I read in my news feed on my phone yesterday that the government is planning a Green Paper on bringing forward plans to turn off free TV services, like Freeview, in favour of online streaming services only. It could happen as early as 2030 which is a mere 4 years away. Now... we watch TV via Freeview. We don't have any 'paid for' services and have no intention of getting any. We are happy to pay the licence fee to watch BBC as they often show a jolly good drama or two, but the likes of Sky and Netflix don't really attract us. What on earth will we do? What on earth will other people do, especially those who don't have reliable broadband, or even any broadband at all?? We know of people who pay ridiculous amounts for streaming services and sports channels, sometimes upwards of £80 per month. We simply can't afford that and I'm sure we are not the only ones 😕
Do you pay for a streaming service? Is it expensive? Reliable? Is there much worth watching?
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This morning we found our new food waste caddies on the path outside the front door. There is a big caddy for outside and a smaller one for the kitchen. This is something else I will have to get used to doing 😕 As it is, I constantly have to stop Gray from putting things in the wrong bin. Why did he think polystyrene was recyclable?? I'm happy to recycle veg peelings, eggshells, teabags etc but the disadvantage is that the caddy takes up a lot of room on the worktop near the sink. This morning I have re-jigged everything and given the worktops a good clean before putting everything back (albeit in different places) The collections will be on a weekly basis beginning in June and, at least, they will provide the small caddy liners free of charge. I'm just glad that we don't eat much meat as I wouldn't fancy having meat scraps in the bin with summer on the way. Imagine the smells and flies in the heat?
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Yesterday, I took another dozen handmade cards to the shop, this time they were music themed. I had ordered some little books of images from Hunkydory a couple of weeks back when they were on offer and they are lovely. They will keep me going for some time and, in addition, I received the free club member's gift which will make several cards, I would guess at least a dozen more. I'll share some of those with you later on.....
We don't pay subscriptions for TV channels, like you we pay BBC licence, we do pay a small monthly fee for music streaming. We have had food bins for over a month, we only pop a few bits in which we can't put in our composters. We have to purchase our own bags, B&Q sell them at a great price.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, our council will provide bags for us, at least in theory! We'll see how that pans out.
DeleteI wonder if the TV thing is connected with BBC charter renewel but that is at the end of next year so there may be changes even sooner than 2030. I haven't bothered with the £30.99 for one month just to see the French Open tennis so still just Freesat here.
ReplyDeleteThe Mid Suffolk food caddy came with a small roll of compostable bags but after that they have to be bought. I have a water butt by the door out front where my bins are so might just wash out my bins. They can't force us to buy bags!
and I forgot to say that's another batch of lovely cards - the musical instruments make a nice change.
DeleteI think you are right about it being related to the charter renewal, Sue, and £30.99 for one month for the tennis seems a bit steep :0/
DeleteLuckily the council will provide small rolls of compostable bags on a regular basis. At least until they realise how expensive it it I suppose!
And thank you for the nice comment about my cards :)
We pay the licence fee, but also have Sky as Alec likes watching the sport, we don't pay extra for film channels. No Netflix either, I have Amazon prime, so do get quite a lot that way. Been watching wall to wall Chelsea, beautiful gardens but I can imagine the prices of everything! Your batch of cards are beautiful, you must be making quite a lot of money for the hospice. Xx
ReplyDeleteWe've been watching Chelsea too, Gill. It was a bit repetitive in places but we know the man who exhibited the pelargoniums so wanted to see how he got on. We bought a scented leaf one off him a few weeks ago when he visited our gardening lecture club. It's pink but the leaves smell like bitter lemon. It's lovely.
DeleteThank you for the lovely comment about my cards. My cards raised £425 in 2025 and over £200 so far this year. I know it's a drop in the ocean but if everyone does a little bit by buying or donating stuff, It will make a big difference :) xx
That's the first I've heard about shutting down Freeview services, and frankly, I'm appalled at the high-handed way in which this seems to be being done. I guess there will be money involved somewhere, is the bandwidth being auctioned off?
ReplyDeleteThe only subscription service that we use is ITV-X, at £7/month, we get all of the ITV back catalogue and all of the BBC back catalogue on BritBox, which provides us with all we need.
I was quite shocked too, Will, as it was the first I'd heard of it. Yes, I'm sure you are right that it's all about money somewhere along the line.
DeleteI rarely watch TV these days, but, we still pay for TV service as it is bundled with our internet. Your cards are beautiful as always.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bless :)
DeleteYour cards are lovely as always. We have real problems where we live as our house is built into the side of a cliff and tv signals are very weak. Although technically speaking we should get Freeview mostly we can only get the main channels and then not always depends on the weather which sounds mad but it really affects the signal from the nearest transmission point. We can get a few other freeview channels but not always. We have a BT box so we can get some other free channels. We did have Netflix but quite honestly not worth it. We don't really watch a lot of tv, but do watch the rugby, Olympics, Wimbledon a few dramas (loved the Other Benet Sister) the odd film and some gardening programmes so probably wouldn't miss it much but it is nice to know it is there, it all seems very wrong to me and this is the first we have heard of it. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteGardening and dramas are our thing too. We would really miss seeing our favourites. We enjoyed The Other Bennett Sister too, great fun!
DeleteWow, 2030 is only four years away, it doesn't seem possible!! We watch television via Freeview these days, but I do have Netflix for films too, it's so much cheaper than going to the cinema. I did have Amazon Prime as well but I have paused that subscription now, I just didn't like all the adverts that they were sneaking in. I also pay £4.99 a month to have ad free ITVX, it makes for much better viewing. I tend to watch a lot of iPlayer, which is free and great for old series.
ReplyDeleteYou new batch of cards are, as usual, really nice, no wonder they sell so well. I hope you have a great time at the barbie. xx
I find TV and streaming systems very complicated these days. I think it's just me that can't be bothered battling through the choices....
DeleteThanks, Sue, the barbie was lovely. We had a great afternoon and evening and I had a cheeky glass of rose wine too :)
As I understand it, there will still be free tv via iplayer, ITVX etc or Freesat (although I think they want to stop that too). What they want to do is get rid of the transmitters, which are costing increasing amounts to maintain, and have everything via broadband. We're lucky enough to have a broadband connection that is good enough but plenty of people still don't.
ReplyDeleteWhat we do with any food bits that may smell in the bin is put them in a freezer bag in the corner of one of the freezer drawers. Then we tip that into the food waste bin the evening it has to be put out. I think our council gave us caddy liners to start with but soon stopped and now we have to buy our own.
we do have a Humax box to watch i-player through although it seems to be on the blink and we don't want to buy another in case it quickly becomes redundant. I hate change....
DeleteThat's a jolly good tip regarding food scraps although my kitchen freezer isn't very big.
The only way we can get TV at all here is via streaming services. Even our provincial phone service does streaming TV. It is reliable but pretty expensive.
ReplyDeleteLovely cards as usual.
God bless.
Oh dear, Jackie, I think we are heading the same way.....
DeleteThank you x
We don't pay for a streaming service but we do enjoy watching ITVX and BBC I-player. I think its mean spirited to shut these down.
ReplyDeleteOur council are not changing their system until next year but it will be interesting to hear how you get on with the extra waste containers.
Well done to your son, you must all be so happy for him. I hope you enjoyed celebrating with the family.
Lovely cards. So nice to hear that they are selling so well and raising a lot of money for the charity.