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The Great Ripoff

Started by Paeng, November 06, 2018, 07:40:10 AM

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Paeng

I gotta vent...  ???

Remember how I sometimes bicker about how Germany is so backwards with digital? Now this hasn't gotten really better, bandwidth is still at a premium... but get this latest folly...

A few weeks back a scroll message appeared on everybody's tv set, saying that early november all analog bandwidth will be closed, cancelled, disappear... and that everybody with an analog tv set will have to buy a new one or else be screwed. Of course accompanied by loud ads for all kinds of pay tv!
* Note: Germans pay a mandatory monthly fee for "free" government-sponsored television (no ads after 20:00), while the private stations finance themselves with 24hour ads.

Okay, no big thing for me, my set was HD-ready, I had just been too lazy to do the switch (as I don't really watch much tv)... I bought a small Cable/HD box for 30 bucks, did a fresh channel search and was set up for digital no sweat... but I pity the elderly, folks without extra cash, and so on...

So now I can (theoretically) get a lot more channels (300 instead of 100  ??? ), BUT: I get HD quality only from the "official free" channels (which I'm forced to pay anyway)... meanwhile, I can still get the privates, but not in HD - for that, I'd have to subscribe to their pay formats... maybe small bucks per program, but it really adds up fast (if one does subscribe).


Hahaha... here we have a government that pledges for decades already to invest in our digital infrastructure, but doesn't move at all. Now the media companies pull a fast one and force everybody's hand - but we still don't have the infrastructure...  :D  or rather:  >:(


[i]Heads are round so thoughts can take a turn[/i]
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brads3

America went thru that a few years back.did they make you buy all new light bulbs too? the light spectrum of the new 1's makes it harder to see. if it works, the government will mess it up.

Maldrick

Yeah, we made the switch here in the US several years ago.  Didn't hear much about it at the time because cable is so common, but with cord cutting becoming more popular it's become more of a thing to get a digital antenna for local channels lately, it seems.

One of the funnier internet discussions I had the pleasure of running across in recent months was a thread of people in the UK talking about avoiding paying their TV tax there.  Apparently, collectors are sent out if you don't pay, but they have no authority to actually do anything so there are people who buck the system for sport.  Some of the crazy lengths people go to for years on end was hilarious to read about.
"We are the architects of our actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Paeng

#3
Quote from: Maldrick on November 06, 2018, 11:32:20 AMa thread of people in the UK talking about avoiding paying their TV tax there.  Apparently, collectors are sent out if you don't pay, but they have no authority to actually do anything

Oh yeah, we had those guys for a long time as well (about 20 years ago or so)... but in the long term they lived really dangerously, I mean imagine these jerks prowling around houses after dark trying to peek through your window to see if a TV is running... ???  No need to find a better reason to hit him over the head  >:(  Bloody Stasi methods...

So by now they have perfected their "system" of putting pressure on you - up to jail terms! And they do go after you! So there is no more fun in it, only hassle and harassment and expenses...  :(
100s of thousands have gone to court to get these "laws" changed, so far all courts have brushed them off. It's a regular mafia, I hate this so much!

Their whole view and system of modern media is hopelessly outdated, a rotting corpse that does not know it's already dead...



Quote from: brads3 on November 06, 2018, 09:22:58 AMdid they make you buy all new light bulbs too?

Yep, so much that the sale of regular light bulbs is forbidden... sometimes it is very hard to still believe in Europe (as in United States of E...)... friggin' bureaucrats all over the place passing stupid useless laws, instead of tackling the real issues  ???
[i]Heads are round so thoughts can take a turn[/i]
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