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!)

Yes, I have one. I'm proud to support them. I've had American friends envious that we have programmes like University Challenge, which wouldn't get made by a commercial company. (Well, they may not be made by the BBC but they are sponsored/bought by them.) I thought Countryfile was bloody brilliant this week and I learnt loads. Love Global Eye, and a hundred other programmes. The local news progs are very useful too. They do some fantastic investigative reporting. (I'm old! I feel these programmes keep my brain active.) I listen to Radio 4 every day. Don't really watch sport but enjoyed some of the World Cup and the Olympics. We would be poorer if we didn't have the BBC. Trump is scared shitless of them, which is a good reason to trust them, IMO.

But you cant expect people who dont watch live tv or listen to the radio or watch i player to get a license just because its important to some people
If somone suggested everyone should contribute to Netflix or prime to make it cheaper for everyone wether they watched it or not
People would be outraged .

Yes, because I prefer to lounge about comfortably on my settee to watch something rather than hunch over a small screen.

I do watch a fair amount of BBC content as well as other channels and Netflix. I feel I get value for money out of my licence.

Not a UK licence because I’m in Ireland and we get our TV licence free as DH is pension age.

However, we also get the BBC channels via iPlayer and satellite. 😁

Yes. I’m 58.

You can watch other streaming services on a TV without a licence.

No, I don’t. We just watch Netflix, so we have never bothered.

This is how I feel, so yes, absolutely.

No I haven’t for about 4 years now.
I do pay for Netflix with no adverts

I don't have one because we never watch live tv, we only ever watched streaming services since moving into our own home. We didn't even have a tv for over 2 years when we first moved into our house, it was actually my parents who brought us one for christmas. So we just watched streaming services on a laptop.
We've actually recently cancelled our streaming services now we have 2 kids as we never have time to watch tv anyway. We have some dvds and a dvd player for the kids to watch once a week.
If we want to watch a big sports events on tv, we go to visit my parents house as they have a tv licence haha
I read bbc news on my phone, I don't need to watch it.
I do actually think the bbc is good quality for the tv shows it produces, but my husband isn't british, so he prefers the more international selection of shows available on streaming services.

We all know that.

However, your first post was a huge and sweeping generalisation. Very silly comment.

People who don't have a TV Licence are not necessarily criminals and should not be classified as such. I have known several of those. Some choose not to have a TV. They don't need a TV Licence and are not criminals. Your post implied that they were. It isn't a legal requirement to have a TV so how can it be obligatory to have a TV Licence.

I do choose to have a TV Licence to give me the option of watching a live broadcast easily if I want to. Other people make different legitimate choices and shouldn't be branded criminals by the likes of you. It could be deemed offensive.

I think of it like this. If bbc player cost £15 a month as a streaming subscription, like Netflix or Disney+, would I pay it?

I would. I watch loads of iplayer stuff.

I consider the tv licence my subscription to bbc.

I don't watch live TV unless it's a major sporting event.

I think it’s odd that people expect the BBC to only to make things they like. We don’t expect that from any other service - Netflix makes/streams thousands of things I have no interest in, but I pay for it nonetheless. I don’t watch or listen to the vast majority of BBC output either, but accept it is for those with different tastes to mine. No service can be all things to all people.

If you have no interest in ANY of its content then you don’t have to get a licence!

Yes. We do watch some live TV but also watch IPlayer. We don't have Sky or Netflix

I have got a TV licence at the moment although I watch very little live TV. The only thing that I've watched on the BBC this year is Traitors. I never watch sport of any kind or TV news. I haven't watched a modern comedy that I've enjoyed for years.
I disagree with the licence fee and do not trust the BBC.
I intend to copy any live TV shows/films that I fancy to my hard drive over the next few months and then cancel my licence and get a refund after I have watched the next series of Traitors which will probably be shown in January. For anything else I'll wait and watch on catch up.
I am nearly 70 by the way.

Im willing to bet a lot of people watched the World Cup football matches and didn’t realise you need a licence to watch them as they’re live

@Abouteffingtime You need a TV licence to watch iPlayer!

We cancelled ours as couldn’t remember the last time we watched live TV (literally years) and realised what a waste of money it was for us.
We do miss IPlayer at times but accept the trade off for the money saved.

FYI if you do cancel - we get endless harassment from TV licensing despite registering that we don’t need one and cancelling through proper channels (ie didn’t just cancel the direct debit but spoke to someone there to cancel after an hour on hold)

It’s been quite a shock how they go on, even had someone at my door - trying to get into the house! (They stepped forward to come in as they asked!) wearing body cam too. Very unsettling and invasive. Would never happen for any other optional product (imagine if they did that when you cancelled Netflix?!)

I will never get one again now out of principle as they have been awful!

Yes we do. I’m 42 and DH is 45. Our son watches a lot on iplayer.

We don’t have a TV licence - or a TV 🤣

In our 30s with one DC.

This

I am well aware of that, but I watch a lot of non streaming TV.

I am not prepared to pay for any more streaming channels.

No haven’t for years

we’ve got a Disney subscription and a load of dvds and a PlayStation and Nintendo switch

don’t watch tv these days we don’t even have a tv package or any channels - kids watch the Disney stuff

and I watch some shows on there

if there soemthing I wanna watch on say Netflix or Amazon I’d get a months subscription and binge

Yes, we watch a range of stuff on iplayer and I listen to radio 2 a lot. I was annoyed about the lack of commonwealth games coverage and will be gutted if it's the same for the next Olympics, which I've heard it might be, hoping whoever said that is wrong I'm not paying again for a different channel that will no doubt have adverts. I'm mid 40s.

I do have a TV licence but if you study or work at a UK university and your institution has a subscription to 'BoB' (Box of Broadcasts from Learning On Screen) your email address might let you access a whole load of recorded content, including BBC, which you can watch without a licence as it's not live.

Some universities (and also a handful of UK and Ireland libraries) also have a subscription to Kanopy which is an American service and has some films (and US university lectures on-demand). I think it was someone here on MN that told me about that one.

Jo