this right here is a threat that i received in my mailbox less than half a month ago and as
scary as it might seem to find out that there's a local investigation happening within my postcode
because of crimes that i've been committing within my property i'm not too sure i'm taking this very
seriously and i don't think any british people in my audience are either and there's good reason for
that why well strap yourselves running in today's video is about tv licensing now if you're new to
my channel you might not know hi my name is evan edinger and i like making videos about uk culture
us culture anything else i find interesting and today's of course is tv licenses you might be
unaware but i have actually made a video comparing the us and uk systems of how they disseminate
their tv i'll link that above but for a too long didn't watch don't feel like it right now
basically the way it works in the us is you plug into the wall you don't get many channels you have
to pay for them a cable company will give you all the channels you want for an exorbitant amount of
money like 100 bucks per month for the most part because they get landline and wi-fi either way
in the uk you plug in you pretty much got everything and you're meant to pay afterwards
you're meant to be like hey oh yes i plugged in my tv to watch some live tv and now i've got to
pay for it however you know some people are new to the country some people are old pensioners or
some people are just forgetful and so they might not actually pay their tv license hence why you
get one of these polite letters in the mail now if you are new to the country or an old person you
get the first one it's pretty polite you might say oh okay i'm sorry i made a mistake and you
pay the tv license however every consecutive month you will get more and more and more in
fact so far i've got so many of these stinking tv licensing things that it kind of loses the entire
scariness of it all in fact we've got one from january we've got one from february we've got one
from april and geez i even got one before i even moved into the property so turns out i'm breaking
the law before i even moved in it was really hard to get this flat but what exactly do these
official stamp looking documents really say well this one here says there's a local investigation
active in my postcode and as there's no record for a tv license at my address they've authorized an
enforcement visit now that will scare a lot of people you know at this point they're saying
you've broken the law and let's just say you are someone that is watching tv you're going to feel
a little bit scared about this so the entire goal of these types of letters is to scare you
into complying and to pay for your tv license it goes on to say it is a criminal offense to
watch or record live tv programs on any channel or device or download to watch bbc programs on
iplayer which is basically boomer netflix without being covered by a tv license this could result in
prosecution a fine of up to a thousand pounds plus legal fees but how much exactly is a tv license
well you'll be surprised to learn it's only 159 pounds a year unless of course you only want to
watch in black and white that's only like 33 quid not too bad by american standards this is arguably
quite a deal however i and i think many people these days aren't really tuning in to watch any
live tv in fact most of everything i watch is youtube related or possibly on netflix or
any of these other downloadable streamable internet type things i'm not really using the tv
for much of anything and in fact the tv that i own isn't plugged into the wall except to connect to
the wi-fi so i can actually watch things i want to watch but if they're sending me letters like this
and or even detailing in some of these certain dates they're going to visit like this one here
they're like oh boy april 13th you gonna be in bro cause we're stopping by we've got an enforcement
officer shouldn't i be concerned when they come in that maybe they're gonna catch me maybe look at me
doing something on iplayer or watching something where i don't have the rights to it and then i
might get fined no because you see they don't actually legally have any right to enter my
property all they can do is knock knock knock on the door and say can we come in and i go
no goodbye goodbye that's it you don't you don't offer them in for a cup of tea that's it
all they can do is knock on the door and say please and you just have to say nine donkey no
thank you they'll use certain phrasing to make you think they have the right to enter your property
and scare you around such as saying what do you need to know about the enforcement process well
we can apply to a court for a search warrant to gain access to your property
now that is true however there's a really important word in that sentence which is can
we can apply for a search warrant but we're not going to do that because that's a lot of
effort for this type of thing so it's just not going to happen you don't have to worry so yeah
it's a big piss take but here's the thing it's a piss tank for people like you and me
we know the law we understand how everything works we're not going to take this seriously
but as i said pensioners are people that these are really targeting they're trying to scare them into
paying and also people like me nine years ago when i first moved to the country as an initial
expat i got one of these in the frickin door at dovan flat and i was like oh my god i don't know
how this works are they going to catch me they say there's an enforcement officer coming i don't want
to get arrested i haven't committed any crimes and so i do the thing that you're probably screaming
the screen right now why don't you just write to them telling them that you don't watch the tv
i did this i said come on into dovan flat sir i let the guy in he gives one look to the flat
and realizes well we've got a tv but we use it so infrequently it's currently under that one glass
table that every british person has at one point in their life owned not plugged into the wall at
all hey i don't watch tv i was like i i don't know i'm watching stuff on my computer and i don't even
know what iplayer is i put on the most american accent ever he leaves that's case closed however
that just kind of delays it for a little bit because they will eventually start sending you
letters again like are you still not watching tv which is infuriating so rather than have to tell
them i'm not watching tv so that someone actually has to visit my property and go yep looks like
you're not watching anything illegal we'll write you down i'll just keep getting these once every
single month until the day i die or until the tv licensing fees are scrapped actually just
saw this in the news just yesterday bbc license fee faces the scrap from 2028 as torrey suggests
it is unsustainable so the current system of how much the fee costs for the licensing and to even
watch tv at all has been set until 2027 but the tories are saying that they're going to basically
get rid of that 159 pound fee as it's not really sustainable now i don't really know why that's the
the angle they're going for here and i don't think the tories have done a very good job at anything
however their decision to recently privatize channel 4 which is profitable is mind-blowing to
me only because what did they made like 74 million pounds profit in 2020. let's privatize it what
that that's actually working the tv licensing may be not working maybe find a new way of doing this
but channel 4 i digress so it says an increasing number of households are choosing not to hold a
tv license as fewer people choose to watch live tv or other activities that require tv license
yeah i mean question for anyone out there are you someone that actually watches live tv i feel like
the only people out there that are gonna say yes are sports people okay i personally don't
give a [ __ ] about any sport i just don't i'm not gonna watch any live sports and so i'm not going
to pay for a tv license to do that but if you're someone into the footy if you're into the rub b
you're gonna probably want that tv license and so it's kind of like a fee for enjoying sports
that's your sacrifice for the rest of us now labor's coming out and saying this is a horrible
thing because we're going to have fewer british made programs for british audiences and less
support for british jobs across the country but i would disagree with that because the thing is
bbc aren't the only people making tv programs within the uk netflix are shooting loads of
stuff out here apple tv ted lasso anybody you know the one show that they've got it was great shot in
the uk in my opinion the question is not really if but when we scrap the tv license the thing is you
can't argue with statistics you can't they don't talk back to you okay the numbers do not lie and
if fewer people every single year are tuning in to watch live tv programs it's just a matter of time
before it's just not sustainable as annoyingly the tories have said it's not a thing that's going to
keep making anyone really much money if more and more people are tuning into for instance this
type of youtube video thank you for subscribing or netflix or apple tv or any of these other programs
but also i do think it's important to note that the tv does serve a really important purpose for
a lot of people in their lives as much as i can go on about like oh yes i haven't used the tv and yes
there are people in which the tv is their only connection to certain people you know a lot of
pensioners might just put the tv on and feel like they have someone in the room and they can fight
off loneliness sort of like a boomer twitch you know don't worry that streamer is my best friend
okay i watch him play every game and i love him and he loves me back
i gave him five pounds so he better and so at the end of the day
i'm gonna keep spinning and so if you find yourself receiving one of these threats into your
post box at any point in your life you don't have to worry about it don't take it seriously it's
less a threat to you and more to the establishment of tv basically going down and don't worry you can
be trustworthy you don't have to lie since you don't watch tv license license all right we're
ended with one anyway tell me your thoughts have you ever actually paid for a tv license do you
watch tv are you that type of person i'd love to hear your comments in the comments section
below or you can watch this previous video where i talked about the differences between
us and uk television with my friend feeling good to be back with the old stubble and
making content i'm freaking proud of i'll see around here on my channel next sunday goodbye