A post I did on Corrugated Soundbite's great blog:
I cancelled the telly tax sometime ago – I hardly watched TV as most of the stuff was abysmal, such as X-factor, Strictly Come Lap Dancing and other panem et circenses programs. As for the news, it was either sensationalised trivia, celebrity worship or in the case of the BBC, outright bias which had me reaching for the bendroflumethiazide.
If there are any programs I want to watch I either watch on demand or rent/buy the bluray DVDs. Being a geek, I have networked, using CAT6 cabling, the entire house and can stream media to any TV or PC in the house using NMTs.
Life is much better without TV, it’s more fulfilled and hours of your life are not simply wasted in silence watching angry soaps full of cliché repeating, angry chav-like actors. I like spending time reading debates on blogs, selecting online news from different countries for a wider perspective. Suddenly, news becomes more of a discussion than a one way stream of propaganda. It’s quite liberating.
Cancelling the licence is simple: one phone call, one cancelled direct debit, tear up the letters as they arrive and most importantly: one notice of “implied right of access denied for the following companies: Capita, TV Licensing and the BBC”.
The TV Licensing guy that eventually turned up at my place walked up my drive, read the notice, scratched his head, made a call on his mobile and went away, never to be seen again. And the letters suddenly stopped.
I know most people think you need a TV licence if you own a TV. That’s wrong, it’s any device used to receive live broadcast. You can use a laptop or a TV to view DVDs or other streamable material.
I know most people are worried that they may be caught. Put a notice up and ignore the TV Licence guys – they’re a private company and you can deny them right of access to your property. They are the ones infringing the law if they come up to your property.
They must obtain a warrant to enter your premises but they need to show the court proof that the occupier is watching live broadcast – this is an expensive route and if they have deceived the court in any way, they can be in big, big trouble both as an individual and a company. That is why warrants are extremely rare.
There are also no TV detector vans to catch you – they cross check their licence database with the address. The TV detector vans are empty hoaxes. No one to date has been prosecuted using a TV detector. Because they don’t exist, although the technology is feasible, it is cheaper for Capita to use the database and employ empty threats.
And there's absolutely no way they could stop me from watching live broadcasts using software on my PC using my network, should I choose to.
Like New Zealand, the licence fee will go eventually - it needs a critical mass of people to be aware of the above and then the cost of defending the licence fee becomes too great.
So, come on people, let's do it!
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Stopped paying mine a couple of years ago. I've never had anyone from TV Licencing come to the door, but two weeks after I had asked for and got a refund someone came and asked if I would like to sign up for Sky.
ReplyDeleteGeek
ReplyDeleteDo you mind if I nick this and post it on my - shared - blog?
Morg.
Go ahead!
ReplyDeleteTwisted Root - hi there - there is anecdotal evidence around suggesting that the TV Licensing salesman adopt various tricks at the door to let them in, such as market research questions cumulating in "and how many hours of TV do you watch?". Getting you to sign your confession can be just as underhand.
ReplyDeleteGolden rule is never let them in, never talk to them at the door. On my notice I also have "NO door to door selling" - kills two salesman with one stone, so to speak.
The "denied implied right of access" notice is the killer though - prevents any of the above nonesense outright.
after months of reading the biased- bbc blogsite. apart from all the benefits of not watching tv everyday, i am a lot calmer about the outrageous beeboid bias and happy that i am doing my bit by not contributing to them
ReplyDeletemphousehold
@meerapaul - absolutely.
ReplyDeleteI stopped paying when the Chinese Olympics were on as they sent about 400 people which was quite offensive. I've been trying to get my head around a viable subscription model but it's damdedly complex.
ReplyDeleteCount your selves lucky - in some countries the TV Company you pay your Licence to, still show adverts for hair care
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence
Britain is not the only country that has to pay a TV licence - ignorant fools
that's good i like reading your nice article thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"Britain is not the only country that has to pay a TV licence - ignorant fools".
I don't quite think that's the gist of this post somehow.
Likewise it could be argued that Ukrainians aren't the only ones who murder and eat their grandmothers, so that means it's mandatory for us all.
Why don't you do something about it instead of simply saying "we have to, so you have to!".
"...it’s any device used to receive live broadcast" I think that you will find it says "capable of recieving". Having said that I abandoned TV about 5 years ago, got the mender to remove the tuner from my old set (so it was incapable of recieving) and just used it as a monitor.
ReplyDeleteWith my current widescreen I have no contract with a satelite providor so my set is incapable of recieving.
I used to get a stream of begging lettrs from TV Licencing(to The Occupier) at my old address but none at all since I moved.
"Life is much better without TV, it’s more fulfilled and hours of your life are not simply wasted in silence watching angry soaps full of cliché repeating, angry chav-like actors. I like spending time reading debates on blogs, selecting online news from different countries for a wider perspective. Suddenly, news becomes more of a discussion than a one way stream of propaganda. It’s quite liberating.
"
Quite so.
35 years, and still going strong.
ReplyDelete