Do you remember renting a telly?

[Needtosoundoffandbreathe]

We did as students and when we got out first jobs. It was a bit more to rent a video too, for those weekend trips to Blockbuster.

1980....was copying my cousins who stayed in the flat opposite 🤣🤣

I rented one in 1983/4. I was very popular in the house shares I applied for!

We had both of those tellies AND we owned them! How posh! Both acquired in the 70s and lived well into the 90s. In fact I took the black and white one with me when I moved out and used to watch SATC on it while feeding DS (24). I had no idea that renting was so widespread and that we were part of a TV owning elite. :) OTOH, my parents were pretty late adopters of the dishwasher and microwave.

We had a Redifusion telly and wireless in my house, we didn’t have to put coins in it though.

I do remember because Redifusion was all done through cables, they gave us a free trial of this brand new concept called cable telly in about 1983. We got MTV and film channels etc, it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me.

Had Radio Rentals telly when I moved into my first flat share after graduating. Tv and video - proper posh.

I remember the Redifusion showroom which displayed the television programmes on colour tvs in the window.

Poople would watch important matches, standing on the pavement, as many only had black and white tvs at home and the alternative was the radio comnentary to work out which light coloured team was which

I also remember Radio Rentals ads

That shop displayed tvs in the window too, but they had other appliances, like the fabled fridge freezers I saw on (b+w) tv further into the shop

We had a black and white tv which dad bought and I envied friends at school whose parents rented the latest colour tvs

My dad rented one because if the “tube” went on a colour tv it was really expensive. He bought a video and a dvd player about 6 moths before he died, never used them bless him.

Many moons ago we had ITV Digital. It was forever pixelating. We now have a smart TV and Freesat. We tried to have a roof aerial installed when we first moved to our house, but for some reason it wasn't possible - lots of trees and hilly so we used the old Sky dish for Freesat a d fairly recently replaced the dish.

There were a very small number of tube manufacturers iirc, so if you bought a Philips TV you got the same tube as a much more expensive Bang and Olufsen.

We didn’t but we had a black and white TV until well into the 80s because the licence cost was much lower for it.

Some people were still renting and had the coin op TV in the early 90s.

My parents rented oñe from Radio Rentals but I've personally never rented one.

Only sensible way to do it, as you got free repairs and, back in the day, that was an important consideration. 60's TVs were none too reliable.

My parents did in the 80s.

I remember when that was normal but my first TV was a second hand black and white from a repair shop. My older relatives convinced me a b&w TV would last longer. This was the 1980s (also bought my fridge second hand).

🎵 Great prices too, that's why people like you choose Granada! 🎵

< dance troupe all throw hands up in the air>

Growing up, I could never understand why other people had ITV regions named after their location, e.g. Midlands, Borders, Tyne Tees etc. and yet ours was - Granada. Which was somewhere in sunny Spain and nowhere near drizzly Merseyside. It was all very puzzling.

That's a bit cruel. 😅 My parents bought me a little colour portable TV for my bedroom on my 17th birthday in 1987. I loved that little telly. It lasted into my meeting my now DH in 1995 and moving in together a year later, I think it gave up the ghost around 2000. R.I.P. my first TV. 🪦

My DH still sings that song - his family rented their telly from Granada, he remembers the excitement in 1972 when they 'upgraded' (as we'd now call it) from black and white to colour.

ITV regions - due to some quirk in the positioning of our aerial, we received ATV whereas most people in the area received HTV. I remember when ATV changed to Central and the weird exploding globe logo replaced the somewhat scary yellow eyes.

Yes, both a TV & video from Radio Rentals.

My parents owned B&W TV's but in about 1980, they started renting from RR. Didn't buy a colour TV until a few years later and then bought a video shortly after.
I rented from RR when I bought my first house (1986) but bought a TV & video about a year later.

I never came across those prepay ones, didn't know it was a thing back in the day!😖

We could get HTV and occasionally the signal for Granada would go. You'd only realise when the news was on.

We were renting after we graduated in the mid 90s. When I bought my first house in 1998 I bought a TV from Comet or Currys. They really came down in price in relative terms.

Military family, when we came back from Germany my dad rented a b/w TV for us from Radio Rentals. And we had it for years, until one day, in the school holidays, we (brother and I) watching something like Champion the Wonder Horse (or Casey Jones, or that never-ending Robinson Crusoe...) and the chap from Radio Rentals came in and took it away.

Our dad was all "you all watch too much TV, go out and play" ... so we did. And when we got back we had a colour TV there. Apparently he'd been paying for colour for years, and finally someone realised so we got a colour for free for ages. And then he bought one anyway. Gosh 70s TV was brilliant!

Can’t remember my parents renting anything apart from a video player (they probably did)
I remember my dad coming home with this video player and me and my mum absolutely fascinated with it, thought it was amazing.

times have certainly changed 😂.

I know I’ve had things from Brighthouse in the past, washing machine, fridge freezer but not the same sort of thing, that company was a rip off

Mum and Dad had a black-and-white TV rented from a local man, but when Charles and Di were marrying, Mum wanted a color TV, but Dad said no; while that one worked, it would do.
Just before the big day, the TV blew up, so Colin, the TV man, brought them a color TV, which they later bought. Dad always reckoned Mum poured water down the back of the TV!
They also later hired a video one with the remote on a wire, which was too short, so you had to get up anyway.
Colin also put an aerial in which had a little box in the window so you could change the tv area stations; one click on the box meant you got midlands BBC1 and 2 plus ATV, and another click the box you got HTV or Harlech Welsh BBC 1 and 2.

Not me, but my nan had one from Radio Rentals that you put 50p coins in.

I remember the panic of her rushing to the neighbours with a pound note for change because she was going to miss Crown Court. 🤣

Yes. My parents rented theirs. I rented one before I got married.