Do I've to pay TV License fee?

mikemac

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, seems the best place to me

I’ve a 14” portable at home.
I use it playing the Nintendo 64 and watching DVD’s

I cannot watch terrestrial TV on it for three reasons:
•Cannot get a signal due to living beside Croke Park. When I tried to wireless broadband the technician said the same thing.
•TV can only be tuned through the remote. Unfortunately this had partially melted when I left it on the radiator so I have no way of tuning in channels on the TV.
•There is no NTL socket or satellite dish in the apartment

Around 6:30 every Wednesday, the TV licence inspector has been calling around.
I’ve been ignoring him so far but if I invited him in and told the truth, would he accept I didn’t need to pay a license fee?

Thanks for any help

arybvtcw0eolkf

Yes, you still need to pay a licence fee.

county

you have a TV,therefore you need a TV licence plan and simple

Rabies

You have a TV, you need a license.
Get a multi functional all in one remote at your local hardware/electronic store.

biko

boards.ie > Arts > Television > Television is the TV forum

muckwarrior

Invite him in, dismember him and dump him in the canal.

Seriously though, if it's a 14" TV surely you can throw it in the wardrobe and then bring him in and show him you don't have a TV.

Archeron

muckwarrior wrote:

Invite him in, dismember him and dump him in the canal.

Seriously though, if it's a 14" TV surely you can throw it in the wardrobe and then bring him in and show him you don't have a TV.

Just make sure you connect your Nintendo to a friends bellybutton and have them stand in the corner making "click-beep" noises to avoid any suspicion of having a games console with no screen.

cournioni

What if you have one of those wrist tv's that you can get in Gadgetshop?

robinph

If your confident that the TV cannot be tuned into a terrestrial signal then invite him in and show him as it's the ability to receive signals that your paying the license for, not the TV screen.

Mossy Monk

if you have a tv tuner you need a license

muckwarrior

robinph wrote:

If your confident that the TV cannot be tuned into a terrestrial signal then invite him in and show him as it's the ability to receive signals that your paying the license for, not the TV screen.

I'm pretty sure you're wrong there. I recall ads a few years ago that stated that even if you had a tv in your office that you only used for showing training videos or whatever, you still needed a licence for it.

robinph

muckwarrior wrote:

I'm pretty sure you're wrong there. I recall ads a few years ago that stated that even if you had a tv in your office that you only used for showing training videos or whatever, you still needed a licence for it.

Yep, it's the tuner that your paying for and if that does not exist in the TV then you don't have to pay, if it does then you do. The OP's TV seem to be faulty though so might be able to get around it.

Tom Dunne

robinph wrote:

If your confident that the TV cannot be tuned into a terrestrial signal then invite him in and show him as it's the ability to receive signals that your paying the license for, not the TV screen.

Wrong, so wrong.

The law is quite clear - any device capable of receiving a signal. It is irrelevant that he can't actually receive a signal, it's down to the fact that the device was built to receive one.

Mitch Connor

you still have to pay for a broken tv, unless it really can't be fixed, at all.

Haven't a Clue

micmclo wrote:

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, seems the best place to me

I’ve a 14” portable at home.
I use it playing the Nintendo 64 and watching DVD’s

I cannot watch terrestrial TV on it for three reasons:
•Cannot get a signal due to living beside Croke Park. When I tried to wireless broadband the technician said the same thing.
•TV can only be tuned through the remote. Unfortunately this had partially melted when I left it on the radiator so I have no way of tuning in channels on the TV.
•There is no NTL socket or satellite dish in the apartment

Around 6:30 every Wednesday, the TV licence inspector has been calling around.
I’ve been ignoring him so far but if I invited him in and told the truth, would he accept I didn’t need to pay a license fee?

Thanks for any help

More importantly, how many tickets did you get for the match on Saturday?

Archeron

Do you need a license if you have a pet Teletubbie with Tummy-vision?

brianthebard

Maybe its just someone pretending to be the TV License inspector...does he look like the guy off the ad?

robinph

tom dunne wrote:

Wrong, so wrong.

The law is quite clear - any device capable of receiving a signal. It is irrelevant that he can't actually receive a signal, it's down to the fact that the device was built to receive one.

Sorry, I should have made it clearer when I said about not being able to tune into a signal. I didn't mean just because of where the TV happened to be positioned was enough to get around it, the OP said that the TV is faulty and cannot receive a signal for that reason and not just because there is a big stadium outside their window.

leeroybrown

As was pointed out above if you have a TV with a broken tuner you still need a license.

humanji

Archeron wrote:

Do you need a license if you have a pet Teletubbie with Tummy-vision?

I'd imagine you'd need a pet license and a tv license and presumably a shotgun too.

robinph

leeroybrown wrote:

As was pointed out above if you have a TV with a broken tuner you still need a license.

If the hardware cannot pick up TV channels then why would you need a license?

brianthebard

robinph wrote:

If the hardware cannot pick up TV channels then why would you need a license?

Cause it's a TV license, not an RTE license?

robinph

brianthebard wrote:

Cause it's a TV license, not an RTE license?

Well it is actually an RTE license, but they couldn't care less as to if you watch their programs or not.

If the TV hardware cannot be tuned into a signal other than the AV channel though then you don't need a license. But if you happen to have a video recorder though that does tune in OK then you will still need a license.

Overheal

Then surely we should have to pay a radio license? What complete bull****

And how does a radio station make its money? The same way a terrestrial TV station makes money in any other country: ADVERTISEMENT.

And just what is RTE doing with the money? Its total sh*te anyway.

layke

This is going back a few years but when I was 17 I used to work in a video shop and when the inspector came round all he did was check to see if our TV's could receive terrestrial channels. Once he found out that we had removed the antennas there was no problem.

Then again things could have changed since then. TBh your best bet is to call up whoever is in the know and ask.

robinph

Overheal wrote:

Then surely we should have to pay a radio license? What complete bull****

And how does a radio station make its money? The same way a terrestrial TV station makes money in any other country: ADVERTISEMENT.

And just what is RTE doing with the money? Its total sh*te anyway.

The TV license used to be called a radio license, then someone invented a way of adding pictures to the radio signal and they changed what they called it. Some of the RTE radio stations get funding from the TV license in addition to the advertising revenue I think. TV3 don't get money from the TV license, only the RTE channels do.

Tar.Aldarion

Open up the tv and break the reciever.

leeroybrown

robinph wrote:

If the hardware cannot pick up TV channels then why would you need a license?

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Open up the tv and break the reciever.

Any broken TV is legally deemed to be repairable for TV licensing purposes and a therefore a TV license is required. That's the way the law is written and enforced.

robinph

leeroybrown wrote:

Any broken TV is legally deemed to be repairable for TV licensing purposes and a therefore a TV license is required. That's the way the law is written and enforced.

The cheeky feckers do have that written into it after all. Although I'm sure that some lawyer with too much time on their hands could argue their way round that clause as being unfair in some European Court of Nonsense or other though.

dr.bollocko

I'd say leggit clean to another country with yer tv in one arm and the N64 in the other. If u leave on a thursday morning you will have a week headstart on the f***ers. You could maintain a video diary for us of your adventures around the world, being chased by one Irish licence inspector.

monkeyfudge

robinph wrote:

TV3 don't get money from the TV license, only the RTE channels do.

Actually 5% of the license fee goes into the Sound and Vision fund which any broadcaster can apply for.... And my radio station gets money out of the license fee this way.... So everyone please pay your license fee so that I can continue to afford feed my monkey.

Bonzodog

just what does the license pay for anyway?

I'm British, and having come over to Ireland, i think something is fishy about this. I know someone said earlier that they thought the fee went to RTE in part, but their advertising revenue would be more than enough.

No, I have a conspiracy theory;

We all know that the Irish and British Governments are in cahoots with each other (Trust me, they share social security records!), so is it not inconceivable that at least 60% of your fee is actually funding the BBC for those Irish residents that receive it over cable or Satellite?

It is well known that a majority of the country now uses cable or Satellite, which always has the BBC channels available and we all also know that Sky are not paying your BBC license fee to the UK, which leads me to think the above.

Maybe, Bertie agreed with Tony to hand over a percentage of the fee to the BBC/UK Government, and then lose the rest in government taxation.

Another thing that made me think about this - Look at the fee amount - it converts very closely to the UK license fee.
What do people think? Possible?

Mossy Monk

Bonzodog wrote:

What do people think?

i think you are nuts. do you per chance own a tin foil hat?

Terry

Bonzodog wrote:

just what does the license pay for anyway?

I'm British, and having come over to Ireland, i think something is fishy about this. I know someone said earlier that they thought the fee went to RTE in part, but their advertising revenue would be more than enough.

Population of britain: roughly 60 million.
Population of Ireland: roughly 4 million.

I think it's safe to say that the BBC receive a bit more that RTÉ, thus the need for advertising revenue.

StephenC_IRL

is your n64 connected using the antenna socket or the av in ? if its the av in then take a plastic covering and superglue it over the antenna socket, so it cant be removed, clean it up so it doesnt like you glued it. then claim it was part of a cctv system and you got it cheap (provided it isnt an argos brand tv like beko, alba, bush) then they should accept that if theres no way to give it a terrestrial signal then your ok

rogue-entity

Televisions that cannot receive a terrestrial signal, such as Monitors for CCTV are exempt from the licence fee. We had such a monitor in the parents shop, the inspector came in one day and asked if we could get the TV channels on it.. when dad told him it was just for the cameras, he just went off on his rounds, no fuss.

AFAIK You need a TV licence for ANY equipment capable of receiving television signals, so that means that even if you have no television but you had a sattelite receiver lying around, you are liable to pay the licence. You also have to pay a licence even if all you have is a TV tuner card for your PC. When networks like 3 start transmitting TV programmes over their network, owners of those mobile phones will have to pay a fee unless they have a TV licence already as in the UK. Basically, if you can receive television signals, or have any device that can, you have to pay up. Its a bitch, but that is what you get for living in this banana republic.

Oh, and the UK TV licence is much higher then ours at about £160.

InFront

As others have said; OP, you need a licence for equipment capable of receiving signals. That is the law. You should obey the law like everyobody else.

admiralofthefleet

InFront wrote:

As others have said; OP, you need a licence for equipment capable of receiving signals. That is the law. You should obey the law like everyobody else.

agreed, the bottom line is, if you have a device capable of receiving tv signals then you have to pay the licence

Wibbs

Throw out the TV and buy a monitor. End of problem. No license required.

Saruman

Is there not another clause that says that if you do not have a TV then you must pay a lower priced radio license?

mikemac

InFront wrote:

As others have said; OP, you need a licence for equipment capable of receiving signals. That is the law. You should obey the law like everyobody else.

Thanks for all the replies.
I'm giving the TV to my sister to avoid any hassle. She can get her own licence.

In order for me to watch TV, I'd need to get a new remote control (€30) and then either SKY/NTL or some other TV provider and it's not worth the hassle and I can't justify the expense.

So I'm giving the portable to the sister and getting a 19" monitor off Komplett so I watch DVD's and play the old N64.
Problem solved but I ain't happy about it.

constitutionus

just out of interest what powers does a TV liscenes inspector have? i may be wrong but i dont think the feckers can come into your house unless they have a warrent so just ignore the ****er. even the cops dont have the right to kick your door down unless a court gives it to em.

personally the OPs case seems extreme, i haven't seen a TV licence inspector in about 3 years so coming back every week sounds like harassment. if you've no cable or satalite dish just tell him you dont have a telly and if he argues with you threaten to sue him for defamation. its not like theres any external proof youve got a TV

Fighting Irish

The TV licence is a scam, i don't know why the whole country doesn't stand up and just say "**** this, i'm not paying **** for 3 crappy ****ing channels"

Fighting Irish

tom dunne wrote:

Wrong, so wrong.

The law is quite clear - any device capable of receiving a signal. It is irrelevant that he can't actually receive a signal, it's down to the fact that the device was built to receive one.

what if you have a broken TV sitting in your back garden and no TV in the house?

shamblertine

constitutionus wrote:

just out of interest what powers does a TV liscenes inspector have? i may be wrong but i dont think the feckers can come into your house unless they have a warrent so just ignore the ****er. even the cops dont have the right to kick your door down unless a court gives it to em.

I was just going to ask that. I live in a flat and I know when I'm going to have visitors, so if anyone else comes to my door its likely to be them. So if I don't open the door I can't see them and therefore they aren't there.

Overheal

You know where most of that money goes? It gets thrown away on stupid prizes on the lotto-show-thing or on the Den. Don't get me started on the Toy Show.

Their efforts would be better focused on making television good enough to broadcast overseas; make a few pennies out of licensing it off. BskyB is raping everywhere.

Mossy Monk

Overheal wrote:

You know where most of that money goes? It gets thrown away on stupid prizes on the lotto-show-thing or on the Den. Don't get me started on the Toy Show.

wouldnt scratch cards pay for that lottery quiz show?

Terry

yes, they certainly do.

muckwarrior

Overheal wrote:

You know where most of that money goes?

Yeah, it goes to talentless cυnts like Gerry Ryan and Pat Kenny! They can fυck off if they think I'm gonna pay the wages of those useless fυckers!

DeBeere

Do I need a TV License for the TV turner in the car???

...I'll just drive away!

worded

If someone is knocking at your door and you suspect they are inspectors
my favourite line is .....

"Im sorry mother, I dont believe its you"

They sometimes claim to be "An Post" on the intercom.