Amazon UK's New Video Options Will Require a TV License

Megalith

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Amazon announced this week it will offer live television channels for the first time in Europe and the UK, but Prime Video subscribers will need to be covered by a TV License before gaining access to channels that include Discovery, Eurosport, and ITV. Basically, an extra subscription fee will be tacked on if you are a Brit who isn’t properly licensed yet. Over the pond, a TV License costing $188 is required for watching or recording live TV, either through your TV or live online through a website.

...the TV Licensing agency is reminding people that as Amazon UK rolls out its new Channel add-ons with live TV, it means that viewers are again responsible for paying the fee. Amazon's packages include channels like Eurosport, ITV Hub+ and Discovery, so as TV Licensing spokesperson Jason Hill explains "If you watch or record live TV, either through your TV or live online through a website, then you need to be covered by a TV License...around 94 per cent of people are correctly licensed so are already covered to watch live TV online." Currently, an annual color TV License costs £147.
 
If 94% of the people pay it "voluntarily", then just make it a tax and get everyone to pay it. Euros love that stuff. I really do not understand the TV tax thing in Britain.
 
EODetroit said:
If 94% of the people pay it "voluntarily", then just make it a tax and get everyone to pay it. Euros love that stuff. I really do not understand the TV tax thing in Britain.
Click to expand...

The TV tax funds BBC as far as I know. It's not really all that different than CBC in Canada or PBS in the United States, although the content on BBC is usually better because they get more funding.
 
NeoNemesis said:
The TV tax funds BBC as far as I know. It's not really all that different than CBC in Canada or PBS in the United States, although the content on BBC is usually better because they get more funding.
Click to expand...
There is no license fee for OTA television in Canada. Cable and satellite distribution are fee paid to the BDU. The CBC is funded out of general tax revenue. The same is true of health care. Single payer, funded from general taxation. That's why we live longer and have nice things.
 
EODetroit said:
If 94% of the people pay it "voluntarily", then just make it a tax and get everyone to pay it. Euros love that stuff. I really do not understand the TV tax thing in Britain.
Click to expand...
Because Planet earth 2 and countless other quality shows produced by the BBC are not free, but they are commercial free.
 
EODetroit said:
If 94% of the people pay it "voluntarily", then just make it a tax and get everyone to pay it. Euros love that stuff. I really do not understand the TV tax thing in Britain.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no.

This is the type of government fee I'm OK with because it only impacts the people who use it. When I lived there I didn't watch TV or even stream stuff. So I didn't pay.
 
  • Like
Reactions: N4CR
like this
They actually have TV cops known for bullying tactics.

"With more than 180,000 people charged with not paying their licence fee each year, prosecutions currently account for around one in 10 of all criminal cases in England and Wales.

More than 99 per cent of all those convicted receive a fine of up to £1,000, which nets the government almost £30 million a year.

Anyone refusing to pay a fine could be sent to prison and at least 70 people have received custodial sentences in recent years. Prison sentences are imposed as a punishment for not paying the fine, rather than non-payment of the licence fee."

Ridiculous.
 
Celt said:
They actually have TV cops known for bullying tactics.

"With more than 180,000 people charged with not paying their licence fee each year, prosecutions currently account for around one in 10 of all criminal cases in England and Wales.

More than 99 per cent of all those convicted receive a fine of up to £1,000, which nets the government almost £30 million a year.

Anyone refusing to pay a fine could be sent to prison and at least 70 people have received custodial sentences in recent years. Prison sentences are imposed as a punishment for not paying the fine, rather than non-payment of the licence fee."

Ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Lived there for 8 years. Never paid the fee. Was never visited. If you aren't using the TV to watch TV you have nothing to worry about.

Obviously if you don't pay the fee but have a cable TV subscription they will pay you a visit.

Streaming will be harder to prove, but I imagine they'll tie the systems together and basically not allow to stream if you don't pay the fee.
 
So basically access to the news/press on TV requires an exorbitant fee. Nice. Can you imagine if there was a tax to buy a newspaper here in the USA? Oh wait(for most states).
 
Celt said:
They actually have TV cops known for bullying tactics.

"With more than 180,000 people charged with not paying their licence fee each year, prosecutions currently account for around one in 10 of all criminal cases in England and Wales.

More than 99 per cent of all those convicted receive a fine of up to £1,000, which nets the government almost £30 million a year.

Anyone refusing to pay a fine could be sent to prison and at least 70 people have received custodial sentences in recent years. Prison sentences are imposed as a punishment for not paying the fine, rather than non-payment of the licence fee."

Ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Methods used aside... the BBC provides a service. if you do not pay for said service then you can expect to be taken to court. If you got your car repaired and didn't pay the invoice for services rendered what do you think would happen?
The complication with the BBC is it an OTA service and thus cannot be selectively cut (like cable or satellite )
The license covers the TV, radio and the webside.

if you have means to recieve BBC TV the onus is on you to prove you do not or pay for the license. can it be viewed as a tax? yes but to provide impartiality from the gov'n it is not collected nor paid by the gov'n. Yes the BBC will go head to head with the gov'n (weapons expert for instance... he lost his life over it when the wanker that is Blair lied to take britain into the gulf again...)
 
jnmunsey said:
So basically access to the news/press on TV requires an exorbitant fee. Nice. Can you imagine if there was a tax to buy a newspaper here in the USA? Oh wait(for most states).
Click to expand...

Wrong. Access to the BBC requires a fee.

And I wouldn't exactly consider it to be exorbitant. As I recall it was 30 quid a year or around that when I was living over there.
 
Mchart said:
Wrong. Access to the BBC requires a fee.

And I wouldn't exactly consider it to be exorbitant. As I recall it was 30 quid a year or around that when I was living over there.
Click to expand...



That's incorrect. I've lived in the UK. Merely owning a device capable of viewing television required payment of the license fee, whether you watched the BBC or not. Television capable device purchases were registered with the government. "Detector vans" roamed around residential neighborhoods. (supposedly looking for secret signals emanating from televisions....I've been told they merely look for TV antennas on homes not listed as licensed and knock on the door.)

Color TV's - £147 (~$210) and Black and White TV's (!) £49.50 (~$70) a year. This is in addition to cable or satellite subscription costs, which are as expensive as they are in the US.

Plenty of people, particularly single mothers, were sent to prison for failure to pay.

I like the BBC overall, but given the amount of money they receive they're hardly what I would call efficient, like most socialist style setups where people are forced to pay regardless of whether the entity they are paying delivers good value or not. As a matter of fact, the quantity and quality of their output has been steadily dropping. Probably hit their peak in early 2000's.
 
Last edited:
GlowingGhoul said:
That's incorrect. I've lived in the UK. Merely owning a device capable of viewing television required payment of the license fee, whether you watched the BBC or not. Television capable device purchases were registered with the government. "Detector vans" roamed around residential neighborhoods. (supposedly looking for secret signals emanating from televisions....I've been told they merely look for TV antennas on homes not listed as licensed and knock on the door.

Color TV's - £147 (~$210) and Black and White TV's (!) £49.50 (~$70) a year. This is in addition to cable or satellite subscription costs, which are as expensive as they are in the US.

Plenty of people, particularly single mothers, were sent to prison for failure to pay.

I like the BBC overall, but given the amount of money they receive they're hardly what I would call efficient, like most socialist style setups where people are forced to pay regardless of whether the entity they are paying delivers good value or not. As a matter of fact, the quantity and quality of their output has been steadily dropping. Probably hit their peak in early 2000's.
Click to expand...

Had two TV's in my house. Never paid, never had any issues.

I'm aware of the 'detector vans' who would purposely track down houses of those who didn't pay and look for an antenna - But if you didn't have an antenna you had nothing to worry about.

Given that single mothers in the UK receive a substantial government allowance it really doesn't make me feel bad for folks stupid enough not to pay the fee and have an antenna.

If you can't afford 150 quid a year then you probably shouldn't be watching TV as it is, and you know damn well most of these people probably have a 100 quid a month Virgin cable package on top of it.
 
Last edited:
Nice to know that all countries have their things that that make them bat shit crazy when it comes to content and how it is accessed.
 
otherweeb said:
It's actually a very old business model (approaching 100 years). With the all the content available on the internet I wonder how the BBC will survive.
Click to expand...

My guess is the same why they have for the last 100 years, taxing those living in the UK, whether they agree with what the BBC pushes or not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top