The Enid Blyton Society

Stef and I are planning to go in October, so I'm excited to hear there'll be a Judith Kerr exhibition on - The Tiger Who Came to Tea was one of my favourite books when I was little.

Ooh, I bet you and Stef will have an amazing time, Fiona. Have either of you been to Newcastle before? I found the city attractive and welcoming. Seven Stories is marvellous and has a fantastically well-stocked bookshop.

My children had a copy of The Tiger Who Came to Tea when they were little. I never really thought much of the story, but the colourful pictures were striking.

I've only read one other Judith Kerr book, the semi-autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit which is for older children. Very moving indeed.

I think my sister likes When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and I think there are others in the series? I've never read them.

I've never been to Newcastle before, except passing through on the train to London and back. We're only having an afternoon there, as it's a three hour train journey each way.

Yes, I think there are one or two sequels to When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit but I haven't read them.

Hope you have good weather for your day-trip to Newcastle.

BBC iPlayer is funded through the licence payer. It is therefore only available in the UK as most people here are licence payers. You wouldn't expect to be able to view the Sky Player without a subscription, would you?

That's an interesting comment Nigel. My daughter has been given conflicting advice about whether she will need a TV licence while at university. She will be taking her laptop, and someone said that if she only watched programmes on catchup, then she shouldn't need one, but presumably if she watches anything on BBC I-player she will need a licence. Probably best she gets one, I know it's more expense, but a lot cheaper than a fine!

I've just googled it Katharine - it's very complicated! Take a look. On the face of it I think she will need one, but there are a number of situations where it looks as if she might not - like if the device only runs off it's batteries!

I always thought as long as you only watched programmes after they'd been aired then it was fine including BBC ones - as the TV license was only needed for live-streaming of programmes.

BBC iplayer is available to anybody in this country who has a computer. We have had people in the past posting here that they don't have a television but say that they have watched a programme on BBC iplayer. I think it would be far too complicated to check if every internet user in the UK also has a TV licence!!

My daughter is also going off to university soon. If the rest of her flatmates (they'll be 7 in total) want to club together to buy a TV licence then she'll pay her share, but she has been told the same as Fiona - that if she only watches programmes on iPlayer, later than the initial broadcast, she won't need one. I'd like to see the licence fee scrapped altogether anyway. Numerous other channels manage to attract enough advertisers to keep going and I'm sure the BBC could too. It doesn't make sense to be forced to pay so much for a couple of channels that we barely even watch!

Edit: Just checked the TV Licensing site:

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-y ... ents-aud1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The section aimed at students is deviously worded as it starts by implying that students must buy a TV licence:

There’s nothing like that last minute goal, the nail-biting season finale or your favourite Friday night sitcom to bring students together, laughing, crying and cheering over a laptop in halls.
But just remember, whatever you’re watching live online, you’ll need to be covered by a TV Licence – no matter what device you use. Your hall's licence won’t cover you, and you may not be covered by your parents’ licence. Thankfully, it’s easy to buy your own.

However, it goes on to say:

First, check below to find out if you need one. Then, buy a licence so you can be sure you’re enjoying all your favourite programmes legally from the day you start uni.

When you do "check below" you discover that you don't need a licence as long as you only watch programmes on "catch-up" services like iPlayer:

If you don’t watch or record television programmes, or you only stream TV programmes online after they’ve been broadcast – through on-demand services like YouTube, BBC iPlayer and 4oD – you don’t need to be covered by a TV Licence.

Phew! Unlike the old days, where students sharing a university flat were allowed to club together for a licence, it seems that nowadays each student who wants to watch programmes as they're broadcast has to buy his/her own. Watching programmes on iPlayer will therefore save a student £145 a year!

Just going back to the awards for a minute, I did see it, but it didn't really show anything Blyton apart from Noddy's car which I thought was a bit disappointing. I'm glad it was on at the beginning, I think I'd been more disappointed if I'd watched for ages, only to have that short clip shown!

Anita Bensoussane wrote:
Phew! Unlike the old days, where students sharing a university flat were allowed to club together for a licence, it seems that nowadays each student who wants to watch programmes as they're broadcast has to buy his/her own. Watching programmes on iPlayer will therefore save a student £145 a year!

It's not just at university - if you live in a flat where it's a multiple occupancy and there are locks on the bedroom doors then you need a separate licence for each bedroom TV.

I wonder how long that has been the case? When we first got married my husband and I used to rent a room in a family house. We had our own portable television but I can't remember whether we had to buy our own TV licence or whether the family's licence covered our TV as well.

Anita Bensoussane wrote:My daughter is also going off to university soon. If the rest of her flatmates (they'll be 7 in total) want to club together to buy a TV licence then she'll pay her share, but she has been told the same as Fiona - that if she only watches programmes on iPlayer, later than the initial broadcast, she won't need one. I'd like to see the licence fee scrapped altogether anyway. Numerous other channels manage to attract enough advertisers to keep going and I'm sure the BBC could too. It doesn't make sense to be forced to pay so much for a couple of channels that we barely even watch!

On the outset, it seems "good ole" America's non-licencing system may be an option i.e. no licences for TVs in the USA until you get into the nitty-gritty of the fine prints embedded in this illusion. Until the transfer of TV from analog into High Definition TV (HDTV) some four years ago, several TV mainstream TV stations such as National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Public Broadcasting Service (PBS-which is also affiliated with the BBC i.e. BBC America), Fox Broadcasting System/Service (FBS) could be picked up free of charge without the benefits of the cable system. Then came the HDTV mandatory directive that mandated the transfer from analog to HDTV (I guess this transfer also took place in Britain and other industrialized countries as well) where we were promised that the HDTV system would deliver us gazillions of TV channels free in clear definition as the HDTV initials suggest. In fact, as most of us were to discover, this was a ruse to abolish or try to abolish "free" TV and deliver those "free" stations to the cable companies. Now, I have been without TV service for over one-and-a-half years since I have resisted subscribing to the increasingly expensive cable service. Therefore, in light of the increasingly technological revolutions in communications, maybe iplayers could be the way to go and that perhaps could put a dent in the increasingly thieving cable companies. Thus, whether one has to obtain a licence to watch TV or via cable subscription, the endgame is the same i.e. in one way or the other, "free" television as some of us may have known it is a thing of the past.
Stephen I.

Our licence fee (£145.50 a year for a colour TV, or £49.00 a year for black and white) is for the BBC channels only. Anyone who has a TV (owned or rented) has always had to pay it, even in the days of analogue. We get lots of other channels free of charge here (I don't know exactly how many as I've never counted!) without paying a licence or subscription. They're funded by advertising.