Council tenants ask to pay 29p a week extra

[Digital TV News]

Thousands of people who are tenants of Norwich City Council have been sent letters informing them that if they want to continue watching television after the analogue signal is turned off in 2011, they are going to have to pay 29p per week more on their rent or service charge. The council have hundreds of [...]

More: Council tenants ask to pay 29p a week extra

[Robbo]

I don't understand the problem, someone has to pay for and maintain the system, it is not exactly a fortune is it. It has to be the tenants who pay for it, why should it come out of general council revenue? when those who don't live in flats etc will have to pay for and maintain their own systems.

This is also a misleading title, as only those tenants that live in apartment blocks will have to pay presumably.

The funny things is thousands will be affected and were sent questionaires, however they only got 200 responses. So not many people are bovvered.


I think they should go one step further and fit a dish for multisatellite reception also.

[reddiesel]

Council tenants in certain areas get free analogue tv robbo, houses and flats, as you say though 29p isnt much to pay for digital, extra channels as well.

[Robbo]

I think I'd rather pay out 29p a week for someone to provide me with a good terrestrial TV signal, than possibly pay some extortionate amount to an installer for an individual aerial system upgrade, also you have got the worry of keeping it running or repairing it if damaged by storms etc.

[reddiesel]

In luton council tenants get free analogue cable.

[nanochickin]

29p a week sounds like a good deal to me considering how complicated some of the modern IRS systems can be. Its not just a case of sticking an aerial and a dish up theres all the wiring and electronics that go with it.

The picture below is a basic launch amplifier setup for a multi story block of flats that i worked on last week. This is the side of the system that most people never get to see

Its basically a multiband Diplexer, a digital cluster leveler, 5 splitters ( Terrestrial, Sat polarities- Vertical high, Horizontal High, Vertical Low, Vertical high) and two launch amplifiers.

These then go to another cabinet containing a bank of cascadable switches which then go down to the individual properies

Its not exactly what you could call a cheap bit of kit

29p a week keeps me in work so i'm not complaining



Nano

[madrat]

This is a strange one.

most multi stories or places with Communal aerials will already have a distribution system in place. surly all they need is a wide band aerial and in some cases not even that. So I cant understand the charge. Also how long is the charge to be in place? a year, 2 forever? Sound a bit suspect to me.