To point out that you do not need a TV licence

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

Unless you watch live TV!

The TV licencing authorities have got everyone terrified, loads of myths about scanning equipment and having to let authorities in your home if they randomly turn up on your doorstep. All of which are told to be untrue on their own website. It's there in black and white, you are not breaking the law if you have your TV connected to a DVD player only, or if you watch (non-live) iplayer on your PC.

I'm told very often that I'm going to be locked up or fined for not having one
Yet the actual authorities have no problem with me declaring I don't need one and haven't hassled me at all!

It's ridiculous. People need to be informed!

[AntoinetteCosway]

I have just tried to cancel ours online as we've decided to move it upstairs and just use it for the Xbox. However, I have to send them evidence...how on earth do I prove it?!

[pylonic]

Hold on. So if the TV licence man comes round, I don't have to let him in, or if he gets a warrant I have to let him in but I can just unplug the aerial and free view box first, meaning I save myself £145 a year??

I've just cancelled my licence direct debit based on this, so I hope it's verifiable. I mean, their website does seem to back you up ...

[Tortington]

i haven't got a tv, i dont watch live tv, i do watch i player. i enjoy the bbc immensley and i think this country would be subject to huge political influence via TV with no balance as per the USA. So although its not live, i'm not made of money and it could be a saving, i DO actually really enjoy LOADS the BBC has to offer. I read the news daily - many times
the weather daily
bbc i player tv daily
bbc radio daily r2,r4,r5

so i pay.

I am not saying YOU or anyone else is morally wrong. but i personally feel morally right. I love the BBC as an institution and i will gladly pay to keep it.

[StuntGirl]

Agreed LRD :)

I don't know why people think it's so hard not to watch TV. There's bugger all on I want to watch anyway - which is why I don't watch it in the first place!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, I love TV. It's just I like much more US stuff and I know I'd want to watch it again, so I'd rather have DVDs. I'm not highbrow, I'd love to pretend I was, but I watch shedloads of stuff.

[StuntGirl]

I am not high brow either, I use mine mostly for video games!

[BombayBlue]

So...
If for example the licence fee was for c4, funding hollyoaks, Alan Carr, one born, location etc, all v popular progs watched by many, ignored by many and hated by many. but to view any live tv you had to pay the fee.
All you BBC lovers, would you still pay a c4 licence fee to watch your beloved bbc? Or would you be peeved to pay money for something you don't use and don't like, but still have to pay to access you preferred programs?
Because that's how many of us see it. We don't watch bbc, think its pretty rubbish and poor value for money.
But we still have to pay it.

[BombayBlue]

Also, in our area we can't receive a signal through aerial, and the only option is Sky. (Virgin etc don't supply here so really no other option, no freeview either)
So if bbc can't invest in supplying our area to watch them why should I pay the bbc license fee to not receive any channels, then have to pay sky to get the channels that I'm already paying bbc for?

[cafecito]

I refuse to own a TV

[flyingspaghettimonster]

I am not in the UK so it doesn't apply to me, but we don't watch live tv. ever. we decided when we first moved to the Usa that no way could we put up with their advert breaks so instead pay for netflix and hulu. we find that covers most of our favourite shows even if it means waiting a year for them.

[flyingspaghettimonster]

added benefit - the kids have no idea about toy adverts so never ask for the hard to find Christmas top ten...

[pickledparsnip]

I don't watch live tele, only dvds and iplayer/4od. I have no interest in watching live tv. I am always amazed that people find that so unbelievable!

[pickledparsnip]

flying I love the no toy advert factor too!

[NoMoreMarbles]

We do watch live TV so need a license but... When we bought a TV (Asda a few years back) they made us sign a document giving our details to the TV licensing people declaring we will be getting a TV license. I said I wasn't comfortable doing that as it asked for bank details etc and we already had a license and they refused to sell the TV without the other license! Naturally, we took our business elsewhere but the same thing happened a few months ago when we got our new TV but via enclosed letter from Amazon...

TV licensing is a rip off anyway! I called to change bank details a in September only to be told by the man n the phone that the fee would double as we would need to pay a full year in 6 months and claim the payment we had already made back as it voids the license! Load of shite IMO and I told him that repeatedly until he got his manager at my (again repeated) request!

They are seeming trained to be as rude and obstructive as possible so you pay up without argument...

[PimpMyHippo]

I shared a flat with five other people in my first year of uni - 3 of them had TV's and watched live, so they paid their licenses (because the bedroom doors had locks on, they counted as separate dwellings so they all had to pay for a full TV license each) and the other 3 of us didn't have TV's and only watched catch-ups online. We were constantly bombarded with letters demanding that we pay our licensing fees - we filled in the online forms to say we didn't need licenses, we did the paper ones and posted them back, but still they kept sending letters. They were even threatening legal action, telling us they'd take us to court! I know a lot of the other students in our block were so intimidated that they paid up despite knowing they didn't actually need licenses, because they were just scared of being sent to court. We just kept sending and re-sending the forms, and after a few months of harassment they eventually backed off.

I wonder if their persistence in trying to intimidate us was something to do with the fact that we were young adults living away from home for the first time in university accommodation and they thought we might be easy to intimidate...

[ComposHat]

I don't watch live TV, and it seems quite common amongst my mates. We're on budgets and the luxuries have to go

Yep I think it is a generational thing. I got a TV for the first time in years and duly bought a licence. Only to find that I almost never watch live TV, due to my odd sleeping/work patterns. I'm very selective about what I watch and don't do the whole plonk myself down in front of the box thing.

Almost everything I watch is on iPlayer which I watch on the TV screen and play through the laptop. Next year I will forgo the licence and only watch stuff on the iPlayer after it has been broadcast.

[StuntGirl]

I have just tried to cancel ours online as we've decided to move it upstairs and just use it for the Xbox. However, I have to send them evidence...how on earth do I prove it?!

I wouldn't. I would just cancel it and let them send their threatening letters. Although I've only ever been in the position of not having one to begin with, rather than cancelling it.

Hold on. So if the TV licence man comes round, I don't have to let him in, or if he gets a warrant I have to let him in but I can just unplug the aerial and free view box first, meaning I save myself £145 a year??

I've just cancelled my licence direct debit based on this, so I hope it's verifiable. I mean, their website does seem to back you up...

If you're actually watching live television as it's broadcast then legally you should pay. Just unplugging the aerial won't be evidence enough for them that you're not watching it (after all, anyone could do that...)

But if you don't actually watch TV then you're right. Cancel and send back their letters stating you don't need one. You don't have to let their staff into your house either, unless they have a warrant. Which they won't.

[StuntGirl]

x-post - Definitely think it's a generational thing. Technology allows us to watch in other ways at other times, plus the rise of cheap dvd's and streaming services through laptops/tablets/gaming consoles means we have other options than regular scheduled TV.

[ComposHat]

But if you don't actually watch TV then you're right. Cancel and send back their letters stating you don't need one. You don't have to let their staff into your house either, unless they have a warrant. Which they won't

Also write and withdraw their implied right of access to your property. This should stop them entering communal areas of a flat or pathway to your home. You don't have to prove anything to them, for them to prosecute they have to catch you watching live TV.

Also don't be fooled by the great detector van lie. They don't exist, it was an exercise in mass fear perpetuated by TV licensing.

[AntoinetteCosway]

Stuntgirl the problem is that I've literally just last week renewed the licence, so I want at least some of my money back-that's why they want evidence. I don't think they're going to give it to me, are they

[kittyandthegoldenfontanelles]

I don't watch live tv. Nor on iPlAyer. Nor do I pay a licence.

[DillyTante]

Interesting thread as we are just about to cancel sky & our TV licence. We almost never watch live TV. I do love the BBC though & don't resent paying the licence but luxuries have to go. The only thing I will miss is live tweeting/Mumsnetting when the apprentice & masterchef are on!

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

I cancelled mine online about six months in, they did it no problem, didnt ask for evidence and refunded what I'd paid within a week, without me even asking! (I paid by dd and didnt realise I'd paid in advance)
Guess I must have had a nice CS rep look at mine!

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

Antoinette are you in a digital area and have you got sky?
Cause I guess that not having a digital reciever in a digital area is as close as you will get to proof?
Apart from that, I'd find out who they are accountable to (ofcom?) and complain!

[confuddledDOTcom]

I got rid of my TV for a year once, we ddin't miss it and didn't have net access at home then, although even if we did I don't think the players had been invtented then. I was in a block of flats that didn't have a good enough ariel to watch anything on TV and we weren't allowed sky dishes, so I didn't see the point in keeping it. I got a TV again when I got pregnant and moved house. Even now we're out of the TV watching habit so I rarely watch anything live but we do have BT Vision in our room and Sky downstairs so that's what we get the licence for.

Someone said you can't watch live TV on a laptop, apart from BBC being live on their site now, you can also buy a dongle for £20 that turns your laptop into a TV. Pretty good quality too. I got one so I didn't have to spend loads of money on Patient Line!