Wrongly accused of watching BBC iPlayer without a licence

[Cattenberg]

I have never had a TV (or an iPlayer account) at my current address, so since moving here I haven’t had a TV licence.

Today, I got a letter from TV Licensing claiming that someone at my address has watched BBC iPlayer on several occasions in the last few weeks without a licence. I know I haven’t and the only other resident (my eight-year-old) swears she hasn’t and I believe her. In order to watch something on iPlayer, don’t you have to log in first?

The letter says I have to buy a licence and gives me a link to the TV licensing website, but whichever option I select to try to contact them, I am either blocked from sending a message because I don’t have a current TV licence number, or I’m re-directed to the page for buying a new licence. Hmm…

I suppose I’ll have to write a letter to them, but has anyone else experienced this? I do NOT want to watch TV or buy a licence. I’d prefer it if they blocked my property from receiving all BBC services, so I never have to worry about this again.

I’m also wondering if someone could have accessed my Wi-fi, perhaps the next-door neighbours (one set aren’t very nice) or the workmen who occasionally park on the street outside my house as they’re renovating a nearby property.

If you personally own a Licence for any address, then you can watch any content subject to Licence anywhere you like provided -

The device you are viewing on is not on a wired connection to receive the signal, and the device is not connected to mains electricity.

So you can watch Licence content on your phone, ipad, laptop, whatever, anywhere you like, including coffee shops, parks, and other private addresses where the owner or occupier does not have a Licence. Email addresses for the purpose of log-in are wholly and entirely irrelevant. Licences are not tied to or issued to email addresses, so which email address is used to log in to iPlayer is neither here nor there, which is why it's not an offence for you, a Licence holder, to take your device to a friend's house, and that friend who has no licence to log you in using their email and for you to then watch iPlayer using your friend's Wifi.

But this is the contention BBC are making when they try to scare people with email-related threats in their letters.

If you think about it, it can be no other way, else Capita could stop you in the street and prosecute you for watching BBC News clips live on your phone despite the fact you own a Licence at your home address. Another anomaly of the moronic Licence system - It's issued to, and tied to static postal addresses, but it covers use by the Licence "holder" (despite not being issued to a person), not specifically use at that address. It's a relic of it's era, outdated, and no longer fit for purpose.

None of the times her daughter watched iPlayer at her dad's house came back just the two occasions that she watched a show at her mum's.

They will have record of IP addresses I guess - she previously had a TV licence so whether they had a record from then I don't know. I guess it's the same as how Disney and netflix know when you log in where you don't normally

Off the point but I would pay the licence fee if I could have access to the BBC iPlayer.

There have been instances in the past whereby people think they have logged out of everything, and as a previous poster alludes, someone clicks on a link to a programme and the app automatically starts up and logs you in to watch.

It happens on Smart TVs, but it can also happen on a browser if the log-in is still stored in the cache. You don't always start with iPlayer by opening the app and choosing a programme, or by navigating through the app. It's possible to click links and auto-open and auto-log-in.

They don’t have any record of IP addresses. I asked them to check this when I used iplayer at a home with a tv licence and they said they couldn’t.

They will have record of IP addresses I guess

Yes, but the only people who know which physical addresses those IP's are issued to is your ISP, and without a warrant or court order they aren't sharing that info with the BBC because they'd be breaking the law.

Just because the BBC can track which IP's are accessing their online content does not mean they have any idea who is behind that IP, either the person or the physical address.

VPN and setting your location to UK solves that problem.

Don't forget you also need a licence if you listen to the radio stations. I have a licence almost purely to enable me to listen to Gardener's Question Time (I also occasionally watch iPlayer so it's not ONLY for GQT).

You do not need a Licence to listen to BBC Radio. This is incorrect.

You are wasting your money if you only listen to the radio.

I should clarify not you personally I mean anyone who has one purely for the radio as I can see you sometimes watch content.

You can go on their website and declare you don't need a licence.

I would check any devices your daughter uses and she may have created an account and signed in, the account just requires an email and password. So eone must have logged in for them to know iPlayer has been activated and used

You do now, and for any streaming site including It X, etc

Nope

I watch Call the Midwife on Netflix- they sell on lots of their shows. My MIL also has the BBC on when we stay with her so I see odd things like the Christmas lectures every year. It might not be the gotcha you are thinking it is!

As I said, I also watch iPlayer.

Ignore OP. And remember they have to prove that someone was watching it in your house you don't have to prove you weren't.

It's not the BBC, it's whatever company they've outsourced to. They are like parking companies - shysters on the make.

You don't need a TV licence to listen to the radio or BBC Sounds: https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ102

If you have not got a password on your WiFi it’s essential you put one on, neighbour or work person should not be able to log on. You can contact them and say it wasn’t you as long as it really wasn’t your household but could you have had a visitor using iPlayer?

I actually contacted them about this in a fit of guilt at how much bbc radio I consume while not watching TV. (I did have some MH issues at the time, I get it's not a normal thing to do!) I offered to pay for an old black and white licence to soothe my guilty feeling...

Anyway they openly laughed (politely, not meanly!) and declined. They definitely don't want any kind of licence for that, not even if you offer.

I would have much more sympathy for the BBC if they did not provide a three word argument for abolishing the licence fee- Mrs Brown's Boys. Falsely advertised as a comedy.