the quality and quantity of shows on it.

Try finding something worth watching on the weekend. With nearly 60 years' worth of TV programming and all the channels cable provides, you'd think so many great choices would be available, but they're not. You see the same movies and shows rerun ad infinitum.

I don't have digital cable nor do I subscribe to a premium movie service like HBO or Showtime, because after a couple of months, they start showing the same stuff over and over again too.

I want to move to the usa!!!

All we can get here over-the-air (via free transmission) where *I* live is a PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) affiliate and a CW affiliate. I live in a remote area. In most cities, all six major broadcast networks have an affiliate broadcasting free over-the-air, plus anywhere from 1 to 20 independent stations broadcasting over the air.

Channels such as Discovery, TV Land, Nickelodeon, MTV, etc - aren't available over-the-air for free unless you purchase a special type of extremely large satellite dish, in which you pay a one-off charge for the equipment, and then you can receive whatever channels the dish can pick up. (Many of these channels are switching to a transmission method that cannot be broadcast by these larger dishes due to encryption. This is legal, as only the over-the-air broadcast stations are required to transmit freely by the sanctioning body in charge of television (the FCC) in the US).


Otherwise, you have to pay a cable or direct broadcast satellite company to provide the channels to you. Fees range from USD$20 to USD$150, depending upon the level of service provided, as well as where I'm located. This varies as in most places, cable operators have exclusive contracts with the cities they serve. As such, in most places, there's only 1 cable operator to select from, in addition to the 2 DBS providers, who are available nationwide.

After that, I have to either pay a service fee - which varies depending on whether I choose a cable or satellite company for the channels. (Usually, each city only has one cable television service provider [Example: Comcast, Insight, Time Warner, etc.]

I want to move to the usa!!!

And I want to move...well, *I* want to move to Australia, so that's a bit of a problem. If we could find an Australian to move where you live, we could all trade locations. :lol:

And I want to move...well, *I* want to move to Australia, so that's a bit of a problem. If we could find an Australian to move where you live, we could all trade locations. :lol:

Yes! all trade places! hehe! :lol:

Well, its pretty much the same here in Canada, excpet that radio and TV licenses are long gone.....still, it beats paying low taxes, and having bridges come down. Tax revolts are nice in the short term, but, not in the long term.
The problem isn't low taxes... it's money going where it shouldn't. For instance, the $5 billion per year in California alone for benefits to illegal aliens.

The problem isn't low taxes... it's money going where it shouldn't. For instance, the $5 billion per year in California alone for benefits to illegal aliens.
ill agree half way, that sometimes tax money is missused, however, when the tax base is low, infrastructure is sure to crumble.

As stated already, we don't pay for a license, but since most of us recieve a whopping cable bill every month, we're not exactly getting "free" TV either.

The last time I remember having "free TV" was when I was in grade school.

;)
Yep, same here. 13 channels. 3 Networks (ABC, CBS and NBC); PBS (public broadcasting station); two local channels (out of Los Angeles); one spanish language and the other showed the weather and the time. :crazy:

when we had the Tower antenna , we got CBC, CTV, the three American networks & PBS ( out of Buffalo ) 3 or 4 independants and TVO.....now we have about 60 channels on cable, and half the time , theres nothing on! :lol:

Except that part of our regular taxes go into supporting the CBC, aside form hockey or Olympic coverage the CBC has nothing I want to watch.
The CBC's Hockey Night in Canada (http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=Hockey+Night+in+Canada) is excellent and their Olympic coverage is better than anything the US networks NBC or CBS have to offer.

I also watch the CBC for news, movies, documentaries and sometimes shows like The Fifth Estate (http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=the+fifth+estate), Marketplace (http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=Marketplace) and The Rick Mercer Report (http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=Rick+Mercer+Report).

The CBC's Hockey Night in Canada (http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=Hockey+Night+in+Canada) is excellent and their Olympic coverage is better than anything the US networks NBC or CBS have to offer.
Agreed 100%............its a real shame that CTV will be doing the Olympics after the upcoming winter games :(
( Americans might appreciate hockey more if they saw the way CBC covers it!)

when we had the Tower antenna , we got CBC, CTV, the three American networks & PBS ( out of Buffalo ) 3 or 4 independants and TVO.....now we have about 60 channels on cable, and half the time , theres nothing on! :lol:

TVO scares me... I cant wait to watch it next week :lol:

Yep, same here. 13 channels. 3 Networks (ABC, CBS and NBC); PBS (public broadcasting station); two local channels (out of Los Angeles); one spanish language and the other showed the weather and the time. :crazy:

:lol:

Yes! And in my house one TV always had a broken knob so we had to use a pair of pliers to change channels.

Thank God cable came along and saved us from the agony!

;)

The problem isn't low taxes... it's money going where it shouldn't. For instance, the $5 billion per year in California alone for benefits to illegal aliens.

California should be spun off into its own country.

ill agree half way, that sometimes tax money is missused, however, when the tax base is low, infrastructure is sure to crumble.
What low tax base? And tax money isn't "sometimes" misused, it's frequently misused.

California should be spun off into its own country.
Illegals are in every state, it's just that California has more of them than any other state.
I think the illegals should be spun off back into Mexico instead of giving up California.

Are you billed by a cable company on top of the liscencing fee?

We do not have to have a license but we are billed mothly for any cable services. If you are caught "stealing cable" i.e spicing from someone else of buying illegal Sattelites then you can be fined or chargedCool. I'm always looking for an excuse to report the neighbours. :lol:

Joking, I just had to say that.

when we had the Tower antenna , we got CBC, CTV, the three American networks & PBS ( out of Buffalo ) 3 or 4 independants and TVO.....now we have about 60 channels on cable, and half the time , theres nothing on! Wow. I got 2 channels (NTV (http://www.ntv.ca) and CBC (http://www.cbc.ca)) when we had the antenna thing. CBC sucks and NTV... well, sucked, so I never watched TV. Now... for the past... 2-3 years I guess we've had satellite with 200+ channels. :lol:

And there's still nothing on.