pensioners, along with everybody else, can't be sent to prison for not having a TVL. What can happen is that people who are fined for not having a TVL who refuse to pay it can be threatened with prison for refusing to pay a fine.
The reference to pensioners is deliberately designed to be emotive as, unlike any other group of people, those on lower incomes (which are still higher than for many younger people) qualify for a free TVL on low income grounds.
Radio 4 now has a disproportionate amount of issues relating to black people. From plays to religious programming, from technology programmes to music programming, it is somehow shoehorned in.
Yes, represent them, yes have some programmes about black history (I actually find these interesting), but they are now so ridiculously overrepresented it's become a farce.
Talking of farces, Nadine Dorries now appears to be backtracking about scrapping the licence fee after being admonished for tweeting about this before announcing this to Parliament.
She also erroneously believes that Channel 4 receives Government funding, that bailiffs can call if it is not paid, that (along with Johnson) you need a TVL simply for owning a TV set and that elderly people in particular can be threatened with prison for not paying it. The woman is an idiot.
I'm looking forward to seeing their anniversary programmes.
I found that to be an interesting read that explains things without getting too technical.
It would lead to confusion, so can understand why a channel called Paramount would get dropped, but why bother with the rename? There's plently of channels as it is and with all these streamers, it's just overload.
Edit: Can't find the press release about this Richard. Is this news public knowlege or coming from an insider?
It's now public knowledge.
Promo of what to expect:
As per a Channel 5 release to the press, Paramount is to close (on 19/1/22 IIRC).
It will be replaced by a channel called 5Action (no idea if it will be showing the same content or not).
It's believed that this change is being done to prevent any confusion before the Paramount + service is launched. Don't know why they didn't simply scrap Paramount and retain the 5Spike branding not too long ago, particularly as I believe that the channel showed the old 5Spike programming anyway!
Display MoreIn a way I'm not surprised, but in another way I am surprised.
It makes perfect sense of course for CH5 to join the party, late.... but unlike the other broadcasters, CH5 is American owned, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the long term.
What is guarantted now is that all the others were going to launch a combined Freeview streamer and now with CH5 on board, that now becomes a certainty. Perhaps that was the reason why the combined streamer hadn't launched yet, as they were waiting to see what CH5 might do.
Ch5's owners, ViacomCBS, already have streaming interests in the UK with My5, Pluto and the soon to launch Paramount+, so it will be interesting to see how all that lot fits in (or not..) with the new streamer.
Interestingly, all 3rd party content and Pluto have been removed from the C5 VOD service. Also My5 has been merged with their main website. I wonder if this is connected to any unified Freeview streamer plan?
This might explain the decision to start providing TV via IPTV for broadband only customers.
I doubt that Sky would be allowed to buy VM TV due to competition concerns.
Probably nothing, just the name of the channel showing on the EPG, no other data.
I didn't look, other than a scroll past at high speed, I don't know for sure. I'm just guessing.
I thought that the substantive channel that it used might have been kept on air.
I was wondering what they were showing between ceasing broadcasting and removal.
what was it showing just before it got removed?
If the licence gets revoked they will probably start again under a new company. If a substantial fine is levied, they will probably cease trading and also start again under a new company.
This makes a mockery of TV regulation.
What is it? Sounds like it could be a 'tits n text' type channel going by the name 
Reports are coming through that the outage may have forced Virgin to re-activate the TV service from backup facilities. Yesterday's technical changes have been reversed.
Courtesy of epsilon.
There is a National outage affecting Live TV, On demand, and TV GO.
This has been raised under F009492617 just in case anyone is attempting the impossible and trying to get through to them!
No announcement as to what's wrong or when it will be rectified yet.
First generation Youview boxes are losing ITV Hub next year. Model numbers are in this article.
The fast changing world of technology is leading, as this article says, to equipment barely 5 or 10 years becoming obsolete.
Add into the mix the fact that it's often better value to replace than to repair and you have a ton of waste. Not good for our new found love of the environment.
The thing about the streamers is that you can dip in and out according to what you want to watch as there are no contractual commitments.
Subscribe for one or two months to watch what you want on Apple +, then change to Discovery + for a month to watch some documentaries, then on to StarzPlay and so on while having a couple of regular subscriptions to Netflix and Prime.
That's a much better way than having to pay out for hundreds of TV channels, most of which you don't watch.
The trouble with this is that you are then limited to specific streamers for a month at a time. You might be doing a spell of Discovery+ (incidentally, Sky customers say they have been receiving emails saying that their free one year deal is to be extended for a further year!) and fancy watching a film on Netflix.
A system where you can watch X amount of hours from a variety of streams would be good (the streaming version of a general entertainment channel). Monthly subscriptions could be shared out between the participants or even apportioned to the hours accessed by customers.
Doubt it would happen though as they all want people to exclusively use their own service. I suspect that it doesn't work this way for most people and, as OB says, people will chop and change according to their requirements.
The only one that i'm interested in considering (apart from Now TV for Sky Atlantic) is HBO. Do we know if this is definitely coming to the UK or when?
It refocussed on showing programmes as opposed to music videos and I was just wondering if it actually still showed any music videos at all.
I've since been told that it does still show music videos, but only in the mornings.
If they have any information on aliens, spaceships etc and it was all suddenly disclosed, it could create panic/public disorder.
One could record radio & the other couldn't, not sure which way round it was though.
