Is your dog's unusual barking a secret code for something mysterious?

[Busybird]

We have been invited to a friends for a BBQ tomorrow - to include football.

 

Is there anyone else out there in Omletville who questions a sound, family decison at times of national empathy?

[Egluntyne]

Not sure I understand the question, Busybird.

[Busybird]

Sorry, didn't mean to be enigmatic.

 

We don't have broadcast TV in our house - just a screen and DVD player. Which means that at these great moments of national history - such as the World Cup - we cannot follow the live action.

 

OH and I have been invited to a friends for a BBQ followed by football on the telly on Saturday. I wondered if anyone else was 'depriving' their family of the experience of watching the footie live due to their view that broadcast TV wasn't worth having.

[Sam Palmer]

Depends whether or not any of you actually like football.

I'd be quite happy to be TV free for the next 4 weeks, it wouldn't bother the rest of the family either.

[Olly]

Ah - now I understand!

 

Since the World Cup only comes round every four years, I don't think I would think it worth having a TV for the other 3 years and 50 weeks! (I do actually have broadcast TV, but I rarely watch it and I grew up without a TV). The World Cup is the only football I watch, but for me the pleasure is watching it with friends - so I'd be very happy to go round to someone else's house to watch a match, and I bet they feel the same about having you round to see it with them. Nothing more dull than watching a match on your own and groaning (or cheering) in an empty room!

[Egluntyne]

Aaah I see now.

 

But, what if England wins? Assuming you are supporting England That really is a once in a lifetime event. It would be a shame to miss it if they get to the final.

[docsquid]

Well, for me it isn't a once in a lifetime experience, as I remember watching England win in 1966. "Some people are on the pitch...they think it's all over. IT IS NOW!" I remember watching our flickering black and white TV with my Dad and being very excited. And we're a Welsh family, so we were strictly impartial of course

 

The difference between then and now is the hype that surrounds it all. I am happy to watch a good match, be it England or any other good team. I probably won't bother watching the group matches. Might watch some of the England matches if they make it through the group stages. Will probably watch other teams I like to watch, like Brazil and Italy too, provided there isn't too much diving and clinging onto completely undamaged legs and over-acting.

 

However, it is a special atmosphere if your country is trying to do something special - I certainly found somewhere to watch Wales beat France to win the Grand Slam while skiing in the French Alps, and it was a great occasion (and lovely to hear Welsh spoken and sung so far from home!).

 

I think maybe it would be nice for your kids to watch if England get to the semi-final and/or final, but there will be hundreds of places they could go to watch it including public screens if that is the case. Otherwise, I don't think you're depriving them of anything really. You certainly aren't depriving them of anything if they can't watch every match.

[The Dogmother]

I agree - we have a (very small TV) which is almost never on. It certainly won't be showing any football!

[Lavenders_Blue]

I might give up my TV licence for the next month

 

Don't think DH would be impressed though

[PurpleTree]

I'll be trying not to watch any of the football, but hubby's quite excited about it. I've said he can watch it on an evening as long as he doesn't have the sound on, which he's agreed to he'd much rather have the iPod on. He has pointed out though that the Final is on my due date, so hopefully we won't be able to watch it

 

I would love to get rid of the TV, or only have it connected to the DVD player and Wii. We don't really watch very much, I much prefer to read my book and listen to music. If there is ever anything worth watching on I can easily watch it on iPlayer or similar at a time that suits me.

[PurpleTree]

Sorry, didn't mean to be enigmatic.

 

We don't have broadcast TV in our house - just a screen and DVD player. Which means that at these great moments of national history - such as the World Cup - we cannot follow the live action.

 

OH and I have been invited to a friends for a BBQ followed by football on the telly on Saturday. I wondered if anyone else was 'depriving' their family of the experience of watching the footie live due to their view that broadcast TV wasn't worth having.

 

Do you still have to pay your TV licence? When we enquired about it, they said because we've got laptops and broadband in the house we therefore still had a way of watching TV, so we'd still have to have a licence.

[stoice]

Do you still have to pay your TV licence? When we enquired about it, they said because we've got laptops and broadband in the house we therefore still had a way of watching TV, so we'd still have to have a licence.

 

I would have thought so.

 

Our boss has just installed a plasma in the boardroom for 'presentations' NOTHING to do with the fact he's a huge footy fan! (We can have the afternoon in the boardroom to watch the england match in a few weeks time as long as we make it up afterwards) But he was saying that he had a tv liscence for the business anyway because if the macs we use go online then we could watch live tv via the web and he's be liable. Interestingly, if you brought your laptop to work and watched the match running off it's battery then it's covered under your home tv licence but the second you plug in the power at a work premises it needs to be covered by the works licence. So i was told.

Sorry, slightly off topic.

I've been stocking up dvds and recording series' to watch when the footy is on, I'm not really a fan, wimbledon is on soon too isn't it? I like tennis but you can have too much sport on every channel! Don't get me started on Big Brother either!

[Olly]

That's interesting - I have a good friend who doesn't have a TV, but she uses her Mac and iPlayer to watch the occasional programme. I thought the TV licence related to receiving broadcasts ... it's all a bit confusing isn't it. She certainly doesn't have a licence! I'll warn her of this.

[bigmommasally]

This may help clear up any confusion over the TV licence and watching on your PC's/laptops.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/01/iplayer_does_not_require_a_tv_1.html

 

[PurpleTree]

We were also told if we had a TV in the house, even if it wasn't connected to an aerial or receiver, we'd still have to pay as we still in theory had the facility to watch TV.

 

For anyone interested we've started using this site http://tvcatchup.com/ it's live TV, you just have to register.

[bluekarin]

We were also told if we had a TV in the house, even if it wasn't connected to an aerial or receiver, we'd still have to pay as we still in theory had the facility to watch TV.

 

For anyone interested we've started using this site http://tvcatchup.com/ it's live TV, you just have to register.

 

Thats good. Not heard of it before. But be aware you still need a tv license to watch BBC programmes (copied below from their T's and C's)

 

It is the member's sole responsibility to establish whether the use they put to the service provided require authorization or registration with any third party, whether any fees or licences for the receipt of TV programs or other broadcasting formats apply or whether any copyright royalties are due. Each User acknowledges and agrees that he or she will diligently and expediently comply with such obligations at all times, and continue to do so for so long as they shall continue to use the Service

[majorbloodnock]

Grrr. I just know this is going to set me off, so apologies if this post is a rant by the time I get to the end of it.

 

No, we don't have a television licence or, indeed, a television set. However, we don't get worked up about football either, so missing the World Cup won't be a problem.

 

However, as to licencing, my wife and I have had numerous battles with the licencing authorities who won't believe anyone could possibly choose not to have a telly. Therefore, we've found out quite a lot about what is and isn't covered.

 

A television licence isn't a licence for televisions; it's a licence for receiving and watching televisual broadcasts. Therefore, any equipment that can receive a TV broadcast signal and do something with it requires a TV licence. That includes DVD recorders ('cos they're recording a live signal) and laptops with TV cards in them. However, the flip side is that anything that cannot do all this is exempt from a TV licence. This includes televisions that are detuned (i.e. all the channels on the telly are tuned such that they only show the "snow storm"), televisions that are not connected to an arial and laptops that don't have TV cards in. Merely having a laptop and broadband does not require you to have a TV licence, although if you find an online service that broadcasts a programme at the same time as it's being shown on the TV, you should be licenced if you use it.

 

My experience is that the TV Licencing Authority have used incredibly heavy handed bullying tactics in the past, but stepped over the line and came under fire a few years ago. Now, they're far more polite, although none the less distrustful. They also, IMHO, fuel all sorts of rumours and urban myths, so blurring the line about what is and isn't covered by a licence in order that people in the grey area err on the side of caution and buy a TV licence just in case, thereby increasing the revenue stream. They're an arrogant, money-grabbing beaurocracy with far too little accountability.

[Tutti Frutti]

This is useful http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/ - explains about 2nd homes, laptops away from home running on batteries or being plugged in, caravans and tents You even need a licence if you watch live TV on your mobile

 

Don't get me started on the cost of it. Nor the number of people sent to the World Cup. There was hoohah a while ago about the number of journos sent for the Olympics! I thought it'd be like my camping clothes - "one clean, one on, and one in the wash!"

[Blackrocksrock]

Now the leaves are on the trees we cannot get a clear digital sky dish signal - so for the summer not much tv here till we sort the trees! Football - hate the stuff

[Geoid]

I think you need a TV licence to watch TV programmes as they are being broadcast.

[sadietoo]

We won't be watching the world cup in our house either...even if England is in the final..we frankly couldn't give a monkey's...my husband's motto is give them all a ball

 

the TV licencing authority have to be the most rude government department that exists....

 

we have an empty property and are constantly bombarded with threats of what they will do to us if they find us receiving broadcasts....you would think they advocate hanging drawing and quartering if you read the letters....

 

we light the fire with the warning letters...I know it's petty but it makes us feel better...

[Busybird]

When we decided to do away with broadcast TV we rang the TV licencing authority for advice. We were told that we could have a TV that was not tuned or attached to an aerial and could watch bought, pre-recorded video's (didn't have a DVD player at that time!) but not video's recorded by others. It was explained that this was to stop us getting our favourite TV shows recorded by friends. It all seemed fair enough.

 

We got the threatening letters for a couple of years but just binned them. Eventually a man arrived on our doorstep - he was very polite, noted our set up and left. A month or so later we got a telephone call, again the man was very polite and just asked us to confirm that we did not receive a broadcast signal. We have heard nothing from them since.

 

When we bought our new TV and DVD player we were told that the shop was obliged to inform the TV licensing authority of our purchase. I don't know if they were told that we specifically asked that the TV not be tuned when it was installed but we have not heard from them. I don't know what the rules around a computer would be.

 

OH and the kids watched the footie at our friend's house on Saturday and seemed to enjoy it. They are keeping the wallchart I printed off for them up to date as matches are played but haven't complained about not being able to watch. Not sure if they will moan more if England get through the group stages.

[Lesley]

We had to move out of our house for 8 months while we had extension built and a new roof, we changed the TV Licence over to the rented property but their database couldn't add notes to that effect re our original address. We had so many threatening letters and I got fed-up with phoning them so I just ignored them in the end - they would have had fun trying to find a TV of any kind amidst the builders tea mugs, scaffolding and tarps.