Some of you are talking a big load of nonesense here.

There is no such thing as a TV license van that goes around detecting if you are using a TV and don't have a license. This is propaganda designed for scaremongering purposes which clearly works.

When an inspector calls, you are not obliged under any law to answer their questions and they have no authority to enter your property.

You are allowed TV's in use if you can prove they are not receiving a television signal. For example, if you use it for xbox or other digital media this is okay and you do not have to pay the fee.

The inspector will check the feeds coming into your house and see if they are connected to tv's, computers etc.

This is now a grey area do the amount of on-demand tele via i-player etc. Basically it is down to them to prove you watch i-player and without them coming and removing your PC (which will never happen) they cannot.

FYI, Japan also does this with the NHK license. The difference is, they don't actually enforce it. So there's no TV detector vans here...

They certainly used to have TV detector vans a decade or so ago. Hell, there's even a picture of one on the Wiki article. Whether or not the technology allegedly employed by those vans actually existed or not, the actual vans certainly did.

The vans existed. There was fuck all in the vans capable of scanning through your walls and minds for tv waves.

As I said, total utter garbage.

Doesn't this only apply to color TVs in Japan? At least, this is based on something I read a while back. It seemed like a nifty loophole... I lived in Japan for 3 years, 1 year off base, but I was too young to recall if we paid any license.

Think that's bad? We had a few shits (led by this one) pass a law under which a tax is added to the price of all media playback and storage devices, imported or manufactured. Blank CD-R disk? Taxed. A PC with a hard drive in it? Taxed (the entire PC, not just the HDD). Supposedly the proceeds go to IP owners... After they get into a fund, which then decides, who gets the money and how much. Naturally, the fund keeps some for themselves.

Well, you may want to consider rewording your post as currently, it comes off as you denying that the vans even existed. It doesn't come off as you questioning the ability to detect signals and cross reference that with a list of households that have/haven't purchased a license.
Nope. There are no laws governing the non-payment of the license. As such, whether you pay it or not, regardless of your TV or whether you have access to satellite channels, they can do nothing.

In fact, an ever increasing number of people refuse to pay every time there's some kind of "scandal" involving NHK.

that's one thing I like about my country now, you don't need a license to watch tv.
but if you don't have cable tv, it is pure crap made to brainwash people and show that poverty is beautiful since they can't resolve the problem.

That's harsh if it's like that in Sweden... The BBC thankfully hasn't stooped to accepting sponsorship yet as far as I know. Seems like it'll only be a matter of time though. D;

Perception is reality. Garbage or not people thought they had better pay up. Much like leaving empty police cars parked on the side of the road to deter speeding.

I can honestly not remember the last time I saw a "this program is sponsored by" on Swedish public service TV. I guess its sport events that gets those (because that is something that I don't watch).

Anyway, interestingly enough the state owned public service TV in Sweden is the only TV stations that are willing to do some serious digging and find out whats wrong with society, and often criticizes the government and the municipalities when they do something wrong. The rest just don't seem to care (it does not attract enough viewers).

Wait, there's actually stuff WRONG with Swedish society?
It might be my imagination but whenever theres any kind of poll you guys seem to be at or near the top - for low polution, low unemployment, low crime rate, low teenage pregnancy you name it - still stats aren't everything I suppose!

Its pretty much the same thing as paying 8 cents a day for the ABC. Well that was years ago so its probably 50c at least by now

Same goes to Norway and Finland. I rarely heard anything negative from those Nordic countries.

It funds the BBC and partly channel 4, it’s illegal to watch the TV without it. It’s not just for the TV either; you now need it if you have anything that uses the internet since you can stream shows. Really it’s just another household tax with a few ways around it if you are really up for doing that.

TV license fee is just another tax. It's called differently, but it's a tax. A tax for having TV. It's sick, and it exists in Poland too.

Public TV should not even exist.