Once and for all could someone answer the question: do TV detector vans have the ability to detect TVs? Or do the vans just contain a database of people who have a licence?
mikeymike99 Thurs 26/06/08 22:42
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Sorry, dont know. But years ago I had an 'official' from the licensing office visit me, requesting and more or less demanded that he come into my home to see if I had TV or not. I told him to come back with a search warrant. Heard nothing after. (BTW I am now a law abiding citizen with a licence, though I dont know why)
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I think the answer is 'both'.
They use the database of addresses of no licence record (handily available these days on a single CDROM that civil servants can zip around the country for the price of a 1st class stamp) to work out where to look.
The detector van seeks out the signal.
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Do you really still have licences for televisions in the UK?
What an utterly ridiculous bureauracy. No wonder the country is stuffed with a government this stupid. Wouldn't it be cheaper to issue a rebate to the two people in the whole country who don't have one?
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Don't knock it beso
It means we still have some decent chanels that aren't Aussie soaps wall to wall!
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Indeed and we don't have adverts every 7 minutes.
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>What an utterly ridiculous bureauracy.
The "license" helps fund the BBC.
The BBC provide quality TV and radio (and internet) without the need to have adverts every few minutes.
Many of the best TV programmes this country has ever produced come from the BBC including drama, comedy, nature programmes, documentaries etc.
I for one am happy to pay my license fee every year if it gives me the chance to watch all the BBC channels.
Sometimes ONE series on the BBC justifies the years license, so to get all we get for the money is a bargain.
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The same thing happened to us as students wizard, we constantly got letters addressed to the occupier basically saying "We know you have no TV licence and we are going to prosecute you if you don't get one"
Since we had one we just ignored the letters which came at about a rate of one a month, no-one ever came near us though.
Whatever system they have, it doesn't work!
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Our public broadcaster is the ABC. It is funded (albeit meagerly) from general revenue. It does some of the bedst journalism in our country and is behind some of the drama that brings us relief form endless American junk television. Fortunately the BBC supplies also some of its excellent programming.
The point I was making is that virtually everyone has a television. Indeed charging people for having a television seems a breach of their access to information.
The money wasted on enforcing the ridiculous licencing system could be better spent on funding something useful. I acknowledge the points made but stand by my accusation that it is a pointless piece of bureaucracy.
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Forgot to mention the ABC does not have advertising.
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All that money spent on technology and enforcement to locate those evil people with hidden televisons.
Your governement really is stupid. Put a tax on televisions. Anything except this ridiculous licencing system. You lot are really dull that you can be so easily duped into thinking it makes sense.
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Surely, putting a tax on TVs is just another way of paying a licence?
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I had a TV licence reminder sent through to me yesterday as I'd bought something in May that received tv signals.
There is already a tv licence holded at my address, my partner and they were trying to get me to pay again, so their database is not all that.
I had to phone up their automated telephone system and let's just say that if their detector vans are as naf as their automated phoneline then they've got no chance of catching you doing anything.
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Question Author
Um...Although I'd agree with some of the views here, they're not really answering the question.
Thanks for pug's links. Especially intrigued by one quote from the BBC:
"And once the television is detected, the equipment - which works from up to 60 metres away - can pinpoint the actual room that the television set is in."
Now this might be the crux of the matter: I used to live in some flats, half of which ran east to west, the others north to south. So even if you could locate a signal in three-dimensional space, that in itself wouldn't tell you which property the signal came from. Unless the detector vans have the architectural plans of each block of flats in the UK, I can't see how that they're much use. At least in blocks of flats.
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Yer a tax would collect the same money but there would be no need to spend all that money on enforcing a licence regime. Vans drinving around everywhere, detector equipment, drivers, admin staff. It is a waste of money.
Moreover it sounds like the enforcement doesn't even work.
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What gets me annoyed is when you buy a TV from a shop, the shop informs the licence authorities of your purchase!
I dont get caught like that anymore!
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Every time that you purchase a TV or compatible equipment ( TV VCR DVD SKY DIGITAL TV etc ) the company that you buy it from are bound by law to inform TV licensing and give them your details. TV Licensing then check against their address database. If you are not shown as having a licence they then write to you.
They have no other way of obtaining this info.
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At my last place, I didn't pay a TV Licence and I was never once checked u on or sent a letter and I had Sky, saying that, I never paid a single electricity bill either, simply because I never did receive one.
I'm wondering if my landlord picked up those costs, but I swear not one letter came through from them, not even the TV Licence itself if my LL had paid.
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