Do you have a TV license?

[Abouteffingtime]

It seems to me more and more people just don't bother. I do have one, though don't ever watch 'live' TV, I do watch iplayer and other catch up. I watch Netflix mostly.

Do you bother? If so, how old are you? (Im 49 and remember the adverts!)

I think often this falls along age lines. I don’t have one, never have. I don’t understand how people can’t fathom that there are many people who never watched live tv/ ordinary channels.
I don’t use iplayer and only use my tv for Netflix, Disney and some YouTube.
Never had a land line either, I think there’s probably quite a lot of overlap between people who don’t watch tv and have never had a land line.

Of course, I am not a criminal

I do, however, loathe those "What have the BBC one for me" ads

No I don't. I don't ever watch anything live, and also stories like the above (and there are many, many more of them- non payment of TV licence fines used to be the number one reason for women being sent to prison) means I never intend to do so.

A "national treasure"? Sure, a national treasure with a long history of behaving like a gutter level debt collection company.

Yes I do, and will probably keep paying for it. I do watch BBC/BBC iPlayer quite a bit... I listen to BBC radio too.

I do absolutely DETEST that Godawful advert with Romesh Ranganathan though. (The 'what has the BBC ever done for me' one!) It's dreadful. Goes on for about 5 minutes too. 😖

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I use BBC bite size from time to time. When I want to know the difference between mean and median or when the Romans came to Britain or how to conjugate German Verbs.

I agree there is do many different streaming platforms these days there is pleanty of choice for everyone
But these threads always go the same away
The posters who think the BBC is marvellous cannot comprehend that others may disagree

Yes - watch live TV and use iPlayer. Happy to support TV that doesn’t have adverts!

No i dont have one i dont have a TV either.
Dont know what age as to do with it.

Why would peopld who dont have a tv licence be criminsls 🤔

Yes. Early 50s. Not having one would make my anxiety spike.

Is it a crime now to not watch the BBC... What a daft comment.

I'm 82 and I don't have a TV licence. Ive had one all my life until I was 75. I even had one when I lived on a rough council estate as a student. I suspect I was one of the few people who bothered. When I hit 75 I cancelled it as I was entitled to. The subsequent decision to reverse this and make people over 75 (who were not on pension credit) to have to buy a new one was dishonest and despicable. The BBC lost a lot of goodwill over it. I do get letters from them but they go into the bin where they belong.

Because watching live TV or iPlayer without one is a criminal offence. I know Mumsnetters would never do that, but there are those that do.

Yes im not thick i understand that
But not having a tv licence doesnt mske someone a criminal like you implied

I don't watch live TV at all so don't have a Licence. Even if I did I likely still wouldn't pay it because I object to the Licence model and the disgusting way the BBC attempts to bully, frighten, and mislead people into purchasing one.

Yes. Late 50s. I only very occasionally watch live TV but I do watch lots of Iplayer. DC1 (mid 20s) has one.

I do but I pay it for the radio which I listen to daily, I don’t really watch TV, certainly never live and not BBC player. In my 30s

We Don’t watch the BBC or iPlayer so no we don’t have one. I wouldn’t mind watching other channels but why should I pay the BBC for that? I just wait and watch ITV and Channel 4 shows on catch up.

The BBC needs to put some adverts on during their shows and fund themselves.

I think for me, never watching live TV/BBC is unfathomable because I can't imagine not watching major sporting events like the World Cup, the Olympics or Wimbledon, but I guess if that doesn't interest you then fair enough, but I don't think only older people watch sport.

It is technically a criminal offence with a fine of up to £1000 (plus costs) but yes I know what you mean.

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/about/foi-legal-framework-AB16

i imagine it could appear on an enhanced DBS check so might be risky if your job relies on a clean DBS.

Its not an offencet to not have a tv livence
Its ab offence to watch live tv and i player without a licence

Not if you neither watch nor listen to BBC TV or radio programmes, nor watch any live UK television programmes, it isn't.

These kinds of discussions make me so sad. Yes, I have a licence and am a huge supporter of the BBC. Without licence funding (which goes towards the radio, online services, BBC World Service etc etc), I think people would be horrified at the degredation in quality of what becomes available to us. No more impartiality or fact checking of news, no more 'specialist' programming (religious, regional, kids, educational content), as much air time for adverts as there is for programming, probably the end for the radio. The quality of the training that the BBC provides informs the wider entertainment industry, making the UK a truly respected film and TV maker that is sought out by film makers and international broadcasters. The BBC is able to be innovative and introduce new talent to the market.

I'd be very sad for it to be lost because it has to follow a commercial model.

You really can’t fathom someone not watching Wimbledon or the Olympics? Really? It’s literally unimaginable to you that someone wouldn’t watch sports, specifically ones that are largely broadcast during the working day?