We moved house about a month ago, and at the bottom of my list of things to do was to change our TV licence across. Nobody likes paying for their licence, and most people think that subsidising the BBC when there's not all that much on the box is a bit of a liberty. After all, if the licence was split between all of the tv channels it would represent phenomenal value for money, but in just supporting the BBC it seems like a really outdated tax on entertainment. My main irritation has always been that I regularly buy dvds and more recently blu rays of the programmes I like; indeed, i'm happy to wait for a disc version of programmes such as Wonders of the Solar System, Planet Earth, and favourite sitcoms that i'll watch again and again over the next decade. I'm happy to pay the BBC for permanent copies of entertainment I will enjoy watching, and annoyed when My licence fee pays for presenters and programmes that make me turn the television off!
So having had two 'reminder' letters (both openly threatening fines, prosecution, and doorstep visits in a horrific manner) I had a bright idea. I've recently taken apart a netbook to connect to our telly to stream programmes from websites; the keyboard was faulty so I took off the screen and mounted the unit underneath the TV unit nicely out of sight. It's a really nice setup, I can pick and choose TV from a wide number of nations to watch when the children have gone to bed, and i'm using a cheap ipad app called Splashtop to control the netbook wirelessly.
We've not really watched tv since I set up the netbook; the children watch cbeebies on the iplayer, and have loved watching childrens channels from France and the USA (all legally, too!) it has been so successful that i've cancelled Sky, and the final step happened today. I researched iplayer online, and found out that we do not need a tv licence to watch programmes on the iplayer, or any other web service that is not streaming live. My children don't mind watching Waybaloo from the previous day, and i'm sure that the next time a new series of The Apprentice or Dragon's Den are announced i'll be happy to watch these an hour or two after they are broadcast. This is really going to change how we watch tv.
Indeed, I think this is morally acceptable to be avoiding the licence in this manner. I love 'Sherlock'; in my opinion it is the best TV programme I have seen in my entire life. The scripts are brilliantly clever modern adaptations, Martin Freeman seems to have found a role that really uses his talents, and Benedict Cumberbatch is a superb Sherlock Holmes. I bought the blu-rays of series one and two as they were released and i've watched each episode half a dozen times. My purchase has provided income for the people involved with making this great modern drama, and i've rented dvds with Freeman in as watching Sherlock has reminded me of how much I like the bloke. I'm going to see the new Star Trek movie when it comes out as Cumberbatch is in it- and I was sufficiently underwhelmed by the last film that I probably wouldn't have bothered if he wasn't playing the villain. My appreciation for the programme means I am providing more revenue for the actors based on my appreciation for their talents. In short, I love the programme and am happy to pay to see it. This will continue; the kids love In the Night Garden and as such we have DVDs, toys, a duvet set, a lamp shade, and many other items of merchandising. I'm now not paying for the children to watch it live on tv, but the people involved with making our favourite programmes are still getting paid.
I've had problems when i've not wanted to have a tv licence before. We've always had a tv and I love buying 10p videos for the kids, but I have always ended up getting a licence as our tv or video has a tv tuner built in and the authorities could presume that we were watching tv illegally. Today, this is different. My tv hasn't got a a Freeview tuner built in so it can't recieve any signal; our video player is the same. Our DVD players and my PS3 and Xbox 360 can only recieve 'catch up tv' which does not need a licence. I've cut off the sky tv cords, taken the ariel down from the chimney, and stuck my Sky box and old Freeview recorded on a website and sold them earlier today (earning £100 to spend on some good Blu rays!) my Sky subscription will continue for another two months and i'll have to find another broadband provider at that point, but I reckon i'll eventually be saving £30 a month by not having Sky. This totals £500 a year including the tv licence! I can't see how we will not be able to watch the tv programmes we like, although with no Sky I may miss out on a few of my favourite Quest programmes- Salvage Hunters and the like. I'm off to browse YouTube to see i they end up on there :)
With one less remote in the house, i'm going to leave you for today. My Great Uncle used to call TV 'the idiot lantern' so it's going to be interesting to ser if we watch less tv and what we do with the time saved by not having to sit through endless adverts for products I don't like!
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