Americans, Canadians do you have a law in your country

[waichingliu81]

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

[Zoneboy]

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

[waichingliu81]

Originally Posted by Zoneboy

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 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

[Zebra 3]

There's no TV license in Canada. The CBC and SRC are funded by the gov't and traditional advertising.

[Lex Luthor]

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

[theshark8777]

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.

[waichingliu81]

Originally Posted by Lex Luthor

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.

[coffield3]

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

[Mikado]

Originally Posted by coffield3

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

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.

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by Mikado

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.

[TJL]

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.

[coffield3]

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

[Mikado]

Originally Posted by coffield3

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

Nope

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by coffield3

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

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

[Dr. Thong]

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.