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Minister say's jamming OK in UK
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Minister say's jamming OK in UK |
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Subject: RE: Minister say's jamming OK in UK From: The Shambles Date: 13 Dec 05 - 04:28 AM Wetherspoons and the great TV takeover Andrew Martin Monday December 12, 2005 The Guardian Ten years ago, I walked into a pretty good north London pub, and saw a newly installed and massive TV. A sombre-looking reporter was talking into an outside broadcast camera, saying something like: "We don't as yet know the seriousness of the situation ... All we can do at the moment is wait." I thought the third world war had started, until I read the subtitles rolling along the bottom of the screen: "Groin strain trouble for Shearer." It was the start of the Sky Sports pub TV revolution. Pubs became like living rooms, with everyone watching TV, and feeling vaguely like a mug for most of the time. The 650 pubs of the Wetherspoon's chain were a rare site of resistance. The company chairman, Tim Martin, was influenced by "The Moon Under Water", an essay of 1946, in which George Orwell described a notional, ideal pub. Some of Orwell's stipulations were pretty marginal (he would prefer the barmaid to call him "dear" rather than "ducky"), but one of the primary requirements was that the pub would always be "quiet enough to talk ... the house possesses neither radio nor piano". Accordingly, Martin kept televisions out of his pubs while everyone else put them in. Until now. As of this month, Wetherspoon's pubs are being fitted with TVs. Longer drinking hours have brought the change - it was thought in particular that people taking breakfast in the pubs, which now open at eight or nine in the morning, would like to watch TV as they did so. (For my part, I can see that a couple of pints at 8am might complement the bleakness of GMTV rather well, or better still, obliterate it entirely.) Martin insists that the Orwellian template is being adhered to, as pub managers are supposed to keep the sound turned down. "I was in a pub run by another firm," he says, "and they had tennis on TV with the sound off. I thought: that's quite nice." But the truth is that the staple diet will be 24-hour rolling news, a form where subtitles have circumvented the volume control. TV is a depressant, generating envy, anxiety and guilt far more frequently than it does pleasure. Certainly the clientele at my local Wetherspoon's looked uncharacteristically glum the other night, the first with the new screens. The usual conversations were on hold, and all eyes were on the box. TVs are in so many public spaces now that we are being deprived of our right not to watch. The rationale lies in what that sick Vodafone advert calls "making the most of now". It's as though we're all in fear of meeting some hypermodern, ferociously clued-up individual who incredulously demands: "You mean to say it was a full 45 minutes before you realised that Shearer was experiencing groin-strain trouble?" ENDS |
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Subject: RE: Minister say's jamming OK in UK From: GUEST,The Barden of England at work Date: 13 Dec 05 - 06:42 AM The Shambles wrote:- I was told by a regular in our local (non music) J.D. Wetherspoons in Weymouth that they have just installed two huge flatscreen TVs. They also handed me the in-house magazine - which had the following article. MUSIC hits the right note. The Tuesday Bell in Lisburn, has brought music to the ears of its customers. The Northern Ireland pub is now showing music videos on plasma screens. It means that all of the company's outlets in the province now play music. The pub's manager, Alison McClelland, said; "It is great news for our customers, who love their music." This is interesting in that I think it becomes a licenced activity under the Licensing Act 2003 as Shedule 1, part 2, section 8 states:- Use of television or radio receivers 8 The provision of any entertainment or entertainment facilities is not to be regarded as the provision of regulated entertainment for the purposes of this Act to the extent that it consists of the simultaneous reception and playing of a programme included in a programme service within the meaning of the Broadcasting Act 1990 (c. 42). So, if they are playing recorded music or video, that must be regarded as a provision of regulated entertainment. Not many Wetherspoon pubs had juke-boxes etc to be able to claim 'Grandfathers rights'. John Barden |
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Subject: RE: Minister say's jamming OK in UK From: Snuffy Date: 13 Dec 05 - 08:43 AM But the pub showing the videos is in Northern Ireland. Does the PEL legislation only apply to England and Wales? |
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Subject: RE: Minister say's jamming OK in UK From: Snuffy Date: 13 Dec 05 - 09:09 AM I'm confused her about these section 8 provisions: it looks to me like this Nice to see that they've simplified things so much!! |
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Subject: RE: Minister say's jamming OK in UK From: GUEST,The Barden of England at work Date: 13 Dec 05 - 09:34 AM You've got it in one Snuffy. If its not simultaneous broadcast and reception it is there a licenced activity under the Licensing Act 2003. As to your observation regarding Northern Ireland, I'm not too sure, but it sure as hell applies to England and Wales, but not Scotland. If Wetherspoons do it in England or Wales, then the Premises Licence must include licenced activities John Barden |
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