Reasons not to pay your TV licence

Class.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqG4ysu2ksU[/video]

Someone refused to pay me for something last week.

Emergency ‘operation for a ruptured colon’ apparently. They never just change their mind or have no money do they?!

Who remembers the TV “detector” vans.

Apparently they could detect if you were watching TV using “sophisticated electronics”.

I’m all for people paying their license but I’m not sure if I approve of bullshit science being used to scare people into doing so.

Found this

People have some interesting ideas about how these supposed detector vans would have worked

I haven’t read the linky. I understand they worked off the IF*. That’s stuff from the days of valves. It don’t happen any more.

*Internal Frequency, a stage in the amplification of the signal, which re-rediated enough energy that a sensitive receiver outside could pick up. I guess a directional aerial both helped with the gain and pointed at the TV source.

Surely the best TV Licence excuses are along the lines:

We have to pay those salaries to attract the best talent
£3,300,000,000 isn’t really enough money
We need to pay people £500,000 to go away when they conspicuously fail
We have to threaten poor people with jail to make Pets Rescue Houses
etc, etc.

An ex work colleague of mine works at the BBC and despite being classed as ‘full time’ gets paid £35k + to do seemingly the best part of bug*er all. Often tips into work after a lie in at 10am and normally seems to be at home again by mid afternoon, or out for ‘drinks’ at an internal meeting. From the way he describes it there’s so much money wasted within the organisation (his salary for starters) it’s untrue.

Who remembers the TV “detector” vans.

Apparently they could detect if you were watching TV using “sophisticated electronics”.

Yes. Off old CRT based screens at least. And they could see what is on the screen. It is pretty simple how it works. They used to have a demo of it at my old university’s security lab. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking

In theory also possible with LCDs (linked off that wiki article above), but I doubt they bother any more, given how much cheaper it is just to send out a load of letters.

Whilst they could detect you watching TV, they didn’t. To the best of my knowledge, “TV Detector Vans” have never been anything other than a bloke in a van knocking on doors accusing people of watching telly.

An ex work colleague of mine works at the BBC and despite being classed as ‘full time’ gets paid £35k + to do seemingly the best part of bug*er all. Often tips into work after a lie in at 10am and normally seems to be at home again by mid afternoon, or out for ‘drinks’ at an internal meeting. From the way he describes it there’s so much money wasted within the organisation (his salary for starters) it’s untrue.

Name me a business over a certain size that isn’t like that. Mine is (private sector).

In January, TV Licensing revealed that more than 13,000 households across the UK were still using black-and-white television sets.

Black and White Freeview / Freesat / Sky+ HD ftw (especially snooker).

I never believed the detector vans ever existed. But did get a TV licence bloke call round once telling me that I didn’t have a licence and was using a TV. I had been paying the fee for a year via DD so obviously their admin needed sorting out.

At uni, everyone got the form from the post office, filled it in, and kept it “ready to take to the post office tomorrow morning”. I don’t know anyone that did pay.