The Pros And Cons Of Public TV And Television In The UK

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A cold and rainy day in the UK, which are like most days there, on January 1st, 1927 birth of an idealistic concept was born. Produce publicly funded T.V. programming, yet keep it separate from state. The choices that lay ahead were, to charge the public for the programming, or sell airtime commercially to fund public TV and radio. The UK unlike the Americas choose to charge the public, by means of a TV License rather than sell commercial time. After doing a survey, almost 70% of participants stated, “commercials would take too much away from the enjoyment of the Telly.”¹ As the TV license for programming progressed it became a law and tax, which would contradict the earlier of keeping it separate from state.
To charge practically everyone in the country and insure they have a TV license if in fact they are partaking in watching of said TV, is a major undertaking for a country of approximately 31 Million households, as published by their National Data Base information page ¹. Information on this website also states, that of the 31 million address’s that make up the list there are 25 million that have active licenses, and 3.9 million of those are at a discounted rate for seniors over 75, and around 40,000 customers have a 50% discounted rate for being legally blind as they can only hear the TV but not view it.
In part with keeping track of violators the UK employs sensor vans, and hand held devices that pick up radio and TV signals and their strength which then can be located to insure a license is issued. Moving into the 20th Century you are also required to purchase a license if you watch TV or listen to radio on a computer, or iPad, or phone as well. If two people live at the same residence and there is more than on...

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...population; according to the latest Gallop Poll4, as opposed to the UK being at 20% according to University of Birmingham, UK5. Ultimately it depends on if you want to spend money on a TV license or doctor visits as to which is the best. My findings are conclusive that with commercial TV Americans have choices as opposed to people of the UK who have to purchase a TV License and have no freedom of choice.
Worked Cited Page:
1http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk ,accessed, February 17th, 2014
2http://.marketingcharts.com/television/primetime-tv-hour ,accessed, February 17th, 2014
3http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2012/forum_20120921/en/ ,accessed, February, 17 2014
4http://www.gallup.com/poll/165671/obesity-rate-climbing-2013.aspx,accessed, February 17, 2014
5http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/mds/centres/obesity/obesity-uk/index.aspx ,accessed, February 17, 2014

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