American television is different than English television, and
not just because we use better-looking actors or have a different
version of “The Office.”
In the United States, channels such as NBC, ABC and CBS are free
““ you don’t have to pay for cable to watch them. Anyone
can hook a television up to the wall and pray for reception, free
of charge. This is perfectly legal; we are born with the right to
television.
But it is not so in England.
In England, by law, you are required to have a license to
receive or record any television programming. A color-TV license
costs around £131.50 (approximately $250) per year. But paying
for a license gets you five channels ““ cable channels still
cost extra.
Using an unlicensed TV is a criminal offense. There is an
enforcement patrol that drives around and can detect where
televisions are in use. The officers compare this information to
the list of registered televisions and if there are any
discrepancies, they go and knock on the door. Penalties for
watching TV without a license can be as high as £1,000
($2,000).
Naturally, most British college students would rather risk
getting caught than fork over $250 every year just to watch
“Match of the Day” ““ an extremely popular weekend
show that airs highlights from the day’s soccer games.
At first I thought this system wouldn’t affect me. I was
not hooked on any British television. But then I started to read
British tabloids and all of them talked about the new BBC
“Jane Eyre” miniseries. Reviews, interviews with the
cast, comparisons to 1995’s “Pride and Prejudice”
““ I just had to watch this show. And part four of four was
almost on.
The campus bars have televisions but they are always filled with
soccer fans. And the fast food restaurant on campus has a
television, but that place was out of the question. One week
earlier I asked the guy behind the counter to change the channel to
a BBC Robin Hood program. The show had looked really intriguing
from the ads on the sides of nearly every bus and I thought it
would be a cool, dark take on the whole bows-and-arrows action
genre.
But instead Robin Hood was doing back flips off buildings, and
then the camera would rewind to show the flip again in slow motion
from a different angle. I couldn’t sit for the entire
episode; I was too embarrassed to have requested it. I was too
embarrassed to go back.
So for a while I was in despair, cursing the system for keeping
students away from free, legal, non-soccer related television. I
thought I would have to wait until “Jane Eyre” came to
the United States. But thankfully one of my flatmates got his
illegal television hooked up just in time. There are now two
unlicensed televisions in my flat and I’ve been told to just
not answer the door if a patrol comes by.
And while BBC’s “Robin Hood” showed me that
American television has the monopoly on interesting characters
(heroes need inner demons to fight off as well as bad guys),
BBC’s “Jane Eyre” taught me that England has the
monopoly on adaptations of early 19th century novels. It was so
moving ““ worth the struggle to find a television.
Yet for just one good miniseries every 10 years, paying for a TV
license in England seems like a waste. Sure, the license fees mean
there can be fewer commercials, but I would rather take the snack
breaks than pay $250 annually, especially now that a few channels
are starting to make their shows available online, like in the
U.S.
Beyond illegal televisions, the movie theater in my
university’s town seems to be on the honor system. Unlike
U.S. theaters, this one does not have open seating. When I bought a
ticket, the cashier showed me a screen of which seats are available
and then I was supposed to pick a seat number. Tickets for the
first three or so rows cost less.
When I saw “Casino Royale,” my ticket was for row J
seat five. This position would have been fine in an American
theater: close to the middle. But the screen in England was about
two-thirds the size of the average American movie screen. So I
moved up closer, and no one seemed to mind. That made me wish
I’d bought the cheap seats and moved back.
The honor system may be fine for salary-earning adults, but
applying the same rules to college students, whether it be movies
or television … it seems like they’re asking for it.
Crocker is studying abroad and looking forward to coming
home to the U.S., where TV is free. E-mail her at
acrocker@media.ucla.edu. Mark Humphrey is on vacation.