Quick Hide The Telly!

[Marlon]

They came to my door 3 days ago, I told them I did not have a TV and then they asked to search the flat, of course I said no and that if they wanted to search it they could go get a warrant, they said they would get a warrant, the one that dealt with me was very rude and basically said he had to go round in the cold and rain hunting down those who don't pay a licence and who sit around all day watching tv (his words)

He was very intimidating and was wearing what looked like a police uniform, I will not be answering the buzzer next time unless I know who it is

[My Kitten]

just dont answer the door, i dont unless someone phones..

im waiting for them, i got rid of my telly a couple of months ago.... the fun i shall have!

[tobester]

Tell them its not your house, youre looking after it for the owner for a few days, and they cant enter without the owners permission.

[Marlon]

I won't be answering the door, this morning the buzzer went and I did not answer it, I don't have a tv currently and will never again have one as the programming is awful, it is just dreadful reality tv shows and shows about wifeswapping and things like diary of a football fan etc etc. I will not let them in on principle.

135 quid a year, they can stick it

[TommyDGNR8]

How many of you lot don't listen to BBC radio? Or use the website?

£2.50 a week for the online content alone is a bargain.

[Matt Quinn]

How many of you lot don't listen to BBC radio? Or use the website?

£2.50 a week for the online content alone is a bargain.

..As is the sheer honour of being able to go down to electric luvvyland and watch all the gods, demi-gods and semi-demi-gods too-ing and fro-ing in their shiney new galley-ship. If you're a VERY good obedient little prole they MIGHT even let one of your sons or daughters work in the canteen... AFTER of course they've spent two years studying for an HND in media production.... Don't expect to find any substantial work there though.... Not unless 'daddy' knows somone important and/or you went to the 'right' school....

Or the utter joy at being able to watch the BBC's "Two pints" channel.... night after night after night....

As for the sheer peace of mind that knowin St Jonathan of Ross has his 18 mil tucked up nicely......

The BBC is now, and has been for the 28 years that I've worked in the industry been an elitist cabal the main function of which is to provide jobs for those and such as those. It has to be said that BBC Scotland is less guilty of this that the Englandshire parent. But still; it's largely about jobs for the boys, chasing a few minority agendas and generally turning out a lot of pretentious pish. Frankly, a harsh dose of commercial reality woul do them no harm at all!

As for using ghestappo tactics and employing people with enough of a mental disorder to happily spend their days dressed up as pseudo-cops in order to harass a few measly quid out of the poorest and most easily upset sectors of society...

£2.50 a week is a lot of money when you've only £15 left in your hand after paying your rent, council tax and putting a heat in the place. And it's the folk in THAT position that the TV license people try to bully.....

[TommyDGNR8]

An HND in media production? Does that even qualify you to get out of the right side of bed?

What happened, Matt? Did they reject your screenplay or something?

Seriously, my beef is with those who can pay but choose not to or spend their lives complaining about it.

Ad-free telly and radio with an (essentially) neutral news coverage and all that lovely on-line stuff; the Beeb is pretty much unique on the planet and I for one hope it stays that way.

[tedmaul]

£2.50 a week for the online content alone is a bargain.

Perhaps. If you're so confident in the quality of the BBC's output then you should have no problem finding people willing to pay voluntarily.

I don't think anyone is saying they don't want to pay for it at all. I think they're saying they object to being told to pay or go to prison. Pretty harsh, huh? Not even Rupert Murdoch does that.

[Matt Quinn]

An HND in media production? Does that even qualify you to get out of the right side of bed?

What happened, Matt? Did they reject your screenplay or something? ::):

Seriously, my beef is with those who can pay but choose not to or spend their lives complaining about it.

Ad-free telly and radio with an (essentially) neutral news coverage and all that lovely on-line stuff; the Beeb is pretty much unique on the planet and I for one hope it stays that way.

Two years of hard slog?... Yes, I'd say it 'qualifies' you to at least get a foot past the door...

Too often I hear the tale where a highly able and properly qualified young person is 'passed over' at the BBC in favour of some chinless twat who just 'happens' to be connected with the 'right' people.... As for the sheer bloody incompetence of many of their staff; No wonder production costs are so high. There are people in middle-management positions at electric luvvyland who are actually FRIGHTENED of the kids coming out of the colleges because they know more about the job than they do!

The BBC is a huge elitist lumbering dinosaur that lost it's way over two decades ago. In principal the BBC is an excellent concept. But frankly they have their head up their arse and piss most of the money away on frivolities and keeping the clique going.

And no, they haven't had the chance to reject anything of mine. I've always worked for commercial companies that stand on their own two feet and aren't merely a nursing home for stuck-up yah-yahs... I'd never dream of making a pitch to them; there would be absolutely no point. They're not interested in the gutteral rantings of some minger from Springburn.

Seriously; MY beef is being forced to contribute to an organisation that seems entirely focused on putting public money straight into the pockets of the over privileged.

As for the 'neutral' news.... As it happens I started out in News; if you believe ANY of it is remotely 'neutral' then you are allowing yourself to be seriously deluded. I believe a certain professor Greg Philo of Glasgow Uni has far more to say on the subject than I. And probably states it rather better! A quick Google will soon reveal just HOW neutral the BBC news is!

Lovely on-line stuff? Well I guess there was a pretty cute picture of Meredith MacNeill on the Man stroke Woman page at one time... Aside from that there are kids sitting in their bedrooms with a copy of Dreamweaver producing just as (and often far more) incisive stiff... But of course unless they're sitting in a well-appointed bedroom in rather fine Victorian villa somewhere out in the general direction of 'the mearns' the BBC are never likely to lift so much as a finger to help them...

The modern BBC: Elitist claptrap that depends on handouts it extorts from folk using an army of thugs......

[TommyDGNR8]

Doesn't look like we're going to find any common ground, here, does it?

Speaking as a consumer, I can only assert that viewing our state broadcaster is a far more pleasurable experience than, for example, the American model. Despite its faults (and it has many) the Beeb is envied around the world and, for as long as there are nuggets like Life On Mars among the chav fodder, I'm happy to carry on funding it.

The alternative is (and don't kid yourself otherwise) yet more ITV - more I'm A Celebrity Chef Who Sleeps With His Sister sponsored by Ocean Finance (I suppose I should copyright that idea, eh?)

On radio, I'm a bit past commenting on Radio 1 but the kids still seem to dig it; Radios 2 and 3 are streets ahead of the commercial alternatives; R4 is still as up itself as ever but still produces the odd must-hear (the recent Dirk Gently adaptation, for example) and, even if it has gone downmarket of late, 5Live's still head and shoulders above the neo-nazism of TalkSport.

6 Music and BBC7 are utterly peerless.

Just my tuppence worth...

[Matt Quinn]

Doesn't look like we're going to find any common ground, here, does it?

Speaking as a consumer, I can only assert that viewing our state broadcaster is a far more pleasurable experience than, for example, the American model. Despite its faults (and it has many) the Beeb is envied around the world and, for as long as there are nuggets like Life On Mars among the chav fodder, I'm happy to carry on funding it.

The alternative is (and don't kid yourself otherwise) yet more ITV - more I'm A Celebrity Chef Who Sleeps With His Sister sponsored by Ocean Finance (I suppose I should copyright that idea, eh?)

Sell it to your beloved BBC.... What's on this morning?

10:00 am
Escape to the Country
11:00 am
Open House
11:30 am
Bargain Hunt

Afternoon
morning | evening
12:15 pm
Cash in the Attic
1:00 pm
BBC News
1:30 pm
BBC London News (This schedule was accessed via the BBC Scotland site!)
1:40 pm
Doctors
2:10 pm
Neighbours
2:35 pm
Diagnosis Murder

TWO of those programmes are foreign.... "Cash in the Attic" and "Bargain Hunt" .... Let's rake through a few pleb's midgies then spend a thimply thpiffing efterooon at the hauction hise...

"Escape to the country" Tarquin and Tina Whakingthem-Slowly are struggling to survive in their Chelsea apartments. They've a budget of just one point eight million to find the idea county home...

I've worked for ITV companies for around 28 years. Why would I see this as a bad thing?

I agree that the BBC is a superior alternative to that offered by many other countries. But whilst I'd also state that ITV has lost its way too, it's at elitist notion that only the BBC produces 'nuggets'. In fact even the "septic tanks" manage the odd gem or two.

Little wonder they can produce programmes such as "Life on Mars"; with all the free money they have thrown at them and the sheer volume of stuff they can turn out it'd be surprising if they didn't get it right once in a while...

Frankly I think the burden of licensing the BBC should be placed on the independent broadcasters and the cable companies. The license fee needs to come down to £52 per year and the rest drawn back from the likes of QVC and the 'game show' channels.. There also needs to be something done about the practice of being 'connected' at the BBC before they'll even look at you. Once they lead the world in training for broadcast and in broadcast engineering. Now I'm constantly left wondering if their cameramen even read the instruction book for their cameras let alone know how to operate the things. As for their audio... For any 'BBC sound engineers' (an oxymoron surely) The 'flicky' thing with the flashing light is a meter.. learn to read it!

Personally, I've little interest in Radio. It's a left-over from before I was born (which was a very long time ago) that goes on in the car mainly to keep abreast of traffic conditions. Yes; there is the odd gem, but Radio One seems to be mainly half-wits wittering on about their toilet habits, Radio Two is as bland as ever and sems still to broadcast programmes from 1952, Radio Three reminds me of the teacher in "Charlie Brown" as for 4, 5 (and if there's a six and seven) ..... So what? Talk Sport is just another way of saying 'talk bollocks' to my way of thinking...

The days of 'broadcasting' as we know it are numbered anyway. In ten years time there will only be a handful of terrestrial channels. Most of the channels that re up there only exist to 'stake a claim' to the bandwidth that will be needed for HD. Personally I'm not for paying ANY kind of subscription to be 'broadcasted' at.

And I rather resent the fact that Children have been separated from their Mothers and the Mothers flung in Cornton Vale for not coughing up to provide Tarquin and Tina with their free escort...

[tedmaul]

As Matt says, for every 'Life on Mars' there's a teeth-grinding, buttock-clenching reality TV/makeover show on the BBC so let's not kid ourselves otherwise. It's typical of BBC supporters to cite what they see as the best of the BBC and then cite what they see as the worst of ITV and then hold their hands up as if they've made the clinching argument for enforced subscription. ITV makes good programmes too - I would regard something like 'Foyle's War' as good as, if not better than, any BBC drama in recent years.

In any case, people shouldn't have go to jail just to allow the BBC to make 'Life On Mars', irrespective of how good it is.

[Mori]

Ye see what i mean!

TV chiefs let down Tartan Army again




FURIOUS Scotland fans hit out today after the rights to the away games in the race for the 2010 World Cup were sold to Setanta.
The deal means none of the Scots vital qualifying matches will be shown live on terrestrial TV.
Sky has already snapped up live coverage of Scotland home games until the Finals.
Fans wanting to see live coverage of Scotland in Holland, Norway, Macedonia and Iceland will have to fork out a variable connection fee, plus at least £9.99 for a month's subscription.

[TommyDGNR8]

Ted/Matt - we're not going to convert each other, are we? Agree to disagree?

at least £9.99 for a month's subscription.

You can't subscribe for a month, though - you have to give a month's notice to cancel so the minimum is 2 months. Setanta's subscription model is an absolute nightmare.

[bluepeterno1]

This story has been going around Bute for a long time now and some of the people involved swear it is true .
This woman called Jeanie (no second name)who stayed in Port Bannatyne was rushing for the bus into Rothesay to play bingo ,as she opened the front door she was confronted by two men who asked her for the telly licence, being in a rush she told them just to go into the house and tell her husband (Jingles) that it was behind the clock on the mantlepiece and off she went to the bingo. The two guys walked into the house where jingles was watching telly , who the f*ck are you he shouts ,one guy replies telvision licence ,.Jingles did not know about such things or cared and said i dont know where the f*ck it is ,come back tomorrow when the wife is in. Staight away one of the guys said it's behind the clock on the mantlepiece ,Jingles nearly fainted and said to the men ,what kind of f*cking detecter have you got when you can see where the f*cking licence is . Many a laugh has been had at his expense over this tale