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Is it almost the end for black and white televisions? Just 11,500 households still have licenseā€¦(UK)
Mail on Sunday (UK) ^ | 13:38 EST, 5 January 2014 | Chris Brooke

Posted on 01/05/2014 6:38:42 PM PST by Olog-hai

They are generally regarded as historic relics and part of a bygone era of broadcasting history. But even in today’s digital age, there are 11,550 households in the country still watching black and white television, official figures reveal.

The number of black and white licenses have dropped dramatically in recent years and the total has decreased by a further 12 percent over the past year. […]

The cost of a black and white TV license remains frozen at £49 ($80.37) until the BBC Charter Review in 2016. A color license costs £145.50 ($238.65). …

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: blackandwhitetv; colortv; socialism; tax; theend; tvlicense; tvtax
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear
They tax EVERYTHING in GB. You wouldn’t believe the cost of a pint of bitter and a pack of smokes.

Tell me about it. I lived there for a year in the late eighties. The cost of living was about 1/3 more than it cost me to live in Los Angeles.

101 posted on 01/05/2014 11:42:02 PM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: dalereed
I don’t know anyone that didn’t have a color TV by the mid 60s.

Lots of working class folks couldn't afford to upgrade to color TV until the mid seventies. My family was one of them.

102 posted on 01/05/2014 11:53:56 PM PST by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

Not a fairy tale.

LO leakage from the TV can be received from outside the home. The LO leakage frequency indicates what channel the TV is tuned to. It would get difficult identifying the specific room in high density housing but hey, they don’t need a warrant and can go door to door to investigate...


103 posted on 01/06/2014 12:23:17 AM PST by DB
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To: bobby.223

Adjust the vertical for a rolling picture...

Fixed TV’s when I was a kid...


104 posted on 01/06/2014 12:25:22 AM PST by DB
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To: manforallseasons; Gay State Conservative; Olog-hai
I was astounded by the fact that you need to have some sort of “license” to operate a television set in England. That part of the story is mind-boggling. How long has this been going on?

It's been going on ever since it was introduced by the Conservative government in 1922 - originally for radio, and the same system subsequently transferred to TV.

At the time of its introduction, it didn't seem strange at all. Some means had to be found to fund the new medium's infrastructure, and advertising wasn't considered. The obvious model was the then still new medium of the telephone. You paid an annual fee to the General Post Office to rent a phone line. It seemed logical to charge a similar fee to rent the 'wireless' connection to a radio.

Despite the huge technical, cultural and economic changes in broadcasting since that time, regular reviews of the system have failed to come up with an alternative which doesn't seem to have just as many disadvantages: so the conclusion has always been, to misquote Churchill, 'it's the worst system for funding a public broadcasting service except all the others.'

The separate radio licence was abolished in the 1970s.

105 posted on 01/06/2014 1:16:21 AM PST by Winniesboy
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To: Olog-hai

License? What is this about a license? You have to PAY A LICENSE in the UK just to watch TV?!


106 posted on 01/06/2014 2:04:09 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: Fzob

they call it roku


107 posted on 01/06/2014 3:38:48 AM PST by Revelation 911
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To: Olog-hai

License = tax,probably obligatory except for free passes issued to privileged chosen ones . Government run TV just like Hitlers ministry.


108 posted on 01/06/2014 3:46:42 AM PST by Recompennation (Constitutional protection for all not ju st selectively for Democrats.)
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To: madison10

It’s not a license, it’s a TAX.


109 posted on 01/06/2014 3:56:59 AM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

>> they had vans that would detect if someone had a TV in their home.

Monty Python’s sketch —a man says he has a license for his pet cat and is told at the post office he doesn’t need one.

Cleese: The man from the cat detector van.

Palin: Looney detector van, you mean.

Cleese: It’s people like you what causes unrest...I never seen so many aerials in my life. The man told me their equipment could pinpoint a purr at 400 yards.
And Eric, being such a happy cat, was a piece of cake.


110 posted on 01/06/2014 5:39:13 AM PST by raccoonradio
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To: SoFloFreeper

Indeed had heard of radio-TV licenses in UK before. (Michael Palin, in one Monty Python moment: “And they want to put the license fee UP?”

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/
“Pay for your TV licence in a way that’s convenient to you.
Yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly...A TV licence costs 145.50 pounds.”

That’s a mere $238 US.


111 posted on 01/06/2014 5:42:52 AM PST by raccoonradio
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To: sickoflibs

Hell, we got cable TV in 1976 when it first came through. Dad didnt want to pay for us to go out to see movies anymore,


In the late 70s, a pal made a bootleg HBO receiver that included a snow/sled/saucer as the dish.


112 posted on 01/06/2014 7:56:49 AM PST by Atlas Sneezed
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To: madison10

That’s correct. What’s more you have to have a license for each TV. The government has vans equipped with electronic sensors that can determine where each TV is at. This info is compared with licenses issued to determine if a residence has an unlicensed TV. At one time you needed to have a separate license for each radio but that was dropped some years ago.


113 posted on 01/06/2014 8:01:17 AM PST by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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To: Atlas Sneezed
RE :”In the late 70s, a pal made a bootleg HBO receiver that included a snow/sled/saucer as the dish.”

Intercepting cable TV was pretty easy until cable went digital ~ mid 2000s.

There was a whole industry around receiver-converters that did that, and many premium channels could be unblocked with simple passive notch filters.(I knew people who did that)

Similar limits with wireless phones.

But those days are over,

114 posted on 01/06/2014 8:06:50 AM PST by sickoflibs (Obama : 'If you like your Doctor you can keep him, PERIOD! Don't believe the GOPs warnings')
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To: Olog-hai; GeronL

“License” a black and white television, but watch a color monitor.

The Obamavoters would RIOT if there was a tax on tee vee viewing/ownership.


115 posted on 01/06/2014 8:11:02 AM PST by a fool in paradise ("Health care is too important to be left to the government.")
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To: a fool in paradise

Funny there’s no reaction over the same thing with Obamacare. But then again, the low-info types reckon they’ve got it made with Medicaid . . .


116 posted on 01/06/2014 8:14:27 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: southernnorthcarolina

Just out of curiosity, what was the purpose of a test pattern?


117 posted on 01/06/2014 8:27:31 AM PST by ops33 (Senior Master Sergeant, USAF (Retired))
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To: Olog-hai

Holy moly. You need a license for a TV?


118 posted on 01/06/2014 9:08:21 AM PST by ataDude (Its like 1933, mixed with the Carter 70s, plus the books 1984 and Animal Farm, all at the same time.)
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To: Olog-hai
Couple of days late, but I knew about the 'telly' license thanks to The Young Ones.
119 posted on 01/06/2014 10:46:53 AM PST by real saxophonist (The revolution will not be televised. Everything else will.)
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To: DB

Right you are and thanks for the correction. Damn, it has been a few years since we had those old black and whites huh?!


120 posted on 01/06/2014 1:18:37 PM PST by bobby.223 (Retired up in the snowy mountains of the American Redoubt and it's a GREAT life!)
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