Can I cancel my TV licence but watch Wimbledon?

[BrainInAJar]

Hello all,

I'm really having to cut back on expenses. I've paid my TV licence for nearly 20 years and always considered it an essential. However these days I very rarely watch live TV and not much on the BBC. So if I stop that, I could stop my TV licence.

However would it be possible to take pay for just a month so I could watch Wimbledon? Or should I just go and watch it at someone else's house?

Thanks

If you’re abroad: yes, at least a lot of programs.

I listen to BBC “podcasts” on Spotify.

It is email linked- you could possibly have a different account if no address verification is required (my account is years old so not sure) They do check if you sign in to payer from a wifi connection (and you have to sign in). They dont know if on a mobile phone.

I get regular emails as I have 2 addresses and quite legitimately access from 1 address via a device not connected to the internet (as allowed) and they still email me to say the following (details changed)

Dear Ametora,

You need to be covered by a TV Licence to watch BBC programmes on iPlayer, or to watch or record live TV on any channel, no matter what device you use.

However, you’ve previously told us that you don’t need a TV Licence at 47 Ametora Gardens , with postcode ending 97GH.

Our records show you’ve used BBC iPlayer on a number of occasions over recent weeks.

As your No Licence Needed status is now invalid, you will need to buy a TV Licence.

BBC should absolutely be an opt-in subscription service. I don’t believe the technology is not available to facilitate this. It’s a fucking scam.

They do check, but it’s not an intelligent process - eg I informed them my elderly mum had died and I had confirmation by email that I’d successfully cancelled her (free) tv licence. It took a while to sell her house and the tv licence people sent two threatening letters. In the end I phoned up and said “the licence holder is dead and her property is unoccupied which i informed you about last year. I am calling to confirm she is still dead and definitely not watching TV in the here-and-now. If you could please stop writing to her so i don’t have to repeatedly explain to you that death is in fact a permanent state, it would save you some postage and me some time!”

I suspect they marked me on file as a knob. But at least I didn’t get any more letters.

You do know that the TV licence doesn't just fund the BBC. It is also used to make regional programmes on other channels such as ITV and Channel 4.

In the other hand we could just erode the rest of British culture and only watch imported programmes from other countries on Disney/Netflix/etc who don't actually care about our country and want to make the cheapest crap or blockbuster rated programs. Imagine a world where something like Ghosts would never be created as it's too British and wouldn't work for an American audience, but don't worry, you can still watch the 57th series of the Simpsons.

Yeah they come around but you are under no obligation to let them in or even engage in anyway with them.

What other programmes for other Chanel’s does it fund?

The BBC contracts the collection and administration of the TV licence out to TV Licensing. According to the BBC, the money you pay is split as follows:

• Television (55%)
• Radio (16%)
• BBC Online (10%)
• BBC World Service (10%)
• Other services and production costs (5%)
• Licence fee collection and pension deficit cost (4%)

I watch iplayer through a VPN abroad so don't see how I can pay a license fee. If they switched to a subscription model I'd happily pay to watch it. I'd also happily pay a license fee every year as I think the BBC and their radio stations are brilliant and worth the money.

If you watch or record live television (as it's being broadcast), even if its foreign, or BBC iPlayer you need a licence.

If you watch on demand such as YouTube, Netflix or ITVx then you don't need a licence.

Having a telly doesn't mean you have to have a licence, just don't connect it to an ariel. Connectvit to the internet instead.

You could take a chance for Wimbledon, but they'll be out on the scout.

Best to watch at a friend's where you can eat strawberries and drink Pimms. Not only legal but much more civilised.

OP do you pay for your TV licence by monthly direct debit? I’m fairly sure that works 6 months in advance so you may have already paid up past Wimbledon anyway, if you cancel and opt not to have a refund for the unused months

Don't forget if you cancel then sign up again on a monthly payment they charge you double to start with to build up credit. That was one of the biggest things that stopped me getting a licence. It made the initial payment huge when I was on limited income, and I've not really missed it many many years on!

If there was a monthly subscription option I would probably use it now and then though.

Yes you will

Have you noticed Amazon Prime are going to be putting adverts in programmes soon unless you pay them £2.99 per month. That's on top of what you already pay them. Netflix will probably soon follow, no doubt.

netflix already has a cheaper plan with ads on, its what I have.

I didn't know that. We have Netflix but I barely watch it. I prefer normal telly so I can fast forward through all the ads.😄

You can create an account on iPlayer with a disposable email address. "They" don't monitor and check it, it's an automated service. There is no possible way for the BBC to definitively link an email address to an individual , or even an IP to a specific address. To even begin to do so would involve an illegal collusion on the part of your ISP.

In short - you are at no risk whatsoever watching BBC iPlayer without a TV Licence, because as with every single other instance whereby someone has been warned or fined, that would only happen in an instance whereby they either physically witnessed you doing it, or they asked you on record and you admitted to it.

The prompts on the iPlayer login site are simply there to redirect you to the Licence Fee sign-up page. It is not actively monitored, and even if it was, there is no legal, cast-iron way for Capita to prove who was logged in, or where they were viewing from.

I pay my TV license even though I do not have a TV.

I listen to BBC radio and watch on iPlayer.

I value their programmes and want to support the BBC.

I pay because I watch lots of stuff on the BBC, use iPlayer, listen to BBC radio and listen to BBC Sounds. Well worth the money.

I think they can trace you from your IP address.

you've extrapolated that from nothing. she only said that she thinks the BBC should be paid for because it makes a lot of content. there was nothing about whether you watch the content or not. Just it creates content = people should be willing to pay for it.

If she wanted to make the link between consuming the output and paying for it she would, presumably, have said exactly that. You can't tell people they are wrong for replying to what she actually said rather than what you think she meant but didn't say.

I assume OP that you are interested in all the games, as the British players in the singles are unlikely to last more than a couple of rounds.

A friend or YouTube seems the best option, if you are to get rid of the tv.

Thanks everyone.

I've cancelled my licence and my direct debit and signed a declaration saying I don't need a licence. They are processing my refund.

I may sign up again in July to watch Wimbledon albeit as pp have pointed out, I'd need to pay £26 for the month and then claim the refund of half at the end of the month.

The payment method of paying double the first 6 months does indeed seem designed to make you have a permanent licence rather than scooting in and out as need.

Interesting point that they can't tie a burner email address or an ip address to an individual. I suppose I could have someone in my house merrily watching iplayer on a device on my wifi but entirely without my knowledge. Where would I stand then?

I'm in Scotland by the way. A pp mentioned prosecutions are only for people admit they haven't been paying when they should have. I won't be admitting any such thing! And I'm not really intending to let the blokes in my house, mostly as a point of principle.

I see on the TV licensing website they still talk about how they have "TV detection vans" - I thought that was an urban myth and no such devices existed?!

If you have Norton, with VPN, you could activate it, set it to Australia, and watch Wimbledon on Australia's channel 9?

Test it for other channel 9 programs now to see if it works. I know channel 10 will pick up VPN use as I had to turn it off to watch it on the laptop.

It's about how much a household is going to watch that they are actually interested in, not what's available that determines whether it's worth the money.

Well you're not meant to.
I don't pay it as I don't watch bbc as i don't enjoy their programming so I've told them I don't need one.

But as far as I am aware if they knock on, you are under no obligation to let them in - they have no powers to enter. They send letters just to scare people.
So really all you have to do is say mi no casa when they knock and refuse to let them in.
How they would know you watch live tv unless they sit and watch you for 24hrs a day?