Personally I have never owned a TV licence even when I lived in London, my flat was always above the ground floor.
In Australia none is required.
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Never had any problems that I am aware of.
When I was briefly seconded to detector vans in the late 1960s we never bothered with blocks of flats because they usually had car parking on the first two floors, just drove around rotating the aerials. Visibility was the thing, I think the aerials had lights on them but that might not be true.
However I do recall on one occasion when we were parked in such a council estate having our lunch, the driver pointed out that all the lights were going out in the adjacent blocks of flats. We all looked out and it was true as we watched basically the blocks went dark I guess people were pretending not to be home en masse
The next day the local Post Office ran out of licence forms several times, I can’t remember where it was but in east London somewhere.
Again as I recall even when a house was visited fines were rarely issued except when the resident tried to deny having a TV, we could tell which channel they were watching.
There is a good chance I may have a biased view Bruce but i know what i saw 
I don’t know about the 6Os but today inspectors can’t insist on entering a property unless they have obtained a search warrant. I imagine that they’d have serious concerns to do that!
In those days lots of statutory authorities had the right to enter any premises they liked including electric companies, GPO Telephones and the Post Office - as I recall they didn’t even need to have a telephone on the premises in the case of the GPO. I am pretty sure that my GPO Telephones’ pass even said so.
I must admit I was surprised to hear that these powers had been revoked in the 1980s (I think it was).
Yes Bruce, back then it wasn’t just the Spanish Inquisition you never expected 
The UK approach to funding a state owned by independant TV channel(s) is interesting but perhaps not sustainable. Using a household licence approach has some benefits - it is clearly separate from general taxation and removes government temptation to cut that funding being the main one. However, it is one price regardless of the size or wealth of that household, and being a very separate charge is it vulnerable to people wanted to opt out if they dislike the programme content produced. In the face of other paid subscription channels many seem to think this additional licence charge is a bit much (even if it compares well to the prices of these other channels).
I dunno what is next. But perhaps Channel 4 is a good example of state owned, advert paid TV channel?
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Australia has SBS (Special Broadcasting Services) which provides multi language service, it is supported by advertising even though a state run service.
(Sometimes people call it the Soccer Broadcasting Service because it is about the only place you see soccer on TV apart from the streaming services)
The ABC is supported ad free out of government coffers. The coalition tends to trim it back when they are in power. The clowns at One Nation wants to defund it altogether, they won’t let the ABC news cover their activities or press conferences.
All this raises a worthwhile question of why have state funded TV channels and what content should they broadcast.
For me, the value of state backed TV is that it is not private / corporate money backed. The US is in independent media meltdown as the likes of Ellison buy up all TV and news channels. And that will (not) nicely compliment Fox News. A barrage of right wing, neo-liberal, pro-GOP info for the nation. A strong, independent, not controlled by the government of that year news channel is necessary.
Even better would perhaps be a channel with multiple slots for many truly independent news producers. A mix of right and left, critical and supporting.
And let’s not forget entertainment. I’m with Lord Reith (of Stonehaven, my home town) on this issue. Give them content that informs, educates and entertains but also betters them.
Its probably best to subscribe to the Youtube school of thought 
I’ve always had a TV licence and will continue to do so as long as it is a requirement.
I don’t pay any subscription fees to any other company, and find that freeview channels contain everything I need for TV entertainment.
I rarely watch films anymore because they are either animated or some extraordinary human hero containing gratuitous violence and/or unbelievable nonsense.
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Don’t watch films anymore Foxy don’t think in can focus on anything for a couple of hours now.
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It must be 4-5 years since I’d been to the cinema; However I was back in London, in my old area of Brentford and blimey, if they’ve not got themselves a new cinema. I’d an afternoon free so got myself a ticket to see Pressure. V good film and as it was an Everyman cinema I’d a couple of glasses of wine while watching the film, sat on a sofa. Seems I’m back watching films.
I enjoy the TV drama series from various European countries. On Netflix the dubbing is very good nowadays whilst keeping the regional flavour.
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It’s very rare that any new films interest me now Spitty, so if I do watch any films it will probably be one of my favourite ones. Jaws, Gladiator, Titanic, A few good men. Tombstone…And Especially British films…The Full Monty, Brassed Off, The lady in the van, etc…
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Funny old thing Foxy, but I can’t remember the last time we watched a film on the TV. Even an hour episode of something usually means we have several breaks of our own making. Think we’ve somehow trained ourselves into having short attention spans 
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That’s why I like the BBC Dex, no adverts…But if I sit for more than an hour I can’t get out of the chair…
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Ads don’t really bother us anymore. We’ll pause regularly anyway.
It is better to skip than pause, burns more calories, see Youtube 
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Lauren jumps. She’s lovely.