Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Thousands in UK Still Watch TV in Black and White

posted by martyb on Thursday November 08 2018, @09:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-don't-see-what-you-did-there dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

BBC:

More than 7,000 people still watch TV in black and white more than half a century after colour broadcasts began.

London has the most TV licences for black and white sets at 1,768, followed by 431 in the West Midlands and 390 in Greater Manchester.

A total of 7,161 UK households have failed to start watching in colour despite transmissions starting in 1967.

BBC2 was the first channel to regularly broadcast in colour from July that year with the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

The number of black and white licences has almost halved in the past five years and is down from 212,000 in 2000.

Aha! Those must be the last Manichaeans.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Thousands in UK Still Watch TV in Black and White | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 92 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday November 08 2018, @10:56PM (6 children)

    by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Thursday November 08 2018, @10:56PM (#759596)

    I don't even own a tv. What does that make me?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Thursday November 08 2018, @10:57PM

    by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Thursday November 08 2018, @10:57PM (#759597)

    > I don't even own a tv. What does that make me?

    A target for their spy vans.

  • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Thursday November 08 2018, @11:24PM (3 children)

    by NewNic (6420) on Thursday November 08 2018, @11:24PM (#759605) Journal

    If you stream BBC on any device, you need a license.

    --
    lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @07:26PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @07:26PM (#760028)

      If you stream BBC on any device, you need a license.

      It's a bit more than that, from About your TV License on the back of my paper license

      This license lets you use and install TV receiving equipment at the licensed place, You are covered to:
      a) watch and record programmes as they're being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, including programmes streamed over the internet and satellite programmes from outside the UK
      b) watch and download BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer¹

      This can be on any device, including TVs, desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, games consoles, digital boxes, DVD, Blue-ray and VHS recorders, or anything else.

      Note that section a) covers all live streams, not just BBC programming, so even if your only pleasure in life is watching 'Mongolian Yak herding, live from Darkhan-Uul' streams here in the UK (as 'One Man and His Dog' just no longer quite cuts it...), the BBC want their pound of flesh from you.
      In effect, it's a stealth internet tax levied to keep them in the style to which they have become accustomed (after all, talentless shitheads like Chris Evans [wikipedia.org] don't come cheap [bbc.co.uk])

      ¹So pedantically, clause b) only legally applies if you use BBC iPlayer to watch this content.

      • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Friday November 09 2018, @07:39PM (1 child)

        by NewNic (6420) on Friday November 09 2018, @07:39PM (#760032) Journal

        I wonder what they do about the datacenter in London via which I stream BBC programs? Do they ask the datacenter if it has a license? On the other hand, the IP address is listed with a location that is in the middle of the Thames, so enquiries might be difficult.

        --
        lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @09:39PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @09:39PM (#760084)

          I wonder what they do about the datacenter in London via which I stream BBC programs? Do they ask the datacenter if it has a license?

          Funnily enough, most of these places if they're manned usually do have a License as there's usually a TV somewhere on the premises, this has been the case every place I've worked.

          On the other hand, the IP address is listed with a location that is in the middle of the Thames, so enquiries might be difficult.

          Know thee not the ways of the crack BBC Maritime License enforcement brigade (Underwater branch)? [divingalmanac.com]
          (Though seriously, I do remember an old Black&White Public Propaganda Film showing inspectors doing the rounds of boats in some harbour looking for unlicensed TV sets).
          They might be logging the IP numbers and doing traffic analysis to identify such behaviour, but as the people behind the collection of the license (Crapita) are spectacularly useless [duckduckgo.com] I wouldn't worry.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday November 08 2018, @11:25PM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Thursday November 08 2018, @11:25PM (#759606) Homepage

    This guy [theonion.com].

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk