TV Licence why ...but we had them

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TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Harry Dalek » Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:04 pm

I came across a bit of tv history in my collections similar to the uk ,we in Australia also had to pay a TV licence ...i am not sure why this was the case apart from a tax for no reason .Notice the fine nasty !
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The electromagnetic spectrum has no theoretical limit at either end. If all the mass/energy in the Universe is considered a 'limit', then that would be the only real theoretical limit to the maximum frequency attainable.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Steve Anderson » Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:15 pm

Those in the UK please correct me if I'm wrong...

My father, upon reaching 65 said, "Thankfully I don't have to pay for this crap now I'm 65." I assume the situation is still the same, that was in 2001.

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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Klaas Robers » Sat Mar 03, 2018 10:04 pm

For years I did not pay for TV. I started at Philips Research in TV. In my shack (can you imagine Steve?) I had a professional B&W monitor, connected to a home brew (tube) TV-receiver, which fed the monitor. We had already a centralised TV antenna, with cable to all homes in the row. And yes we had a few times a man checking why we had no TV licence. Then the XYL (my wife) led him to my shack and told him that I was experimenting with video and so on. In the same shack was also my amateur radio station, so the man did not know where to look, nor did he know where to switch on what. And then those dangerous high voltages.....

This was until the TV-licences were stopped and the contribution was added to the income tax. Few people realise this, but still we should be able in NL to receive the public broadcast without any extra fee. Now and then this is difficult for the gouvernement and all the different TV service providers, cable, satellite, DBTV, glass fibre, internet and so on. But until now we are not paying extra for TV reception.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Andrew Davie » Sun Mar 04, 2018 1:12 am

Couldn't you just deny using any form of TV and refuse to let the "inspector" inside?
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Dave Moll » Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:38 pm

Steve Anderson wrote:Those in the UK please correct me if I'm wrong...

My father, upon reaching 65 said, "Thankfully I don't have to pay for this crap now I'm 65." I assume the situation is still the same, that was in 2001.

Steve A.


I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, I have to wait another ten years (until I'm 75) before I stop paying for my licence. As far as I know, the qualifying age never has been 65.

As to the initial question of "why"... in the UK, of course, the TV licence is the primary funding for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), enabling us to view its channels without advertisement breaks in programmes. The only advertising being for its own services - and that is between programmes.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Steve Anderson » Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:44 am

Hmm, OK, maybe it was 75 then, seems longer ago than just 2011.

There's some truth in this, "Life is like a toilet roll, the nearer you get to the end the faster it goes."

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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Harry Dalek » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:56 pm

Well Dave and Steve i was thinking this was all ancient history !
Well it is in Australia ,i can't remember when it ended and i can't say i ever heard any one talk about it or have a licence when i was growing up !
Seems they did check up who had one but again it was something i don't recall ever happening in our area .
They must make a hell of a lot of money in the uk from this ,and how kind you have to wait till your 75 before you can watch tv for free...are you sure Hitler didn't win the war ?
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The electromagnetic spectrum has no theoretical limit at either end. If all the mass/energy in the Universe is considered a 'limit', then that would be the only real theoretical limit to the maximum frequency attainable.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Steve Anderson » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:16 pm

Well, there are other rather odd licences that are or used to be required. Here up until the 70s you needed a bicycle licence! My brother-in-law still has his last one before it was abolished. Though you didn't need one until you were 12. It was more stringent than a driving licence at the time. There were separate endorsements for a tandem or a tricycle too.

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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Andrew Davie » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:43 pm

I have zero recollection of our family ever having a TV license here in Oz. Either they were gone by my childhood, or my parents were pirates!
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby gary » Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:34 am

Television licences were phased out in Australia in 1974 when the Labor government of the day decided every tax payer should pitch in to prop up the ABC, even those who didn't care to watch the ABC or any television at all for that matter. I don't remember when the term was introduced but the "meme" used to promote the change was "8 cents a day" designed to give tax payers the idea that it wasn't costing them much, of course some paid much more than that, and some not at all.

It's interesting that we followed the BBC's strategy of perpetuating the (almost certain) myth that they had sophisticated detection equipment capable of detecting the IF oscillator frequency of the TV set (and thereby determining the channel that had been tuned to). I actually believed that such equipment existed into my third decade.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby gary » Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:58 am

Harry Dalek wrote:They must make a hell of a lot of money in the uk from this ,and how kind you have to wait till your 75 before you can watch tv for free...are you sure Hitler didn't win the war ?


No more than the government makes here, Harry, they just collect it a different way. There is no such thing as "watching for free", you are either paying by watching commercials (in the case of the commercial stations*) or by paying tax. It's just that some have to pay more than others. The only difference between us and the UK is they have Hitler, and we have Stalin.

*It can be argued that the tax payer also now props up the commercial stations because of the Labor government's decision to give the commercial broadcasters our (the tax payers) very valuable broadcast spectrum for very much less than it was previously worth, and now I hear that their licensing fees will probably be removed entirely. They, of course, have argued that they pay enough in tax to cover it. Personally I can think of much better uses for the spectrum than broadcasting episodes of Big Brother, MKR, The Chaser, or, worst of all, Q&A.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Harry Dalek » Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:31 pm

MY memory of 1974 didn't have that information Gary only 74 75 colour tv came to Australia around then apart from earlier studio tests in the late 60's.
i think taxing us was a better idea than have a bunch of little hitlers running round trying fine every one they could catch out .
Looking at Uk youtube videos of their inspectors i think there are a lot of Blakey from on the buses in the tv licence fining game ! better there than here i say sorry any one in the uk !
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby gary » Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:57 pm

Harry Dalek wrote:MY memory of 1974 didn't have that information Gary only 74 75 colour tv came to Australia around then apart from earlier studio tests in the late 60's.
i think taxing us was a better idea than have a bunch of little hitlers running round trying fine every one they could catch out .
Looking at Uk youtube videos of their inspectors i think there are a lot of Blakey from on the buses in the tv licence fining game ! better there than here i say sorry any one in the uk !


LOL I am not sure why you have such a problem with fining people who break the law Harry, what's your position on fining people who, say, drive unlicensed? Or, people who use public amenities but evade paying their fair share of tax?

The truth is very few people were fined (if any), it was really just a threat to encourage people to do the right thing.

I remember the need to have a licence very well, it was always an unwelcome additional burden for my family, but not so much as income tax ;-).

https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/radio-and-tv-licences

Yes, '75 for colour TV, almost 50 years since Baird first demonstrated it.

I am a big believer in "user pays" so I have to disagree with you on this one.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Dave Moll » Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:06 pm

gary wrote:...the "meme" used to promote the change was "8 cents a day" designed to give tax payers the idea that it wasn't costing them much, of course some paid much more than that, and some not at all.


Roughly what would that equate to at today at today's prices?

For comparison, given that the UK licence is around £150 a year (my renewal last year was at £147), I reckon that works out at a little under £5 a week, or £0.70 a day. If £1 is still very roughly A$2, that would be about $1.40 per household, regardless of how many taxpayers live together.
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Re: TV Licence why ...but we had them

Postby Harry Dalek » Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:58 pm

gary wrote:LOL I am not sure why you have such a problem with fining people who break the law Harry, what's your position on fining people who, say, drive unlicensed? Or, people who use public amenities but evade paying their fair share of tax?


Gary transmitting electromagnetic waves i think yes receiving them i find very unfair idea.

The truth is very few people were fined (if any), it was really just a threat to encourage people to do the right thing.


Well then its unfair for a start some get fined others bugger all .

I remember the need to have a licence very well, it was always an unwelcome additional burden for my family, but not so much as income tax ;-).

https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/radio-and-tv-licences

I would say we were tv viewing pirates knowing my dad ...easy to pick tv viewers back then with the massive tv antennas pointed at sydney ,the old valve tv i recall lucky to get a snow free picture back then down the south coast .

Yes, '75 for colour TV, almost 50 years since Baird first demonstrated it.


More than likely not mentioned at the time ,would of been a good bit of trivia for the logies at the time.

I am a big believer in "user pays" so I have to disagree with you on this one.


OK [/quote]
I am a pirate at heart Gary !
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The electromagnetic spectrum has no theoretical limit at either end. If all the mass/energy in the Universe is considered a 'limit', then that would be the only real theoretical limit to the maximum frequency attainable.
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