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My family still has cable.

There’re also lots of families who choose IPTV instead but these are usually less stable than cable.

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This is where I get my news,

and YouTube is where I get most of my content.

But I have been getting into subscription based services recently, to find something better.

I haven’t used cable for over 8 years and counting. Cable kinda sucks for the price over here.

I still don’t have a full grasp on why the UK requires television licenses. Even after watching many things on YouTube related to this stuff, I still don’t get it.

What’s that? I’ve heard the term, but I don’t know what it is. (Google is not being such a help…)

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You can find everything you need on non-subscription based services. Really, the only subscription I would recommend is to the Sunday paper :P

I’ve never used cable unless it was at a hotel. Never bothered looking at the prices, but from what I’ve heard, it’s crazy expensive ($50+ /month).

So that multiple people don’t try broadcasting on the same frequency and to moderate what is going to every home in the near area, including the TVs of many children.

Internet TV, imagine cable, but served over the internet. I don’t recall if it is free or paid, though.

Is it cheap(er)?

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Not really, it’s expensive. The reason is not the price but stability. When I was in my uncle’s home where they have an IPTV it’s kind of bad, the connectivity isn’t as good as what I’ve imagined and lags often.

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exactly what you just said, a GeoIP service, like maxmind.

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Only the public broadcasting stations can be viewed for free (although you still need to buy a receiver for it), which does not include commercial broadcasters, of which RTL is the biggest one. If you have cable internet, you can watch TV for free too, but I switched to fiber a while ago.

There is one RTL show I sometimes watch which does get cut up and uploaded to YouTube officially, and there might be unofficial uploads too. And both the public and private broadcasters have their own streaming platforms.

Tubi is not available in Europe at all I think. I just get redirected to https://gdpr.tubi.tv/ with the message “we’re not currently available in your area”.

In other words: you cannot watch RTL for free.

I think that this generally works a bit different here than in the US. The medium of transfer doesn’t really matter for what you get access to.

You essentially always need a TV subscription to watch TV. Out of the box, this gives you access to the main 30-ish channels I think. A lot more channels exist, which can be bought in packages/bundles, but since the market is a lot smaller than in the US, there is not a lot of good, unique content on it.

If you get your internet from a coaxial based ISP (Ziggo, usually), then the TV signal is transferred over coaxial too. If you’re on a fiber based ISP (KPN, Odido, etc.), then the TV streams are provided over fiber, which means it’s a network connection (hence IPTV). In all cases, you need a set-top box from the ISP though.

KPN and Ziggo dominate the market and as with many duopolies, price and quality is the roughly the same for both of them, which also extends to their TV offering.

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At one time, the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) provided all the infrastructure for domestic TV and Radio. The decision was made that as a public body, it needed to be free from commercial and political pressures allowing them to run a diverse range of programming so there was something for everyone.

To stop external pressure, the decision was made to not have adverts. Instead, viewers would pay an annual “subscription” to watch live to air TV (and now any of the live TV catch up services like Iplayer). And this became the TV licence.

The argument against it now is that only a very small percentage of TV comes through BBC. And so most people are paying BBC for a service provided by other companies, who do run adverts.

I don’t have a TV licence and just watch disney+ and Netflix

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Sounds like a weird, outdated system.

The public broadcasting organization here is mostly just paid directly by tax revenue, along with some streaming revenue and ad revenue.

At least with a TV licenses, you can choose not to get it. But having to buy it even if you are not watching BBC channels then makes no sense.

That said, I remember something about the cable companies having to pay like €3 per month per subscriber to the organization that handles broadcasting for the top tier football games, just so they are allowed to broadcast it. Even if that subscriber never watches a second of sports on TV. At least with the BBC you could argue it’s for a good cause.

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*corporation :hot_beverage:

speaking of the bbc, i found a secret link to watch a dart match in welsh, apparently.

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regret using tiktok, it have all kind of shitty content and make me curious af, like something called “88 pages document” (tài liệu 88 trang), i search it on google and i wish i can back to the stone age and back to the nature like a monkey :cold_face:

cant believe now our peaceful country have such an “animal” people that enjoy…whatever thing thats on that document

curious killed a cat…

btw do my navbar look good? https://files.catbox.moe/9nsdmz.mp4

Yeah, after waiting a few years late. But I don’t have that kind of patience.

My area offers a free bi-weekly digital subscription to the newspapers. They also provide free newspapers at most grocery outlets.

Standalone, ~75$ monthly. With slow coaxial internet, ~50$ monthly excluding the cost of the internet.

Ah, so it’s the “Live TV” services that some services offer. Roku Televisions have this in the “Live TV” app under “Streaming TV” I think.

All I need to receive FTA stations is a metal coat hanger, modified to fit in the antennae connecter. Televisions sold here have a built-in receiver.

I honestly don’t think Tubi is a good service.

If I read this right, nobody wanted ads so a license was made to continue funding Television services, and you need one to enjoy television.

Why couldn’t television services be a tax instead? Is it because people didn’t want to pay for other people’s television?

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It is :confused: the system has never really changed since it was first introduced. But they keep discussing abolishing it from time to time.

And thats what happens when I type on 2 hours sleep… I get my worms muddled (yes I did that one on purpose)

Not quite, its not that nobody wanted ads, it was that the powers that be didn’t want advertisers influencing what the BBC produced\showed on TV. So it could remain impartial.

Basically.

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The analog broadcasts were shut down years ago here.

Sometimes it is, yes. But sometimes, the TV streams actually get “broadcasted” on a separate virtual network to all consumers simultaneously, instead of being point-to-point. IPTV is a collection term for television over internet, and there are many ways to do it.

I’m not sure about the UK, but in the Netherlands, at least initially, commercial broadcasts were outlawed entirely. Only the public broadcasting corporation was allowed to broadcast at all.

There also used to be a tax on TVs and radios for the purpose of funding broadcasting.

The public broadcasting organization here has some ad revenue now, but there are talks of removing/banning those and making it fully government funded for basically those reasons.

The main argument is that public broadcasting should be for the public benefit, and they wanted to remove the pressure to make shows based on what would be popular, because more popular content meant more ad revenue.

The counterargument is that this is just a veiled ploy to defund the public broadcasting system, or even subject it to political will.

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If you don’t have a subscription, though, you won’t see the news to tell you there are new shows!

nope.

Huh, not far off!

classic.

I don’t know about it’s catalog, I’ve only watched one show on it, but I think it’s pretty good.

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So, big brother (not the show) didn’t want ads twisting things.

Stability of revenue? But taxes are further stable… I don’t know, my head hurts. This :koala: needs some sleep.

In my area, the analogue broadcasts have been dead since '09. But digital FTA broadcasts can still be received with a metal coat hanger.

I still think taxes are better than licenses, regardless of the cons.

I’ve browsed Tubi’s catalogue, it’s a good selection if you are an old person with not much taste in content. There might be a chance of finding something decent to watch. At least it doesn’t carry AI generated content, for now.

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WordPress 6.9 is out

One big update (to me) is that the Command Palette (Ctrl+K) is now available globally in the admin area instead of solely in the block editor, as well as better drag and drop.

BTW it seems that WordPress no longer use the phrase “Block editor”, now it’s just “Editor”.

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Nice :joy: /jk

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mmmm

mmmmmm

Out of my concern on:

Thank me later if it actually works! :teacup_without_handle:

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Admin might get triggered on that lol :rofl:

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