h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Not having watched my TV in about 6 months and since the licence fee was due in less than a month I've got rid of my TV.
I shall probably have to spend ages explaining to the licence authorities no I do not have a TV.
From previous experience it seems to be impossible for them to concieve that one might by choice not have a TV.

Sorry...you may have to explain this one to me...what license ??

Good gawd. Licence? Sounds like a PKDick novel where the protagonist has to pay the door to let him out into the hall.

But I demur. Hurray! You are free at last! Now you can ... er ... can you help me with this? What does life after TV look like? I'm frightened you know. Be gentle. Ani.

You can still rent movies, can't you?

In the UK we have to pay a licence fee for the BBC.
Life without TV looks much like it has for the last 6 months. I have a DVD player in my computer so I can still watch films

How's the not smoking going?

not started yet
I have cut down and I'm supposed to see my doctor on Thursday so anyday now ... maybe

Well, one thing at a time - I mean, no TV?

*Settles back into armchair and returns to Sleb Big Bro' LXXVI with only a carton of Camel for company*

Hello, btw

(I've just been reading the recently published collection of Bill Hicks's stuff: apparently, when he did his last tour of Britain and began by talking about how he'd given up smoking, people would regularly call out 'Judas!', a la Dylan going electric).

hi Trin
would that be 'love all the people'?
I did have the TV sitting there unwatched for 6 months before I decided it was safe to do without it
Between hootoo, computer ganes and ocasionally RL I just don't have the time to watch TV

Unwatched for six months? Now that's willpower - they'd have to chain me to the floor.

Not that I watch nearly as much as I used to - but I can't honestly recall the last time I didn't watch any at all in the course of a day.

Watched about 5 minutes of something when I was at my mums on Sunday but I can't recall the last time I switched the TV on and sat down to watch something.
Partly its the job, series and nightwork don't go together well.

I can see how a daytime-only diet might act as a form of inverse aversion therapy

I remember that from when I was unemployed but with 12 hour shifts and sleeping I have no time to watch TV when I'm at work

Great idea, Blackberry cat! I can't quite bring myself to ditch ours, and back in about 1999, our government abolished licence fees, so that's not a problem. I didn't have TV from 1980 to 1990, and didn't miss it, then we got given one. But for the last 3 months, we've watched aside from the news, only 3 programmes. Rest of the time, it's DVD, video, radio or CDs.

Luckily, when we had licences, all I had to do, was show the guy inside (this was back in 1988), and he was happy, because we were in a very small flat, that he could see we didn't have one.

How does NZ fund public service broadcasting now?
I usually get my news on the internet or radio.

Basically, it doesn't. What we have now, is some kind of horrible hybrid, dependent mostly on advertising. (TV)

Though one radio station is still funded...

It was a Tory-type government that abolished the TV licence, but much good did it do them in the next election, as it was only a token amount anyway! The incoming Labour government has what they called 'The Charter', which (supposedly) enshrines public broadcasting principles. But we're still snowed under with "reality" shows!

I forgot... news. For local news, we watch TV, but for international news, I rely on the good ole BBC World Service.

mind you the BBC has had a few of those but nowhere near as many as the commercial channels
theres a lot of pressure here to get rid of the licence fee, not surprisingly backed by Murdochs newspapers, The Sun and The Times

Murdoch's papers - why am I not surprised?

We have reality shows on all channels during prime time, and old movies, soaps, old cop shows - because it's still schoool holidays here, what we have most of is (are?) old movies and reality shows, mostly about real estate and gardening!

not that different from here which is why I don't think I'll miss it

You have to pay for the BBC? The ABC is funded... Or at least, I think that's how it works... I've never known anyone to have to pay for it, it's on the free-to-air channels. There are three main commercial channels (7, 9 and 10) and the ABC (and then SBS which has a whole pile of news in other languages and channel 31 which is community stuff).

And then there's ABC radio stations and stuff, but we don't have to pay...

Cat