Tuesday 10 September 2013

Make satellite dishes compulsory

 Allister Heath of City Am nailed it on his post re TV in the 21st century and the BBc licence fee. A great suggestion and summary. To continue on a little...
drag British TV into 21st century
drag British TV into 21st century

drag British TV into 21st century

In a landmark declaration Judge Lead ruled that any household without a Sky dish will now face criminal prosecution and a fine of up to £1000 or even imprisonment.
Using a database system, enforcement officials may call at any home and if they cannot spot a satellite dish they may question the owners as to why they failed to get one.

Judge Lead summed up with ..

"...The law is clear. It is an offence to receive live broadcast images on a television or computer or digital device without a valid satellite receiver.... Every home must have a BSkyB dish that costs around £145 a year.
It does not matter if the owners watch Sky television or just the free to air channels or even cable, internet or foreign TV.  Or even if they don't watch TV at all. They must have a dish capable of receiving the network."

And he added ..
"And naturally they must pay £145 for a new dish every year, oh yes. "

Rupert Murdoch of BSkyB beamed happily that .."Its the unique way we will be funded that will allow us to pay our executives whatever we like....it will be fab..
But there are concessions of course. Anyone aged over 75 will be exempt from the satellite installation fee . And anyone who has somehow buggered up their flat screen's contrast and colour settings and lost their remote and so now only watches in black and white need only pay £49...the sad losers.."

In Islington, North London,  many residents said that they would never have Sky TV. But on inspection at the rear of the premises or concealed inside the gables or up a tree at the end of the garden we could see slimline satellite dishes.

One owner of a terraced mansion, who initially denied having any subscription television, later explained that he only watch Sky Drama or Sky Arts.

 "I'm not paying a £145 a year just to watch the Wire and Game of Thrones...I barely view anything else..except that Etruscan pottery show..And the opera, obviously.  And I only hid the dish in the attic so as not to chav the place up and reduce the street's house prices."


If you want to know more about this story press the red button. Or try Goggle on your smart TV. Or use your phone or laptop or desktop or Xbox or tablet like everyone else. But do make sure you have a BSkyB dish installed or we'll get you!

29 comments:

Demetrius said...

Never mind Sky Arts, try RTE Lyric FM on 0165.

Blue Eyes said...

It's interesting. I used to write blog posts about how awful the compulsory purchase of BBC output was a scandal. And in return I would get shouted down by Capitalists.

CityUnslicker said...

not by me BE - a BBC-hating lifer!

Bill Quango MP said...

BE are you sure they were capitalists?
I agree with what City Am say. If the BBC became a subscription pay to view medium they will lose no more than 10%-15% of their current revenue. Probably not even that.
Its a lot of money but they don't half waste an awful lot too. A little bit of real world management would have their finances and expenditure in shape.
Then they can pay and say whatever they like.

Astonishingly good value the BBc. The fact I no longer watch much of it wouldn't stop me subscribing as part of a package just for the radio and web.

Budgie said...

The BBC helps to preserve the soft left corporatism that infests Britain. It should be sold off as pay-to-view.

Those that like the BBC can pay for it; those that don't, will be able to watch elsewhere without being forced to subsidise the BBC.

The only way to make this happen is to to stop paying the TV tax - it's not that much of a sacrifice.

Blue Eyes said...

Hmm, maybe a Capitalist imposter.

The only interesting bit about Newsnight last night (my first outing for several months) was Grade saying that the BBC had lost a sense of what money was, that the BBC culture was more like a rich kid with an allowance than an organisation that acted as though every penny had to be earned. A non-compulsory subscription would put paid to that.

The price would be a few non-entity middle managers having to go out into the real world and get a job. Win, win.

I would probably carry on paying at first.

Electro-Kevin said...

The BBC licence fee is not cheap, BQ.

Are you remembering to include the high levels of tax you pay in order to fund the left wing zeitgeist that it has created ?

SameNameAsTheLastTime said...

While I understand the sentiment we must consider that the BBC is the only thing stopping Sky from turning into Fox.
Since a large chunk of the UK population insist on paying for largely free TV stations you can see why certain people appoint themselves to think on their behalf. The problem is that the BBC is not impartial. Thats what grates.

Andrew Smith said...

Surely, poll tax is a closer analogue.

Electro-Kevin said...

I prefer digital to analogue, Andrew.

Blue Eyes said...

SameName that is not right. What stops Sky turning into Fix is UK broadcast regulation. Also, the British market has different tastes.

If a free market was suddenly to come into existence you would probably have a range of news channels just as we do with newspapers. Someone might set up an Express channel spouting nonsense, a Guardian channel aping the present BBC and every view in between.

By what mechanism does your theory work in practice? Perhaps you think that if paying for the BBC was made voluntary suddenly Sky would have a monoply? Err.

EK: very good :)

Bill Quango MP said...

BE: So true. We aren't a religious right nation. Demand for a Fox-UK station would be quite low. Hard right extreme end of UKIP support polls at around 6%, slightly under the hard left communist supporter numbers. Few would relish a Pravda style news program either.

And we already have alternatives. Sky and C4 & 5 and ITV news are all alternatives. None of them is a rabid right or commie left alternative. As you say, that is the law.

And we have independent radio. LBC has both left and right presenters that state their views.

Nick Ferrari is a hanging and flogging Tory and straight after his show is James O'Brien, the Guardian in human form.
Its all good and enjoyable and, in my opinion, generates a much healthier debate than the BBC's all must have voices approach to impartiality which often gives fringe groups, special interests and assorted fruit-loops and weirdos a platform which on evidence they don't deserve.

Your suggestion that different styles of news would emerge similar to newspapers seems entirely convincing.
Especially if those old print papers set up TV or merged with the many new media companies that would arise with the crimping of the BBC's dominance and the opening up of broadcast and digital platform media even further.

EK - well, no. But on a direct comparison with SKY, BBC is about half the price.

Andrew Smith - nah..tv is more fun.

Neil Williams said...

No fan of the BBC - dont pay the telly tax!

I am howver confused at your point that because LBC has two mainstream parodies of politocal viewpoints inthe presons of Ferrari and O'Brien this is an example of healthy diversity of viewpoints.

All looks to be Churnalism all round no matter the channel.

Bill Quango MP said...

The example is that the presenter lays their opinions openly at the outset. The daily program might be

" bedrooms are now banned for poor people!"
Or
". Subsidy for single benefits claimants living in three bedroomed houses withdrawn"

So, as these are phone in shows, the caller is aware of the viewpoint .

The BBC always uses a chairperson method. The caller talks to impartial Presenter who puts the question to a guest. Occasionally they might chip in.

The difference seems small but on LBC it is not unusual to hear " your argument makes no sense..you cannot explain it..and I've given you three attempts..so..goodbye.."

There are few easy rides.

Electro-Kevin said...

BQ - I don't know how you can disagree that the Beeb is costly.

Welfare, NHS and migration policy is virtually dictated by the BBC - not to mention its emotive coverage of Syria recently.

The licence fee may seem good value but the real reason for the BBC is clearly to make lots of money for its execs and to monopolise political reach.

Its cost to us is, in fact, incalculable.

I believe the BBC to be one of the reasons for our national and cultural suicide. It has helped to make it impossible to be a conservative in Britain - certainly not without having to be apologetic about it.



Blue Eyes said...

EK - totally agree. The BBC actually propogates ignorance. Take all this nonsense about bedroom taxes and food banjs. The BBC message is that thousands of people are being forced into abject poverty by a change in the welfare system.

Even supposedly intelligent people take this message at face value and treat it as gospel.

I now cannot mention politics in social situations because there are so may people who have basically been brainwashed into not asking the questions because the BBC has done it for them and come to a conclusion. And I am hardly an extremist!

Bill Quango MP said...

OK - ideology aside, as the BBc claims to reflect public opinion, not shape it, the BBC is...on a pure cost per hour basis and services provided, value for money.

Because it operates the same universal model as the NHS...or the royal Mail.

In fact Royal Mail privatisation is about to give us all an unpleasant object lesson in how expensive things become when they have a wide but shallow customer base. IE - high costs, small margins.

A small deep puddle lasts longer than a big shallow one.
And a big, deep one lasts longer than both.

Anonymous said...

The BBC's influence on this country has been pernicious.

No need to rehearse its bias on welfare, immigration, the NHS, the EU, and climate change.

The BBC is public-sector institution, with a vested interest in ever-increasing public spending. The above attitudes are merely aspects of the overall leftist package.

The TV Licence tax should be abolished, and the BBC broken up and privatised. This should be done long before any privatisation of the Royal Mail is even considered.

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