TV Licence Investigation

[Wannabe2017]

Apologies if this has be raised before.

I have received a letter today stated that we're under investigation and to expect a visit from the TV Licence people, I think this is due to us declaring we didn't need a licence. Which we don't.

What are my rights here? Can I refuse entry? Can I record them if I answer the door. I don't have anything to hide but don't feel comfortable letting in a stranger, I've also read/seen videos of how intimidating they can be. I'm usually alone here with DD during the day and feel quite vulnerable.

I've been getting these letters for more than 6 years with no response from me.

Nothing has happened.

I don't have a TV license and I don't need to watch BBC iPlayer, but even if you go to the iPlayer it asks you if you have a license or not. If you click yes I have one, you can still watch TV even if you don't have one! It makes no sense.

I've not had any for a while
some time ago they asked me to fill in a form to give my name, previous letters were addressed to 'the occupier'
Just to amuse myself I filled it in as follows:
First name-The
Last name -Occupier

Ok, I know it's not all that amusing as anecdotes go :o

If not illegally watching tv then let come in and see...your making a much bigger issue then you need to imo

Actually, the TV Licence people are the ones making a big issue out of this, I'm just going about my daily life legally and honestly, which is more than I can say for those causing the harrassment.

I didn't have a tv for years and they were always turning up. tell them to get stuffed, don't even open the door. they are employed by a firm called Capita and have no authority whatsoever to enter your home. neither can they get a warrant from the police unless they have absolute proof you have a tv i'e it's blaring through a window to the street.
None, I used to tell them to get stuffed through the door. i have a tv and license now becasue I want one.

They can be pushy! We had no aerial just a TV for a few months once, he insisted on switching it on. I said what so you can prosecute me and get your commission! Complained as he lied and said he saw the TV on, it wasn't even on standby.

I'm resentful that I can't watch live TV on other channels without a licence and don't understand why. I put up with ads on other channels because I don't pay the licence fee to watch ad free bbc content. Why should I pay the BBC to watch a load of ads on other live channels?

Channel 4, whilst partially funded through advertising, is actually owned and part funded by the government (Department for Culture, Media & Sport). So I can see why you'd need a licence to watch Channel 4 live. Other TV channels also receive varying degrees of public funding, grants and so on, as well as using advertising to fund themselves. So I guess that's why.

However, I will not be buying a licence as I do not need one. I'm not conning anyone or bending any rules, I'm following the law. The police have to prove you committed a criminal offence, it is not up to you to have to go along to the station every so often and prove to them you haven't committed any crimes recently. So why should an organisation who aren't the police view people as guilty until they prove themselves innocent? It would be illegal for the police and courts to do this - what gives TV Licensing the right to do this?Their bullying tactics hardly follow PACE regulations either. That's what enrages me, the principle. Yes it would take ten seconds to show them I don't need a licence but why I when they have no right to come in and do this? It doesn't stop them hounding you anyway, the letters just resume a few months later!

My mother saw one of the letters when visiting. I had to restrain her from going to the PO and buying me a licence that I didn't need! She kept saying but they're takin you to court, you'll end up in prison or with a huge fine. That's what these bullies rely on, people being so scared they pay up regardless of whether they owe it.

I can't put it better than the BBC's Director of Policy does... so go and argue with him, not me!

But his argument is that subscription wouldn't work because they wouldn't make enough money - in other words, the service is not popular enough. Well, that's capitalism. How many other businesses are allowed to charge people who don't use their services just because it they didn't, they might not receive enough money to stay afloat? He is a BBC director, so obviously that's in his best interest.

And your argument is basically that people who don't use the service should continue paying so that people who do use the service, like you, can continue to receive the same level of quality. So how many other businesses are allowed to charge people who don't use their services just because it they didn't, their actual customers might see a decline in quality?

So how many other businesses are allowed to charge people who don't use their services just because it they didn't, their actual customers might see a decline in quality?

AND then apparently be allowed to march your home to ''let them see'' if you're using their product or not!!! Just be a good quiet citizen and let them in to see. ?? Ye gods.

I do believe that if the BBC disappeared in its current format people would soon start to miss it. The last thing we need is yet another Sky-type subscription channel. Because that's what it would become, probably with very little original programming. And it wouldn't survive by offering only the kind of BBC4 type specialist programmes nobody else does. It needs its big hitters too - its Casualty and its Eastenders and its Dr Who and, though it pains me to say it, its Mrs Brown.

The BBC isn't niche and it isn't populist - it's a mixture of all these things and more. There is more to the BBC's argument than the capitalist one cited above - that's only one of several points he makes.

We had no aerial just a TV for a few months once, he insisted on switching it on. I said what so you can prosecute me and get your commission! Complained as he lied and said he saw the TV on, it wasn't even on standby.
I would just like to reiterate this ^.
Don't let them in "to have a look" because they may lie.

I do believe that if the BBC disappeared in its current format people would soon start to miss it

What an empty statement. Of course the people who watch it would miss it. The people who do not, obviously would not. Yet they are expected to pay a fee to keep those who do watch it happy.

I doubt a lot of younger people bother with the BBC and they're the future. I think it'll be a subscription channel, a radio station and maybe a pay per view of the back catalogue.

As a PP said, there are many people abroad that would pay per view too.

People’s wants as consumers would take precedence over their needs as citizens.

My gosh, they have an over inflated sense of importance over at the Beeb, don't they?

I, a citizen, do not want and certainly do not need the BBC in it's current format or any other.

What about people whose telly boxes break or those who chose not to buy one? How do they fulfill their need for Master Chef?

If Netflix goes down the shitter can I argue that my needs as a citizen are not being met and therefore everyone who doesn't pay for Netflix must be forced to?

Read some crap earlier one of the reasons aside from the increase to those who would still want it, is that homes would need an additional device in their homes. This additional device would then allow households to have bbc as a subscription this device would cost £15 to purchase and then your £20 a month on top.
Now I'm not the brightest bulb in the box but how is this any different to what households currently have? Free view boxes, bt view, sky or virgin box, fire stick, chrome cast, smart TVs and many that I have forgotten about. Not sure about freevoew but all these come with the tech for subscription based services.

For lots of households it's not about the cost, it's about the issue of being forced to pay for this. Many household pay around £3 a year more and get ground breaking, initiative, diverse, quality, award winning programming, plus the ability to stream millions of songs, read books, and more.
Many pay less than £80 a year to receive these.

So exactly what is good valued about the BBC?

We had them come round when I lived in Wales. We'd registered the TV licence under the English version of the address (eg. Beech Road), and they came round saying "Ffordd Beech" didn't have one. Were really shitty about it, despite surely it not being uncommon in Wales! I didn't let them in, though, siting not having my flatmates' permission.

I also used to work for a small business and we got these letters regularly. Until I was there about 6 months we didn't even have a computer! We just binned them. I tried to go on the website to register us as not having access to TV, but the process demanded lots of personal details so I didn't bother.

As pp said above - we never got hounded for any business licenses we didn't use! I support the BBC, but the tactics and attitude of TV Licensing are just ridiculous.

Do people who claim never to use or want the BBC never listen to any of its radio stations?

Really?

You've never listened to a single minute of Radios 1, 1xtra, 2, 3, 4, 4extra, 5 or 6, Asian network, World Service, BBC Cymru or BBC local radio? I know some of it is a bit shit, but lots of it is great. if you can't find anything you like in any of those, you must be very hard to please. Commercial/ internet radio is really that good?!

And yes, radio is "free" in the sense that, if you just listen to the radio alone you don't need a licence. Just for that. But don't confuse that with being actually FREE. All those stations are funded out of the licence fee. If it goes, they go.

I would be happy to pay licence fee even though I don't watch TV, but I simply can't afford to pay this or other bills, despite working full-time for an energy company. Wages are so low I use foodbanks regularly .I face a choice between electricity, travel to work, or food every week. I am struggling this week to do laundry and am showing at work.

If the BBC continues to support conservatives and allow them to continue their privatisation, debt increasing money-shovelling poor-bashing idiocy the BBC won't be able to collect its licence fee anyway so they are damaging their own market as it is.

Commercial Radio is the only radio I ever listen to. I wouldn't notice if all BBC radio was switched off.

Amazed you call yourself 'VoiceofReason' then, more like 'Voiceofthe80s'

Smeaton