No television.

About a year ago I got rid of my television and I can honestly say that it's the best thing that I ever did. To start with it means that I don't have to pay the BBC anything towards the licence fee.

It had got to the stage where all was on was a constant stream of tv talent shows, cookery programmes, soaps and repeats.

It also means that I have time to do other things like get a bit more reading done, get out for a run and if I realy want to watch something, I can always watch it later on by logging in to BBC iplayer.

Who else has gone tv cold turkey?

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Comments

  • JeremyGJeremyG ✭✭✭
    Haven't gone cold turkey, with wife and teenagers it would be mutiny. If there is nothing I want to see which is the norm these days I won't watch. Of course if I go off and read, run etc i get oh you don't want to be with me etc - no I just don't want to waste my time in front of tv. Oh ok let's call it the idiot box and my transformation into my Dad is complete!
  • good on you

    although watching shows on iplayer isn't quite going cold turkey, is it?

  • Ours only shows Ben 10 and Adventure Time.
  • i thought if you watched tv on the computer on i player or things you needed a liscence............

    i did do a major change in Febraury when I got rid of Sky after many many years.......had some objections from the teenagers at first..but now they accept that we just get a limited freeview.........

    had so many offers from sky to go back........but all I want is an apology........so no chance.......

     

  • You do need a licence for iplayer but only if you're streaming LIVE TV, not for recorded programmes. That said they are quite likely to come round to your house and harass the hell out of you because you've had a licence previously and no longer pay up.

    I know this because I worked at a community centre as a volunteer which ditched the telly and was hounded by the licence enforcers because they were a soft target. Be firm, explain that you DON'T watch live TV and as they have to catch you doing it and the onus is on them to prove you ARE rather than you proving you're NOT, you should be OK.



    Just don't expect them to live you alone for a while,
  • I think i could happily ditch it when the kids leave home.or maybe if i ditch the tv.the kids would leave home quicker image

     

  • I went without TV for a few years and I was constantly bombarded and threatened with letters from the licence people wanting me to buy one. Despite writing to them they still get writing and threatening and wanting to come and visit. I don't know who nicknamed the BBC Auntie. They must have some nasty relatives.
  • LIVERBIRD wrote (see)
    You do need a licence for iplayer but only if you're streaming LIVE TV, not for recorded programmes. That said they are quite likely to come round to your house and harass the hell out of you because you've had a licence previously and no longer pay up.
    I know this because I worked at a community centre as a volunteer which ditched the telly and was hounded by the licence enforcers because they were a soft target. Be firm, explain that you DON'T watch live TV and as they have to catch you doing it and the onus is on them to prove you ARE rather than you proving you're NOT, you should be OK.

    Just don't expect them to live you alone for a while,

    I've already had the snotty letter from them telling me that your address doesn't have a tv licence and is under investigation, so I phoned them and told them that I don't have a tv and only watch iplayer, 4OD etc on the internet. They said thanks for letting us know, but we may need to send someone round to check. I asked them how come the police don't harrass every person in the country that doesn't hold a gun licence, or the DVLA doesn't harrass everyone in the country who doesn't hold a driving licence. It seems like the TV licencing people seem to think that they can treat everyone who hasn't got a tv as a criminal. This just goes to prove what we've known all along. That it is an organisation run along the lines of a Communist state.

    Remember, Big Brother is watching you. Be afraid, be very afraid, even if you have done nothing wrong! image

  • The thing is Rickster, if they harass YOU they're more likely to force you to pay up as a previous licence holder than some chav in a high rise who has never bothered getting one at all. Soft target,....



    Hold your ground. They go away eventually. Just don't watch live feeds. Not even once.
  • Well, with a tv schedule packed with X Factor, Loose Women, The Jeremy Kyle Show, soaps and Big Brother, I don't think I'll be buying a television any time soon. image

  • Move, then move again, you'll lose them eventuallyimage

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    My OH did without a telly for a couple of years.

    The licencing people sent regular monthly letters, which he just ignored, and they went away in the end.  You don't have to engage with them - just ignore their letters.  Contact them and say you don't have a telly if you want, but you don't have to.

    I wouldn't call the treatment he got 'harrassment'.  They may have sent someone round, but no-one ever called when he was in.

    I only watch tv when there's something I particularly want to see - so not very often! 

  • MuttleyMuttley ✭✭✭

    Just ignore the licence fee people. If you're confident of your position and are in the right, you have nothing to worry about.

    The licence fee isn't only about TV, btw, and I watch very little, although personally I think it's worth every penny just for Radio 4 and BBC 4 (and the World Service, soon to be licence-fee funded).

     

  • it does fund the radio, but you don't need a licence to listen to the radio

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  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    Am I being a bit dim?  What ever happened to TV detector vans?  Or don't they work in the digital age?

    I was "between" tellies for a week or so and got through all of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, which was nice.  But I'm glad I've got a telly again.

  • LS21LS21 ✭✭✭

    I've not had a TV since they turned the analogue signal off (which was August 2011 in my area I think). I received one letter from TV Licencing and I rang them, telling them my TV was an old one and couldn't receive digital without a set-top box or whatever, and I just wasn't interested. I can honestly I've not had one single thing from them since either. They've just left me alone. No idea if they can monitor me, but I've had no contact.

    And I don't miss it at all either, although I do tend to spend far too long arsing round on FB and similar instead now....!

  • it is my belief that there is no such thing as TV detector vans and there never has been.

    it was a myth designed to frighten pensioners and small children.

  • What is this TV thing of which you speak?

  • Actually, the licence fee is worth it in its entirety for The Thick of It.

  • I wondered if that was true Dude. Did anyone ever see one? Did anyone ever know anyone who worked for one?
  • perhaps they were invisible.

    they certainly didn't work in Fife as i watched telly for years undetected image

  • When I was living in student digs I never had a telly, and it was genuinely the most fun few years of my life. That said, I wasn't just sat alone watching the walls, or reading in private, every night was a party or even just a game a cards or something, with some booze and interesting chats. it's not that the lack of telly was the reason life was such fun, it's just that my life didn't need a telly for entertainment at that time.

    these days i roll in from work, knackered usually, and often find myself just switching on the box for company if I get home before my gf, which is pretty sad, but i don't like to be in the house when it's silent.

  • If you drive up and down the country, past farmers' fields, you never see anyone working. Do farmers exist?

  • I don't have a TV and never have done.

    Just ignore all the letters from the licencing people. They have no real legal standing, are aggressive twerps. They harass you annually to get you to sign to say you don't have a TV licence. You don't have to do that. You can just tell them where to get off and they are not allowed to contact you anymore.

    If there are TV detector vans they don't use them because they won't work these days and it'd be too expensive to find anything that did. It's part of their bullyboy tactics to scare people into buying a TV licence.

    The only way you can get done is to admit that you watch TV without a licence.

    I watch TV at work, I like crime but I can read ya know.

  • Peter Collins wrote (see)

    If you drive up and down the country, past farmers' fields, you never see anyone working. Do farmers exist?

    I see farmers when I'm out, you just have to catch them early.

  • I love the silence of being on my own with no tv, no radio etc. And when I do watch, I like to choose a programme, turn on the tv, watch it, then turn the tv off again. Can't stand channel hoppers and people whose tv is always on whether they're watching it or not. I lived without a tv quite happily for ages a few years back and I'd do it again in a shot apart from my OH who likes to have it on from when he walks in the door after work right up till he goes to bed. Grrr! In his defence, he's quite badly dyslexic so can't enjoy reading the way I do. Still, I wish he'd take up yoga or quiet contemplation or something...

  • I've seen farmers working lots of times Peter you rapier witted townie you ;o)



    Heir Mouse- It's not whether the technology works now but whether it ever existed in the first place. Was it just an myth created by the BBC to scare us into getting licences?
  • We could take this the whole hog and complain about the way books did for those wonderful travelling story-tellers....

  • i see farmers..

    which is surprising because farmers aren't claiming to be sitting on a tractor outside my flatto find out if i am eating supermarket potatoes.

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