To ask if you're going to buy a tv license if you don't have a tv?

[Attethersend43]

New law is coming in this September forcing those who watch iplayer on devices to buy a tv license.

I don't have a tv and watch iplayer very rarely...

Should I buy a license?

I have a TV. No means of receiving a digital signal on it, we use it to watch dvds. And we watch Netflix / amazon video / YouTube / all4 on the tablet. I've only seen live TV in other peoples houses for 3 years now. Don't miss it at all. We don't watch iplayer.

You don't have to put up with adverts on Netflix.

I'm not paying it.
I don't have a tv and can't remember the last time I watched I player - definitely over a year ago st least. Don't have the app.

However I predict that it's going to be another pain in the arse and I predict many more threatening and undeserved letters coming my way.

I do listen to radio, mostly in the car. You don't need one just for the radio. If there was a radio only fee introduced I would pay but I'm not paying the full whack. No way.

"I don't have a license, I only listen to radio 4"

"I won't buy a license, there's nothing that interests me other than Peaky Blinders"

"I haven't had a license for 20 years, I only listen to the Archers and watch Countryfile, why should I pay £145 a year for that?"

I would happily pay four times what I currently pay for the license fee to put the entire BBC content behind a paywall to stop freeloading bastards stealing content they haven't paid for, have no intention of paying for and object to paying for. It'll be like Sky but without Kay Burley and Songs of fucking Praise. Bonus.

Boogers- I have tried to pay a radio licence- they don't want my money!
More fool them, as R4/R3/World Service are actually worth paying for. Just not £144 or whatever a year.

And for those that seem to find it bizarre that no one would watch tv - I get it. Everyone I work with thinks I'm utterly bizarre.
However I really don't watch it, and maybe watch 3 hours of Netflix per week. I can easily go a whole month without watching anything at all. It's just not a part of my life at all.

I would be all for a paywall - it would stop the threatening letters.

I was going to say "No chance in hell am I lining the pockets of those greedy fat cats at the Beeb. Bake Off? Fuck off, more like..."

Then I remembered my guilty pleasure - Antique's Roadshow.

I would happily pay four times what I currently pay for the license fee to put the entire BBC content behind a paywall to stop freeloading bastards stealing content they haven't paid for,

Only, of course, up until 31 August, it's not theft to watch catchup on iPlayer. So I'm not stealing. It's perfectly legal.

On 1 Sept, then you can call me a freeloading bastard if I break the law.

That's like emptying the contents of a cafe's milk, sugar, ketchup and napkin supplies into your handbag after you've bought a 50p muffin; not technically stealing but...

So all these non licence holders are not that bothered about seeing the finals of the World Cup, Wimbledon or Eurovision as it happens?

Definatly not! Never watched any of these as not interested in them!

IonaNE - you can't watch Iplayer from abroad (except illegally via a proxy server).

I'm sure the revenue from licencing isn't the BBCs only income stream - don't they sell content all over the world? Isn't BBC America chocked full of adverts? I highly doubt the lack of our household's TV licence "fee" is going to prevent them from producing all of their programming.

That's like emptying the contents of a cafe's milk, sugar, ketchup and napkin supplies into your handbag after you've bought a 50p muffin; not technically stealing but...

That is stealing though. There's no sign in any café I've ever been to that says "take as much of this shit as you can carry, we don't mind"

Watching a free service that was made very clear to be free with no strings attached, is not stealing. They are changing this so it will be stealing, but it is not yet, nor has it ever been theft.

readingrainbow they do! Take Top Gear for example.

Exactly, Mavis.

I'm 25 and haven't watched live tv since I left home. DP has never really been a tv watcher. We have a smart tv but don't even use its apps, we just have an Apple TV plugged in so everything goes through that or the Xbox.

Neither of us are big sports fans (I'd make an exception for the olympics if there was a ppv set up, but I've watched a lot of it at work, where there is a licence, or in town where they're streaming it on big screens on my lunch breaks), in fact I watch most sports either at work (if there's a particularly big game the office may put on a gathering ) or out of the house (so football/rugby in a pub somewhere for example).

I wouldn't choose to sit and spend my day watching it in the house, if I'm watching it then I want the atmosphere too. Eurovision? Only if I'm at a party.

I have no interest in my life revolving around being in a certain place in time for a certain show. I use streaming services so I can avoid that. I've watched one BBC documentary on iplayer in the last year, so I'm not paying for a tv licence on the off chance there may be another one I want to watch. If there is then tough, I'll just not watch it. Things like Planet Earth and other Attenborough documentaries (which I admit I couldn't do without) I either buy on disk or watch on Netflix once they're released rather watching weekly on BBC channels, so I'm paying for them anyway.

The same goes for all of the friends my age, with a handful of exceptions that still live with their parents and just watch it because it's there.

If you like live tv (and use iplayer) then great, keep paying and allowing the BBC to make the shows you love because it's worth it to you. But if I'd been paying for a licence since I moved out, I'd have spent over £1000 on about a couple of hours of olympics footage played after the fact and one documentary. Utterly daft.

Wow. I'm just astonished how many people are outraged if you don't watch tv.

DH and I moved in together with nothing except our clothes (moved from shared houses) and spent first on white goods etc. We figured we'd wait for a tv, save up and get a nice one.

Then after about 5-6 months we realised we didn't miss it. So we never bought one.

That was in 2009. I have never watched live tv since. I have used catch-up iPlayer very occasionally, but that is legal. I listen to R4 about once a week. But that is also legal.

It is not stealing or freeloading. If there were a radio licence fee I'd pay that happily. R4 is worth it. BBC tv, IMO, is not.

Don't see why people think that is 'slamming' the BBC. I love Dickens. But I haven't read a Dickens novel for a few years now. And if there were an annual Dickens fee, I wouldn't be paying it. Why is that so hard???

Sorry, I tell a lie. I have watched World Cup finals.

On my mum's tv. Because for the 1 event that I might want to watch every 2-3 years, I'll go over to hers; others might go to the pub. Again, legal, not freeloading, unless you also think it's freeloading to use other people's water and electricity when you're in their house.

I'm amazed they've been able to get this change through, and the only reason they're doing it on an honour system still instead of switiching it to a password based licence number system, and issuing vauge threats about using vans to find people using iplayer without a licence, is so that they can attempt to rake in more money from people scared of getting caught or people they actually can catch. If I only watched iplayer and didn't watch live tv, I'd continue to watch without a licence after the change. Their detector vans are scaremongering bullshit as well.

I have Netflix and Amazon Prime and didn't watch live TV even before I got them. I never use the iPlayer app and the only catch-up service I use is the Channel 4 news channel on YouTube. I don't watch events such as Eurovision because it's really not my thing. I do go to the pub to watch big football events because it's more fun than watching on the sofa. And I never watch festivals because I also prefer to go and watch music live, but if I want to hear music at home I use Spotify. So no, I don' t need a licence and I'm not freeloading. I genuinely don't understand why anyone finds this surprising or unbelievable.

Also, fwiw, I do read, a lot.

It's not outrage that people don't watch tv, it's outrage that people do watch tv but say they don't and outrage that they come over all high and mighty about not watching tv and refusing to pay for a license but then in the next breath contributing to threads about the Archers or GBBO or Strictly.

If you watch tv, fine. If you don't watch tv, fine. But don't be a self righteous dick when you say you don't watch it apart from x, y and z, because that negates the point.

The TV licencing people even managed to build a whole Coronation Street episode around ' not getting caught out' in the early 80's /83?. It very much worked when scare tactics worked. Nowadays people are better informed. They are trying their best to recoup anyway they can ,as households have done their homework - and understand how the law protects them on their doorsteps.
I do pay for one, for simplicity & peace of mind. It isn't difficult (however) to watch YouTube & see how the 'investigators' can be asked to leave .
I checked out BBC America this morning, what a load of nothing!
Even worse than when l lived there for seven years.

For those saying that the bbc is an unbiased news source - it is biased! Every news source in the world is biased, because it is produced by people and there has to be editorialising, which means stuff gets left out, stuff gets added, there's a particular viewpoint that comes across. To think that it isn't is naive