Life without television

[James Wonnacott]

Don't have one, don't want one and get very irritated when I visit someone else's home and they have the damned thing turned on.

[french frank]

Don't have one, don't want one and get very irritated when I visit someone else's home and they have the damned thing turned on.

I don't mind if people have it on when I arrive, especially if I'm not expected.

The giddy goat is when they invite you and then at some point they announce that they want to watch a favourite programme - and good manners precludes making a fuss or even an acid comment about it

[Ferretfancy]

If there's a documentary that you would like to save and still be able to see the credits properly at the end, it sometimes pays to look out for the repeat in the wee small hours and record that. The presentation gang are less active then, but watch out for sign language!

I once mixed a marvellous dramatised documentary about Joseph Conrad which deliberately ended with silence over the credits. On transmission the announcer crashed in with a trail, ruining the director's intentions completely. I was so irate that I phoned Television Centre, and after much effort got to speak to one of the Presentation staff. I was arrogantly asked who I thought I was, and when I said I was the Dubbing Mixer, I got a grudging apology. Since then things have got a thousand times worse.

[french frank]

I once mixed a marvellous dramatised documentary about Joseph Conrad which deliberately ended with silence over the credits. On transmission the announcer crashed in with a trail, ruining the director's intentions completely. I was so irate that I phoned Television Centre, and after much effort got to speak to one of the Presentation staff. I was arrogantly asked who I thought I was, and when I said I was the Dubbing Mixer, I got a grudging apology. Since then things have got a thousand times worse.

The BBC sent out guidelines to indies a few years back instructing them not to include any audio content at the end of their productions as the BBC might want to add its own material (aka programme trails). None of them dare complain because the Beeb feeds them.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The assumption that everyone has a television and is therefore a licence payer, leads the powers that be to think it is their right to hound every address from which a fee is not paid. When my parents' house was empty, and on the market, the constant stream of reminders and threats became increasingly annoying. I began to hope they really would take me to court, enabling me to make utter fools of them. They never did. Still, the Royal Mail made a profit from their incompetence.
What made it even more stupid was the fact that my parents had had a free TV licence for many years.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sir Georg Solti is reputed to have made the the following remark:

All good singers beasts and should be burnt; and all bad singers burnt anyway.

What an unkind thought. But with continuity announcers, I begin to have some sympathy with the sentiment.

(Well obviously it wasn't actually posted by the famous late conductor.)

[austin]

A possible better option?

http://tinyurl.com/74po64g

[3rd Viennese School]

Is it me or is the news just about Greece now?

Greece Greece Greece

Greece Greece Greece

Olympics

Started in Greece you know

And now the markets.

3VS

[amateur51]

Is it me or is the news just about Greece now?

Greece Greece Greece

Greece Greece Greece

Olympics

Started in Greece you know

And now the markets.

3VS

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

"People can buy their books in Tesco now"

amazon more like eh ....is the BBC the national library sort of?

[Ariosto]

TV licence payment

A few weeks ago my quarterly Direct Debit was paid to the Licence Fee Mafia. A few days later I cancelled the DDR as I don't want to continue with TV, and I obviously had almost 3 months of paid up fee still there.

A few days later I received a phone call from the Mafia to let me know the DDR had been cancelled. I said Yes, I had cancelled it. The Mafia were confused, how was I going to watch TV? I said that in the middle of June the one year's paid quarterly contract would run out so I would stop watching. The guy said, oh no, you have to stop at the end of May (even though I started paying in the middle of June) as it runs from the beginning of the month you start paying. So that's a rip off - and I told him so.

So Big Brother (Mafia) has (1) access to your bank account and DDR arrangements (2) can make it's own rules as to how long a quarter, or a year is (3) can harrass you at home just when it thinks fit - and will no doubt start harrassing again once I no longer use TV.

We need something to be done about this, and maybe the licence fee should be scrapped since the BBC is no longer a public broadcaster, and is really an extension of government, and is a commercial entity.

[teamsaint]

Ariosto

I very much empathise.
The powers that be use very unpleasant techniques, which amount to harrassment, on others who don't wish to pay. Students get a series of unpleasant and quite threatening communications, which I am sure result in some people paying who shouldn't.
Stick to your guns...I am thinking of following your example.(sometimes I think I will do it just to spite them!)

[Panjandrum]

Stick to your guns...I am thinking of following your example.(sometimes I think I will do it just to spite them!)

With respect ts, with the BBC's budget running into several billion I think your attempt at spite will be like a pinprick on an elephant's backside.

[Ferretfancy]

The assumption that everyone has a television and is therefore a licence payer, leads the powers that be to think it is their right to hound every address from which a fee is not paid. When my parents' house was empty, and on the market, the constant stream of reminders and threats became increasingly annoying. I began to hope they really would take me to court, enabling me to make utter fools of them. They never did. Still, the Royal Mail made a profit from their incompetence.
What made it even more stupid was the fact that my parents had had a free TV licence for many years.

Remember the GPO and BBC TV campaign featuring a detector van?

A friend of mine who was a keen ham radio enthusiast was driving around a Swindon housing estate with his aerial up, looking for a decent signal. He was greeted by a gang of youths shouting " F--- off Busby ! "

[teamsaint]

With respect ts, with the BBC's budget running into several billion I think your attempt at spite will be like a pinprick on an elephant's backside.

well I don't know, Panj, they seem to want ariosto's 140 pounds pretty badly. Sounds like desperation to me!
And my cash is as good as his. bet if I stop paying they are round before the week is up.