BBC host refuses to pay TV tax

[KBCraig]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7613938.stm


Edmonds begins TV licence boycott

Presenter Noel Edmonds has stopped paying his TV licence fee as he does not like the BBC's "threatening" manner towards those who evade the charge.

[Pat McCotter]

Information about licensing straight from the TV Licensing web site:
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp

[Pat McCotter]

TV detector vans

Our TV detector vans are equipped with state-of-the-art detection equipment which can tell in just 20 seconds whether you are using TV.   
   
How do the detector vans work?

Our vans feature a range of detection tools. Some aspects of the equipment have been developed in such secrecy that engineers working on specific detection methods work in isolation, so not even they know how the other detection methods work. This gives us the best chance of catching licence evaders.   
         
What if you can't get close enough to detect my TV from your van?

Our Enforcement Officers may use a hand-held detection device instead. This measures both the direction and the strength of a TV signal, making it easy for us to locate TV receiving equipment in even the hardest to reach places.


Supersonic detection

While visiting a property that was listed as not having a TV Licence, a woman answered the door together with some young children. The woman apologised for being in such a fluster and explained that she had just moved in and was on her way out to collect her other children from school.

The Enforcement Officer asked if she had managed to get a TV Licence sorted. She said she had and she knew exactly where it was - in a shoebox on top of the wardrobe in the upstairs front bedroom. She asked if he could call back later.

When he returned, the woman's husband answered the door. The Enforcement Officer asked if he could see the TV Licence. The man explained that they were in a bit of a state as they had just moved in and he didn't know where the licence was, his wife normally looked after that sort of thing.

At the exact moment that the officer explained that the licence was in a shoebox on top of the wardrobe in the upstairs front bedroom, a detector van drove past. "Flippin' heck," the man said, "I knew your detector vans were good but I didn't know they were that good."   
   

[doobie]

Ahhh the £139.50/year/tv tax, gotta love the UK!  Imagine if they taxed Americans for each telephone, tv, or car they owned.  We'd revolt!

[Porcupine_in_MA]

Ahhh the £139.50/year/tv tax, gotta love the UK!  Imagine if they taxed Americans for each telephone, tv, or car they owned.  We'd revolt!

Sadly, this is not so true anymore. Also, you are taxed on your car in a lot of places. If there was a tax on telephones and tvs, the way most Americans are now, they would just say "Oh that sucks" and go on paying it.

[David]

Ahhh the £139.50/year/tv tax, gotta love the UK!  Imagine if they taxed Americans for each telephone, tv, or car they owned.  We'd revolt!

Sadly, this is not so true anymore. Also, you are taxed on your car in a lot of places. If there was a tax on telephones and tvs, the way most Americans are now, they would just say "Oh that sucks" and go on paying it.

yup.

[les nessman]

  I think we will see the same thing here as the next step ahead of digital tv.  I also expect them to use DRM (digital rights management)
so if a story is somehow aired which isnt politically correct they will revoke the ability of average people to copy and reproduce it without their
say so.  I am thankful I have now gone three years without a tv set.

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5Oisu9xPA

[J’raxis 270145]

  I think we will see the same thing here as the next step ahead of digital tv.  I also expect them to use DRM (digital rights management)
so if a story is somehow aired which isnt politically correct they will revoke the ability of average people to copy and reproduce it without their
say so.  I am thankful I have now gone three years without a tv set.

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5Oisu9xPA

Indeed, in the U.S., we probably won't ever see a direct "tax" of this sort: Instead, private corporations will be are already granted monopoly privileges by the government, who will in turn overcharge for their services, and then pay fees bribes to the government for such monopoly privileges.

This is what makes the U.S. a "free market."

[SamIam]

Come on guys, this is just a friendly little tax. . .