Home Forums Chat Forum Do I need a tv Licence

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
  • Do I need a tv Licence
  • trailwagger
    Free Member

    If i remove the aerials from the house, and only watch on demand amazon/netflix and the like. I understand that i could still watch iplayer, but shouldnt the onus be on the BBC to make sure i couldn`t watch it unless i had a licence?

    Flaperon
    Full Member

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/tvlicence

    Dunno, should the onus be on shops to stop you stealing or is it their fault if they don’t search your bags every time you visit?

    4130s0ul
    Free Member

    You don’t even have to go as far as removing the aerials. just ensure the tv is not plugged into anything that can receive the signal. you are free to watch any catch up without a licence.
    though if you want to watch Iplayer then yes you will need a licence as the BBC have recently revised this.

    aP
    Free Member

    Do whatever you want to do. You’ll be fine.

    Trimix
    Free Member

    Sounds like your looking for an excuse to use something without paying for it.

    Bit like if I kept taking your bike for a ride and then saying its your fault for not keeping it safe.

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    Leave the aerial and keep it plugged in if you want.

    If you watch or record live TV then you need a licence.

    If you do anything on Iplayer then you need a licence.

    http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/bbc-iplayer-and-the-tv-licence?&WT.mc_id=rdir_tvlcouk-lawchange

    Its up to them to prove that you have been doing any of the above, not for you to prove you haven’t.

    devash
    Free Member

    If you use iPlayer without a valid TV license, you are breaking the law.

    If you watch any streaming services that stream simultaneously to a live TV broadcast, then you are also breaking the law.

    Its up to you to decide whether you want to break the law.

    We’ve been legally license free for two years now and all we’ve done is disconnect the aerial cable from the back of the TV and detune the channels. When doing my research the consensus was to not contact TV licensing to inform them as they just don’t believe you and will keep hassling you. We get the monthly threat-o-grams in the mail but that’s about it.

    Can’t saw we miss the TV as we still have DVDs / streaming.

    Rockhopper
    Free Member

    You don’t need to do any of this de-tuning business.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    You MUST have a TV licence to watch iPlayer, in the past it was possible to watch it on catch-up legally without a licence but not live. Now even catch-up needs a licence.

    @devash eventually they will visit you, it took them about 3 years to find me at home as they typically visit during working hours. They where then able to confirm I had no TV capable of receiving a signal

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    iPlayer is now off-limits, and soon you’ll have to sign up for an account and provide evidence of licence to see it, so I guess the BBC are accepting that the onus is on them to prevent you viewing it.

    You can just ignore any communications from Capita or whoever they’ve got doing their ‘enforcement’ now. If they visit you at home, you can either tell them to bugger off or let them in to check (how they would do that in this day and age is beyond me). They have no right of entry, and the only people they drag before the courts these days are those who are daft enough to let them in while they’re watching This Morning, or admit the offence.

    mattyfez
    Full Member

    5 pages, 2 flounces, one ‘freeman of the land’ post. 3 posts ridiculing the freeman of the land post. 2 refrences to Hitler /nazi.

    clanton
    Free Member

    How does Eurosport fit in? If I watch it online (paying for a Eurosport subscription) would I need a license?

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    If I watch it online (paying for a Eurosport subscription) would I need a license?

    No. Only for live telly and iPlayer.

    devash
    Free Member

    one ‘freeman of the land’ post

    I forgot about all that horsecrap. Is that movement still going? 😆

    Also, “Am I being detained? Am I free to go?”

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    I forgot about all that horsecrap. Is that movement still going?

    I reserve the right not to reveal that. Am I free to go now? 🙂

    mt
    Free Member

    the sooner the scrap the BBC tax and I can pay what I think its worth the better! Only choking(meself to death) I’m really happy to keep Alan Yentob in luxury.

    I’m a Fox News man me self.

    @mattyfez, that should help your prediction along.

    drewd
    Full Member

    We have also been licence free for 2 years. We just removed the aerial from the TV. The TV licensing company wrote to us twice when we cancelled, and again this year to confirm we still aren’t watching live TV or iPlayer. We also had an inspector visit last year, he simply confirmed who we are, that we don’t watch live TV, then left. He didn’t even ask to come in. We’ve not experienced the threats that others report when being licence free.

    You can buy box sets direct from the BBC if there is anything you want to buy. The wife did with the current Dr Who series, they air on Saturday and she gets an email link on Sunday. Generally Netflix and Amazon cover what we want to watch.

    The TV is only used for playing Rock Smith or Gran Turismo now.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    Rockhopper is correct. All this “unplug this, detune that, remove the other” is mince.

    eventually they will visit you

    … and? Tell them to sod off, they have no authority to enter your property. Their powers of investigation are limited to peeping through the window to see if they can catch you watching The One Show.

    shermer75
    Free Member

    You’ll be ok just as long as you don’t see one of these

    martinhutch
    Full Member

    That would make a brilliant stealth camper. Set up for good telly reception even in the Highlands, too, I reckon.

    trailwagger
    Free Member

    Just want to add that i am not trying to get something for free or avoiding paying for something that i should be paying for. I genuinley do not watch live tv and havnt for a few years. The kids watch iplayer but i could soon put a block on that.

    gordimhor
    Full Member

    TV detector vans were just a sham anyway. They never actually worked.
    TV detector vans real or fake?

    tthew
    Full Member

    one ‘freeman of the land’ post
    I forgot about all that horsecrap. Is that movement still going?

    Freeman on the land jailed in Manchester this month for not paying council tax. Linkage. Not so free now eh sunshine? 😆

    Cougar
    Full Member

    TV detector vans were just a sham anyway. They never actually worked.

    Of course they work – they carry highly sophisticated equipment which is a little man who peeps through your window.

    The other thing is that there was an “undisclosed number” of detector vans in the country. It was undisclosed because there was two of them.

    aracer
    Free Member

    I’ve no idea whether they really were used, but it was certainly technically possible to detect somebody using a TV using such a van from the intermodulation products emitted by the RF tuner (back in the days of analogue it was in theory possible to tell which channel somebody was tuned to).

    Once did a tour of Scotland in a white Transit with a big retractable radio antenna in the roof – stopped overnight at a pub on Skye and got asked in the morning if we were the TV detectors (not sure if we were being wound up, but were told that a few people had been out to buy licenses).

    seosamh77
    Free Member

    They are optional ime.

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    @tail as per my post they changed the law/rules

    The licence bods visit your house, they have a list of addresses with no licence esp when you buy a new tv/freeview box the shop are obliged to pass on your address. Its a bit lame as they only work office hours so 8/10 times the house is unoccupied.

    paton
    Free Member

    If or when you do get a visit dont forget to film it and put the vid on youtube

    squirrelking
    Free Member

    The other thing is that there was an “undisclosed number” of detector vans in the country. It was undisclosed because there was two of them.

    Really? My post office had three parked in the yard at one point. Would have been almost 20 years ago now..

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    You MUST have a TV licence to watch iPlayer,

    No the person who downloads iplayer must have a licence

    if i am in your house and you put it on do i have to leave?
    if you are in my house and want to watch do I need to leave my own house?

    No licence and never watched iplayer anyway
    Do miss MOTD and Dr Who though

    km79
    Free Member

    £12.25 a month for a TV licence vs £8.99 (or even as low as £5.99) a month for Netflix.

    No contest for me, anything even remotely worth watching on the BBC ends up on Netfix anyway. The rest is a big pile of steaming shite.

    I notified them online that I have no need for a TV licence, cancelled it and obtained all the relevant reference numbers etc but that doesn’t stop them sending me monthly letters of varying levels of threat and umpteen visits to my door. Latest one warns me I have until 31st May to buy a licence or I will face court action.

    Don’t know who the biggest fuds are, the BBC and their agents or those who happily fund them.

    skids
    Free Member

    From what I hear, if you want to go the no tv license route, it’s best to never acknowledge the licence company but if you already had a tv licence previously at the same address it’s not so easy

    somafunk
    Full Member

    but if you already had a tv licence previously at the same address it’s not so easy

    Nope, I moved into my wee council house 24 years ago and whilst I have never owned/bought/watched a television in my house I still get letters every few months telling me I am committing a crime, how on earth they know this for definite I have no idea. For sure I could name 3 things I did today that are considered a crime and one of them is punishable by a 5yr jail sentence but I still don’t own a tv, never have in my life. My internet connection is so poor that to attempt to watch Iplayer is a test of patience so they can **** right off if they consider I should pay a licence fee.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    If there was ever a TV that needed a licence, it’s mine.

    We’re talking a 75 inch High Definition screen, and a sound system with bass so deep that it’s gotta be illegal; a £15k+ setup. And I update it bi-annually so I’m always ahead in the arms race.

    But £12.25 a month is a **** piss take. There’s no way I’m spending that lining the back pockets of those Lefties over at the BBC.

    wrecker
    Free Member

    For sure I could name 3 things I did today that are considered a crime and one of them is punishable by a 5yr jail sentence

    Great stuff!

    somafunk
    Full Member

    I rode on the pavement today, and I imagine I’ll ride on the pavement tomorrow at some point.

    I drove at 66 mph briefly on the A75 earlier today, in my defence I was driving my parents Suzuki Alto as I was taking a mate and his wife for his first 3 monthly check after oesophageal cancer treatment to hospital in dumfries unfortunately my VW caddy has only two seats so I borrowed my parents car, the Suzuki Alto 3 cylinder is utterly gutless so coming up to the Glen westward on the A75 out of Dumfries I booted it from the roundabout in 2nd, then 3rd, then 4th and I managed to hit and hold 66mph in 4th as I started the climb but by the time I had reached the top of the hill I was down to 42 mph and holding up the artic behind me, once I was over the crest it was fine and the rest of the journey proceeded without criminal intent.

    Tonight I’ve had two bowls of power plant weed in my vaporiser, was rather nice….feel quite good now…….listening to music and drinking whisky…… and posting shite on here.

    Am I going to hell?

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    😀

    You might go to prison, where you’ll at least be able to watch TV legally.

    somafunk
    Full Member

    Not a chance of that, I’m now one of the untouchables……. 😉

    Mwharrrr ……..harrrrrr…..harrrrrr

    ( that’s meant to be my evil laugh……….I’m not fooling anyone am I?) 😳

    deadkenny
    Free Member

    I was going to post the TV licence man sketch video from The Young Ones but I get…

    “This video contains content from BBC Worldwide, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. ” 😆

    That I assume because I’m in the UK and you need a licence so the Beeb is going round blocking YouTube Beeb clips from UK residents as they can’t prove a licence. Outside the UK the clip would be allowed!

    Anyway, as for modern style detector van, with iPlayer it will log your IP address and you have to click “I have a licence”. On that basis it would be possible to track you down via your ISP and (with new powers from Mrs May) demand your details and send you a letter saying “oh no you don’t”.

    But it’s probably too much hassle especially as I believe enforcement is now in-house at the Beeb.

    natrix
    Free Member

    Do whatever you want to do. You’ll be fined

    :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)

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