TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: British TV License (was America the Worst For Cell Rates and

Re: British TV License (was America the Worst For Cell Rates and

Mark Crispin (MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU)
Sat, 29 Jan 2005 18:50:19 -0800

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005, Rob wrote:

>> So, if I am in the UK with an NTSC TV set (or just a monitor)
>> connected to a satellite receiver that receives a non-UK satellite
>> service, I wouldn't have to pay the tax?

> Yes you would. You own a TV set capable of receiving BBC. Regardless
> of whether it's NTSC or otherwise it makes no difference these days
> with modern TV sets.

Please explain how an NTSC TV set in the UK is capable of receiving BBC.

I wasn't aware that BBC was also broadcasting in system M. In case you
weren't aware, NTSC TVs are system M by definition.

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005, Alan Burkitt-Gray wrote:

> That, as I said earlier, is democracy. If democracy works, the
> majority wins and the minority loses.

That isn't democracy; democracy entails respect for the rights of the
minority. It's called "checks and balances"; and without that, you just
have a dictatorship of the majority.

Sooner or later, the pendulum will swing back. You can't stop the swing;
you can only influence its violence.

> The fact that Mark doesn't like the programmes -- or his fellow
> Americans who watch them on PBS -- doesn't matter. In this case,
> neither he nor the PBS viewers have a say in how we in the UK choose
> to fund our TV and radio channels.

Actually, it matters in that we choose not to fund PBS with voluntary
contributions, and have been largely successful in eliminating PBS'
funding from the public treasury.

I don't presume to have a say in how the UK runs its country. I just
laugh at it. The UK serves as a spendid example of what not to do.
Yet another example is UK digital television, which doesn't have HDTV!

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

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