Quote: Bad dog @ February 26 2009, 2:22 PM GMTI always wondered why Sky can get away with showing ads, when its viewers are subscribers who pay to watch it. It's like the BBC making us pay the licence fee and then showing ads.
Because we're paying for the service. The infrastructure, if you will. Not the channels.
They may not show commercials on their MAIN channels but ....
not to mention magazines, etc
Yep yep, that one too. Pity they've dropped the Thames programming.
Quote: Lee Henman @ February 26 2009, 11:11 AM GMTI was told that those old-style detector vans with the big aerials on top weren't real. They were just for show, to put the fear of God in license dodgers.
Cheers, Lee. Those vans used to scare me when I was little. It's nice to know another bogeyman has been cleared away. 
I don't know if the BBC used such vans, but MI5 did. It's quite simple to pick up the emissions from a receiver's local oscillator and determine what frequency the receiver is tuned to. I don't know if newer gear uses some sort of digital synthesis that would be more difficult to detect.
So I was right to run away from the vans? Another bogeyman comes back from the dead to bite me in the ass. Typical Hollywood ending.
I believe the MI5 vans were discreet and used internal antennas behind RF-transparent panels. I doubt anyone would recognize them as electronic surveillance platforms.
Most FM radios use(d) a 10.7 MHz IF. When I was a teenager I used to harass my brother by tuning my radio 10.7 MHz above the station he was listening to so that my radio's local oscillator signal overrode his station's signal. It would almost completely quiet his receiver.
You little tinker, Randy.
They reckon the Licence is going up to £145 - up 3 per cent.
But ....
a black and white one goes up to £49. Where can I buy a black and white TV?
Quote: Chappers @ March 10 2010, 11:37 AM GMTThey reckon the Licence is going up to £145 - up 3 per cent.
But ....
a black and white one goes up to £49. Where can I buy a black and white TV?
You can't even buy portable tellies any more!
Quote: Lee Henman @ February 26 2009, 6:38 PM GMTI'm probably being very stupid here but how has the credit crunch affected the BBC's cash inflow? Presumably it's still collecting roughly the same amount of license fees, so why is its new programme-making budget being slashed, as well as making huge cutbacks on existing shows?
Partly due to loss of revenue from other sources (e.g. DVD sales, selling TV programmes to other countries etc.) and partly because they are being squeezed by the politicians who want to score political points - if the Beeb doesn't present better value for money, they might get their charter taken away, which would be a massive shame in my opinion.
I think that international programme and format sales are at a record high. E.g. I read somewhere yesterday that Outnumbered took Hat Trick USA from £600,000 in 2008 to £4m in 2009.