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Unaffordable TV

TheCatWoman

I've asked AI how much it would cost to have all the common streaming channels and the answer is £120 per month minimum, that dosent' include Sky, the licence fee or any sporting channels which would add another £30-50 a month.

Given how much rubbish there is on terrestial channels, especially now with all the football and the knock on effects of how much less funding there will be for other programing, is this a hidden part of the cost of living?

I don't have any of the streaming channels or Sky and signing up to them would make a serious dent in my finances, how do people afford them and are they worth it? DO you only really use them for one big series each like GoT?

  • in reply to Vardaguyn
    Vardaguyn said:
    A black and white TV licence costs £60.50 per year

    I am astonished that those are still available Thinking

  • in reply to Vardaguyn

    Wow! to be honest that's cheaper than I thought Laughing

  • in reply to pinkchocoholic

    colour TV licence in the UK costs £180 per year. A black and white TV licence costs £60.50 per year

  • how much are tv licenses? (from someone who lives with their parents still)

  • in reply to Roy

    I was told you have to have something like sky or a humax box to be able to do that with a smart tv?

    A friend has one, but it seems an awful lot of faff, but then he uses it along with his computer.

    I just saw an article about streaing boxes, great I thought, until I realised they need a good wifi connection, I have a huge long cable running from the hub to humax box, because of the stone built parts of our house and the thickness of the walls stop wifi signals, even out wifi boosters have boosters.

  • I’ve recently bought a‘smart’ tv, it seems to have a lot of channels, my wife has added Prime Tv and Netflix, the Prime tv comes with the Amazon prime delivery as a free addition, the Netflix is £5.99. I’ve never wanted Sky as I don’t watch sports and normally can find what I want on Freeview. The bonus with the smart tv is being able to pause a program or watch it on demand.

  • You only need a tv licence if you watch or record tv as its been broadcast or use bbc iplayer. Since i only watch youtubers on youtube (mostly tech, documentries etc) i do not pay for a tv licence and inatead oay £12.99  a month for ad free experence and youtube music.

  • Since I just have to watch Hogan's Heroes, I pay $113 a month for Internet and cable.

  • Frankly, the idea of sitting in front of another screen for an hour or so isn't my idea of a good evening. That said, I still think the TV licence fee is good value considering all the radio & online content as well as TV that the BBC provides.

  • in reply to Iain

    You don't live in the UK though do you Iain? TV might technically be a luxury, but for many it's essential, especially if you have kids, are housebound or elderly, it can literally be your window onto the world.

    I've looked through the tv pages and found an incredible number of repeats, the same three or programes being played all day. It all looks to be an incredible waste of money.

    I don't use youtube I'm told you can get around the ads, but I don't know how, thats a level of techinical wizzardry above my very basic knowlege

  • I just pay my tv license and Internet bill.

    Then I watch the following for free.

    1. Freeview
    2. BBC IPlayer
    3. Channel 4
    4. ITVX
    5. U
    6. 5
    7. Great player
    8. Watch free UK

  • I pay £5.99 a month to have Netflix (with adverts). 

  • Freeview?

    It's just something I've heard of, by-the-way, so can't answer any questions.

    I don't watch TV.

  • I was looking to see what is on terrestrial recently and noticed that some of the streaming channels have the same repeats as others. 

    I have also noticed that when the BBC have a feature about a new series it is often on a streaming service. As they are on different ones, you would possibly need to pay for a few. As you have to pay for a TV licence anyway I am sticking with the free ones for now. I enjoyed it when you could rent a film on video as you just paid for what you wanted.

  • TheCatWoman said:
    is this a hidden part of the cost of living?

    It is far from a cost of living. It is an entertainment option - a luxury and something you don't "need".

    I use methods I can't discuss here to obtain the series or films I want to watch (many are not available on local services or are geo-blocked from my region anyway) but most of my casual entertainment is from YouTube where I follow a range of channels on my special interests and there is often plenty to choose from.

    With YouTube there are simple ways to avoid the adverts which have been discussed on other threads here before and this makes it altogether more pleasant. If you don't have good internet access so get low quality of buffering then you can download the videos to watch offline using other processes that are free.

    There are sites like the Internet Archive that have loads of old TV series that are not being broadcast anymore plus millions of other random bits of old TV if this takes your interest. 

    It isn't complex to have a load of entertainment options on zero budget and still be legal with them all. You won't have the latest but when you work out the price per year then it puts it in context - it is just an expensive luxury.