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A few weeks ago, my husband got us a digital cable box, despite the fact that we don’t have a television.
The reasoning behind the cable box is that should we ever decide to get a television, using it would somehow be free, with our cable plan. But one of the reasons we don’t have a television has to with the fact that watching broadcast television, like many other things in this fair country, comes with a yearly tax; in 2008 to 2009, that tax was around £140. Not a ton of money, but more than I, an American who assumes that television should be free, want to pay.
Now, we’d heard about this TV tax well before we even moved here. But I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know exactly what it was or how it was collected.
It’s simply a tax on any device, including laptops and mobile phones, that is used to receive a television program at the same time its being watched or broadcast to other members of the public. It’s set annually by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports, the BBC has the right to collect the tax, and the money goes to pay for their broadcasts. All well and good – the BBC does some great programming and while they make most things available on iPlayer, their web-based radio and television streaming program, it’s not all there.
But the question is, how do they determine whether there is a television on the premises, and that it’s being used for watching broadcast TV, not just DVDs and video games?
The answer: They have surveillance vans.
For decades, TV-tax dodgers have been foiled by the TV licensing patrols – essentially, vans with large antennae atop them sniffing out TV signals. And if they, the licensing patrols, determine that someone is using a television unlawfully, they can levy a fine of up to £1,000. The first such vans hit the streets in 1926, trying to catch radio listeners who were dodging the obligatory 10-shilling license fee. The invention of TV brought a new generation of vans, but it’s only been in the last 17 years or so that the vans have really been effective, able to not only determine if there’s a television receiver in use, but to cross reference the information with an on-board database of TV license holders as well. In 2007, the TV licensing department unveiled a new weapon in the fight against TV-tax dodgers: A handheld device that can detect if a television is on within a radius of 29 feet.
The larger triumph of the vans, however, isn’t so much in catching dodgers outright, but in the fear they’re able to conjure. Even televised public service announcements warning potential TV-tax dodgers were designed to strike a note of paranoia in TV viewers:
In this one, from 1970, a TV license patrolman says, “Yes, there’s a TV set on at No 5. It’s in the front room – and they are watching Columbo.” It is no surprise that George Orwell was British.
Despite the fact that the TV tax is ingrained in British media culture, there have been some rumors of revolt lately – in the last few years, polls have shown that people would like to see the BBC funded in some other way, or to do away with the tax all together. At the same time, watching television programs on the internet, specifically those that have already been broadcast to the TV viewing audience, is a bit of what media watchdog group OfCom considers a TV-tax grey area and one that, as people continue to rely on the internet and digital cable recording for TV, will need to be figured out.
As of now, we haven’t decided what to do with the digital cable box, which remains in its box, unopened, in our spare room. And though the BBC does air some great shows, programs like Clever v. Stupid and Strictly Come Dancing are making me wonder – what exactly are 25 million Brits paying for?
[Image courtesy of TV Licensing.]
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Comments (13)
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Ironically, I learned about the TV tax by watching TV.
On an episode of the Young Ones, the gang tries to dodge their TV tax by making Vivian eat their television set to hide the evidence.
posted by holly on 10-8-2009 at 11:07 am
Hmmm… doesn’t seem fair if you don’t watch the BBC.
posted by Ranger J on 10-8-2009 at 11:56 am
I remember reading that this technology isn’t possible, and that the whole idea of a TV patrol van is just a way to scare people into paying their TV tax. If you can provide documented cases of people actually being busted by the TV patrol van, I will change my beliefs. But until then there is no evidence to substantiate the notion that you can be busted for watching TV by a man in a van.
posted by Mike Jenkins on 10-8-2009 at 1:11 pm
Ranger, the only people in the UK that don’t watch the BBC don’t have TV’s. Also, the people in the UK look on the BBC with a lot of pride, they’re pretty happy to pay the fee. Also, you can pay the license fee in monthly installments.
posted by alice on 10-8-2009 at 1:18 pm
Living in London for a couple years long ago, I had a TV but didn’t pay the tax. I guess it was on occasionally because that’s how I got hooked on Keeping Up Appearances (note the moniker). I lived in an apt. building so maybe back then they didn’t have the technology to pinpoint which apt. had the TV on.
posted by Hyacinth on 10-8-2009 at 2:10 pm
In the Monty Python “Fish License Sketch,” there is reference to the “cat detector van.” From the “Ministry of Housinge,” “their equipment could pinpoint a purr at four hundred yards.”
posted by Steven on 10-8-2009 at 2:54 pm
“an American who assumes that television should be free”
-It’s been my experience as an American that if you want to watch more four channels, you’re going to have to pay for TV. And considering my cable bill, (even with the exchange rate) 140 pounds a year sounds like a steal. Unless you are additionally paying for cable or something similar.
posted by Lindsey on 10-8-2009 at 5:18 pm
@Lindsey, most people in the UK use either freeview (which is a box that gives you a fair amount of channels) Sky TV (which is like dish network) or Virgin, which is cable.
posted by alice on 10-8-2009 at 5:35 pm
I’d trade £140 a year for not having to put up with the constant ad breaks which appeared to interrupt telly in the US.
This pays for 7/8 channels, a similar number of radio stations, and probably the best news website in the world.
posted by Dom on 10-8-2009 at 5:38 pm
It has been shown in court that the TV Licensing company won’t show how their ’surveillance vans’ work and therefore it is not used as evidence. Most of us Brits regard them as a myth nowadays and I in fact have not heard mention of them for quite a few years.
I find the TV Licensing company extremely rude. When I was at university I received a barrage of letters telling me they ‘knew’ I had a TV. I did not. I eventually got hold of them and they said they’d send someone round to check my premises. I have no idea if they ever did as I lived in halls with no outside bell!
posted by Nikki on 10-8-2009 at 6:35 pm
I used to live in London and my British roommates never took the letters from the TV license people seriously. The freeview thing is a good deal though – you pay £30 for a box and nothing more, and it’s upwards of 100 channels (though like in the US a lot of them you’d never watch).
posted by Colin GG on 10-8-2009 at 11:16 pm
The science behind the van is simple.The van broadcasts a television signal to sets in a small area.Special audio playing from the set speaker is detected by microphone.There was no return on the investment in vacuum tube rolling television stations.Brits are so ignorant of science that the van only needed to display cheap stickers.A practical process would be in an office cross checking computer databases and flagging mismatches for sticker inspection.Brit celebrities are quizzed about the current cost of the license fee to expose a Tory with tatoos.
posted by Toby Bo on 10-9-2009 at 2:54 am
When I studied abroad in London, our tuition went to the school and they were supposed to pay rent and other expenses. However we got SEVERAL letters in the mail saying that we were watching TV illegally and they were going to come take our TV away…I put the letter in my scrapbook.
posted by Alexis on 10-9-2009 at 6:53 am