UK TV Licensing: What You Need to Know

[nitsuj]

I was reading a BBC News article about living on the cheap.

It mentioned the cost of a television license.

Tried to google and it looks like it's literal. To watch TV (own a TV)in the UK you need a license.

Does that include the "cable package" or something?

I must not understand this correctly, it's seems strange to me.

 

[Jonathan Scott]

In the UK, you need a TV license to watch or record TV at the same time as it is being broadcast on conventional TV channels in the UK or Channel Islands (regardless of whether the device is actually a TV or something else). This helps fund the BBC, but it applies to all channels.

For more details, see here: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/

 

[nitsuj]

Ah now it makes sense how BBC can be of such high quality, our Canadian equivalent is CBC.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

There's a wiki page on it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom

The essential rationale is to raise money for public media so that they can remain impartial rather than having to resort to sensationalism/partiality in order to attract profit. That's the theory anyway.

 

[nitsuj]

Yea at first I was taken back by it, thinking it seemed cruel & unusual.

But it actually seems like a great model.

 

[Danger]

Ah now it makes sense how BBC can be of such high quality, our Canadian equivalent is CBC.

I'm pretty sure that my mother spoke of requiring a radio license here in Canada back in the inter-war times (around 1920-1945). It wasn't likely for quality, though. Probably to help recover the cost of the first war (which is why income tax is illegal; that was its only mandated purpose, and it was supposed to have been eradicated when such had been achieved).