Television License

So I was told that everyone who has a television in the UK must buy a television license. I hadn’t looked into the details of this. One night when I was watching something at the B&B on BBC One I commented on the lack of commercials and someone said, “That’s what the television license pays for”. We headed to our council to let them know we have arrived so they can start sending us a bill as well. In the U.S. I guess this would be equivalent to city tax which pays for garbage, etc. Did I mention I feel like I’m hemorrhaging money? We thought we would ask there where we pay our television license. This question sent the three council employees into a state, well they didn’t know they just paid with their debit card. They never said WHO they paid with their debit card. The woman said that three times until I said, “We aren’t from the UK. We’ve never had to buy a television license before”. Finally they understood that this was a foreign concept to us and told us to go online and search for tv license and we would find the necessary information. I did and £139.00 later (close to $300) we are the proud owners of a “colour” television license.

I thought about asking the family if they would mind going vintage for a black and white license at the fraction of the cost but I would run the risk of mutiny.