public television, no more?

we are here in sweden for a special day in the timeline of Swedish History. As of tomorrow morning at 9am or so the tv's will go fuzzy. No more public television. Through this evening everyone gets three channels (all owned by swedish tv, like the bbc monopoly in england) and if you order cable or satelite dish, of course you CAN have access to much more. Now mind you, something that is much different in US is that advertisers pay for tv to even be on. here there are very few commercials, if at all--they more come in clumps instead of the constant interuption during a show or film. (and they are much more funny & clever than in US.)So you wonder how does tv happen if it is not 100% paid for by ads??
hmmm, well of course, in a country famed for its high taxes they also have a tv tax that you must pay to be allowed to have a tv plugged into the wall. Now I do not know anyone who does pay it--maybe I do, but they have not admitted it. My mamma used to hide the tv in the attic storage during the time when they would walk through her neighborhood & knock on doors of folks who dont pay this tax to see if they have a tv plugged in. (they announce which neighborhoods will be checked in advance on the tv- like theyre trying to not "catch" you).
During the last elections there were a few scandals because word flew around that a few politicians running for office had not paid for tv tax in ten years etc.. they had to pull out of the race! In the US you have to do something sexual, illicit, or related to fruad/imbezzling. here - you don't pay tv tax & scandal is all over your face.
Anyway, I am pretty outraged because I feel that basic access to information should be available to all. (especially in a socialist country) Checking in on weather or to see the news in case a meteor hit the earth etc... The public libraries should have internet so that no one is disadvantaged (they do have this) AND all should be ABLE to have basic tv channels if they want.
Now my mamma would rather throw her tv out the window but my darling sister is 16 and cannot survive without tv. So what were her options?

Buy a satelite dish & service.
Buy a black box for digital terestials, then pay a monthly service.
Also, buy a new antennae.

mamma kept going to the store to ask about options. she called antennae specialists. and all kept saying, oh if your antennae is 5 years old, or 10 years old the black box will never work unless you replace antennae! or, you may as well get a satellite.
And the catch is that now to see tv you either have to invest in this box on your own & maybe fix your antennae. OR you order a tv service which gives you the box and the lowest package is not cheap and you get more than the 3 channels, which is all we really need anyhow. Then she kept seeing cheap ads on tv, like 10 bucks per month for first year. but when you call and ask it really isnt true. And if you want to get two boxes so the recent addition to my sisters room also gets channels you have to bump up to the next package which is even more outrageously priced!

so bizarre to not have any options. that are not incredibly expensive.

So tomorrow when we leave the house for the day all will have a fuzzy screen. then at 6pm all tvs will be able to access the new digital tv (no longer analog) but you must have a box or service AND YOU HAVE TO RESET EVERYTHING, all over again.

In the end it has worked out not so bad. She bought one box & before sammy crawled out on the tile roof in the snow our neighbor helped to figure out that the antennae WAS facing the right direction AND was in fine condition. So we should still have tv IF we can re-program it! But in this house none of us are tech-like.

This upcoming day of swedish efficiency reminds me of the stories I hear about when sweden switched the driving from left side of road to the right in the early sixties. One night everyone was told to stay off roads by 8pm.. just sit at home. AND by morning all signs were changed etc.. life went on interupted but completely akward! All of a sudden you went out to board the bus on the wrong side of the street! Can you imagine?!
Tell that to the folks who are "fixing" Route 309 in Pennsylvania...
peace to yall, L