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To: rudedog who wrote (60105)	4/29/1999 4:14:00 PM
From: rupert1	Respond to of 97611

rudedog: ****OT******* Fascinating. In the UK everyone with a TV has to pay a licence each year to the BBC, even though all other channels are free. The price is about double for colour as against black and white. I think it is about $150 per annum for colour. They are also trying to get permission for an additional levy for digital. It is a criminal offence not to have a licence.** They have detector vans which trawl neighbourhoods checking signals against the computerised list of licence holders. They do computerised audits of addreses. All vendors and rental agencies of TV have to supply the government with the names and addresses of purchasers of TV's. It is not a defence to claim that you never watch BBC. Every now and then a spate of cases is heard in local courts, people have gone to jail for non-payment. But the fine is usualaly $1,600. There is even a league of defaulters. I think Liverpool comes tops. My mother once had two investigators turn up at her home and allege that she did not have a licence - it was very frightening for her. In fact she had one. Apparently their computer records were at fault.