Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

I'll say no more. Seems the UK TV licence advocate are more than happy with thier system. Glad I don't live there.

Bye

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

If you like Classical that is.

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

"socialism??"

Countries need a means to pay for their infrastructures etc. Taxes are a balancing act for governments. For all the BBC's flaws, the TV license is probably one of the best bargains around.

Film and TV soundtracks are full of classically based music. The BBC has to cover the musical tastes of a wide range of people, it also transmits contemporary music that's not forced onto a DJ's play list.

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

If a TV licence and publically funded health and education services are socialism, then according to what I have read, the Indonesian population also enjoys its benefits:
1) TVRI is funded in part by the government from general taxation.
2) In 2014, there will be universal social health insurance coverage for the whole population.
3) Although progress is slow, there are moves to provide adequate funds from central taxation to create universal education for 12 of a child's developing years.
All three of the above services are paid for by taxation that is levied on individuals whether they have a TV, are ever needing medical support or have any children of school age. This model is replicated in countries across the globe many of which would not be described as the slightest bit 'socialist' by even the most capitalist of commentators.
Steve

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

I like the idea of a mixed economy, so no, not any more than many other "...ism's", anyway. :-) There are some ventures that work best in the public sector - funded by taxation or licence - others which are far better suited to private enterprise. That's the practice in nearly all democracies, the debate and differences between them are really where to draw lines.

And in terms of TV here, then it's a mixture anyway - the licence fee pays for one set of programming, advertising pays for another. Which gives competition within the industry, yet stops it being totally money driven - it may not be ideal or without fault, but it seems to deliver far better than other systems that have been tried.

Do you know of any country on the planet that doesn't charge it's citizens any form of taxation?

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

As an American I would gladly pay such a fee if it meant we had a system like the BBC. We do have our public television and radio (of which some amount of the budget comes from public dollars) but it has constant funding drives, re licenses much material from places like the BBC, and is typically only one station per broadcast region (as far as I understand it - at least in my region). The UK should rightly be proud of what the BBC is, regardless of funding source.

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

Just a friendly reminder that I will instantly close accounts when the political insinuations start to fly.

Back to the topic at hand, please!

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

If you have a look at the listings you will see that is simply not true. A wide range of serious and popular styles are covered, and mention has already been made of the many commissioned works which cannot, by definition, be "classical."

Fol-de-rol?

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

and what a lot of people world wide forget is the research and testing that the BBC does, I get to converse with the people who do this testing and they give me settings for use on my HD cameras and have defined standards for SD, HD and super HD that are used world wide!

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

20 million households in the UK pay £3.5 billion per year through the licence fee and watch BBC TV 32% of the time. Half of them also spend £5 billion on Sky TV subscriptions which account for 8% of total viewing. In addition TV advertising costs us all £3.5 billion per year, which we pay indirectly through the goods we buy.

On that basis you could argue that the BBC is fourteen times better than the cable alternative (it’s watched four times more and costs 3.5 times less). And that doesn’t take into account BBC radio.

Re: UK still has 13,000 B & W televisions
 

Whoops!

Just a thought about TV adverts... Doesn't everyone use those hard drive recorders like the 'My Sky' and 'Sky Plus' boxes that make it so easy to fast forward through the adverts? And isn't it easier to download your favourite TV shows and view via a media player? The cheap as chips Blu-ray player I bought last year came complete with USB socket, and worked heaps better than the WDTV Live box I used to use. Apple TV, Netflix, and aren't Google getting into streamed TV as well?

I did wonder what proportion of the Beeb's revenue comes from the TV license, and how it compares to revenue from overseas sales of its programs. Not surprisingly, Wikipedia had a full account, and a large majority of its revenue does indeed come from the TV license.

BBC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia