Council telly is

[thinfourth2]

I often hear the term council telly and i always thought it meant Sky TV as you never see a council house without a dish

However in my office say that council telly is the free to air such as BBC ITV etc.

So which is it?

[anonymous-user]

Probably freeview.

Sky is for people with more money than sense who are happy for 25% of their high-cost, paid-for TV to be adverts...

[freecar]

Freeview.

Under the same logic that "council pop" is water.

[JM]

I've always understood "council telly" to be terestrial (freeview) on the basis that the council give you the bare minumum.

[MartinM]

Probably Freeview although it should be Sky given the percentage of council houses you see with a dish.

[randlemarcus]

By my personal understanding, absolutely Sky.

[Jasandjules]

I would assume sky. Because for some reason those who are on benefits almost invariably have sky (and the ability to pay for booze and fags too).

[vtecstu]

Opulent said:

Sky is for people with more money than sense

I'd say this is why Sky is council TV (or to be more accurate 'jobseekers' TV) - these people are given money and given houses and have no grasp of the value of money, and hence see no issue with paying £600 a year for what they view as a necessity rather than a luxury.

Same as smoking - very expensive, utterly ridiculous pasttime that should only be affordable to the highest earners, yet the sub-working classes will happily pay over £1k a year of their 'allowances' to do it.

[hidetheelephants]

Council lager comes in tins with a big red 'T' on the side.

[thinfourth2]

hidetheelephants said:

Council lager comes in tins with a big red 'T' on the side.

Tramp juice?

[Dennis99]

When Sky first came about in the early 90's or so, the joke went: "What's behind every Sky dish? A council house!"

[ajprice]

I'd say it was the free to air channels, not satellite. As said above, council pop is plain old water so council telly is basic Freeview.

[EDLT]

Another cracking poll.

[Vipers]

Urban dictionary says :-


Any non-satelite, non cable TV station that is free-to-air.

[Jonathan27]

It seems a bit harsh to call sky ‘council telly’. Sure a lot of council houses may have it, but so do most of the people in my office, all of whom are a long way from being council tenants. There are over 10M sky customers in the UK, so the balance must be predominantly non-council tenants.

[freecar]

Whoever thinks it is SKY is wrong.

The concept of "council" anything is the cheapest no frills version, hence council pop is water.

It may be that people feel that the majority of folk on benefits have SKY they do not, they have virgin!!!

[Puggit]

For clarity, shall we just call it Tesco value telly?

[Jobbo]

freecar said:

Whoever thinks it is SKY is wrong.

Whoever thinks it is Sky is old enough to remember when Sky started, because that's the point - massive take-up from council house dwellers. Got to occupy those long hours of not working somehow.

Is Sky seen as some sort of higher social status indicator by 20-somethings these days?

[jmorgan]

When I would work in some of the less well off area's, something always stood out on the houses where money was scarce.

I don't have a dish myself, or cable.

[monkey gland]

freecar said:

Whoever thinks it is SKY is wrong.

Err no. Since it is clearly an unofficial term then it is whatever the majority believe it to be, which is of course SKY. It is a derogatory remark and frankly makes no sense for it to be free to air or freeview (which incidentally came out over a decade after this term came into popular use)