To ask if you have stopped paying your TV Licence?

[GodDamnITBarbs]

Basically that?
I understand a lot of people have just stopped paying.

I still pay. As much as there are aspects of the BBC I have issues with, there are still a good few programmes I/DH/DD enjoy on there. We usually watch them on iplayer but as far as I am aware, you have to have a TV licence to do that as well.

I stopped paying in August 2016, 5 years after having one because I had BT Vision but as soon as I dumped BT I cancelled the licence cutting my Broadband and TV bill down from £74 to £25.
I still watch some live TV i.e. FA Player and ITV but as my new TV hasn't got an aerial connected and the live stuff is watched online even if they have a warrant they wouldn't get a picture.

I suppose that I never really started. Paid my share of the communal licence when living in a student terrace, but otherwise never saw the need. There's not much worth watching so instead I subscribe to Prime/Disney+, watch DVDs and stream the odd repeat on the catchup services provided by the commercial broadcasters.

I cancelled our DD last year and then got a letter about it. I ignored that, and then a man came to the door a few weeks later, threatening us with court. My husband then reinstated the DD

No. I still use the services so I still pay.

I'm out.

Partly I've found I only watch iplayer a few times a year, and I'm just not getting my money's worth. Partly out of principle, I don't want to contribute to the BBC now that its been so comprehensively taken over by the Tory party and ditched the balance and objectivity that was supposed to be the point in the first place.

I have stopped when we moved into my current home 7 years ago. It's got no TV aerial and I realised I never watched live TV. At the time we don't have to pay watching iPlayer and I did watch it. Once they change the T&C to needing a license fee to watch iPlayer, I deleted the app. I don't have enough time to watch all the programmes I want to watch on Prime and Netflix to watch. I now also got Disney+ so I have to be even more picky about what to spend my time watching.

In several years, I've only had one home visit (I only know about it because they left a "sorry we missed you" card in the letter box). Otherwise it's a repeating cycle of steadily more threatening letters over a period of time, before going back to the start. They just go in the recycling.

We stooped when we moved 1 year ago. Did it as a trial to see if we needed it. Not once in the last year have any of the 6 of us wanted to see anything live so we have filled in declaration and won't go back.

@Lolliepoppie For the funeral coverage, we watched maybe 10 min in total. I used the Royal Family Channel on youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCvgLV2Ixb8KCemj-UtXZ-g

It's supposedly produced by ITN and I have no idea who they are. I also have a apple news subscription to read magazines and newspaper on my iPad. All the news video footage I want to see are on twitter and youtube. On the occassion I got BBC news on holiday, I find them wasting a lot of time on fluff news. I can't stand it at all.

can have live news on in a variety of ways, for example sky news/aj jazeera live

If one reads the rules, there is an argument to say that a live feed of e.g. Sky News or Al Jazeera that is the same as the one available through an aerial/Freeview is not allowed. On some live feeds on Youtube you can time shift it though which then raises an additional question. And is it exactly the same anyway? How do we know if we can't ourselves compare it to the broadcast one? Where does it tell us if it is or isn't? I suspect none of this has been tested in court and I suspect it won't be. Because the rules don't fit what actually happens in the world any more, there are a lot of now-grey areas in the way the rules are written, and it wouldn't be in their interests to risk losing the case and get a new clear definition of what is and isn't a "live broadcast" that is potentially narrower than they might want it to be.

@TeenDivided You are wrong about Netflix subscription. It is £6.99, £10.99 and £15.99, depending on how high the resolution you want. The first two tiers are cheaper than your TV license, which is £159 a year, ie £13.25 a year.

I haven't needed a TV license for 17 years.

When we're away from home TV seems like a rare treat, the excitement wears off pretty fast. If we do manage to find something we would like to watch, the first advert break ruins it. Whether that be an advert for a third party or the TV broadcaster advertising themselves.

I pay. I consume a lot of bbc content, and like that it has no ads. I'm happy to pay for it.

I filled in the declaration to say I didn't require one some years ago.

I just watch Netflix, prime, itv catch up and channel 4 catch up which don't require a license as they are not live TV.

If I want the BBC news I just watch it on the laptop through the internet BBC address which doesn't require a TV licence.

So no I don't pay, but I've declared it to stop the letters and stuff.

I've never paid for one since I moved out 20 years ago. When they came knocking I would just say I don't have a tv and shut the door in their face.

@orbitalcrisis I'm surprised you find it a rare treat to see broadcast TV! We now got a cable to connect a iPad to the TV HDMI socket so we can watch streaming services on holiday. Can stand any amount of broadcast TV crap when I want to at night on holiday. The kids can't stand cbbc either and would much rather have Disney+ or Netflix.

The last cottage we went to have a smart TV and they even tell you on the checkout guide to log out of all the streaming services on their TV. It's brilliant.

I feel so worried about what will happen to bbc radio going forward

Ugh yes so sick of Kussenberg and how the BBC act like she’s a public figure instead of staff. You’d think they don’t have any other journalists.

@Sunnyqueen

I've never paid for one since I moved out 20 years ago. When they came knocking I would just say I don't have a tv and shut the door in their face.

That’s the way to do it. They have no legal authority to force themselves into your home to confirm.

@Pineappleflowers

It has failed to report critically on Covid and Brexit and I thought the non-stop Queen's death coverage was over the top.
I am also not paying for the salaries of client journalists like Laura Kuenssberg who propped up the corrupt Johnson government.
It is sad in a way as I used to respect the BBC so much but they have done themselves incredible damage.

Exactly this. Independent studies have also found that on several issues in recent years, the BBC news coverage was to the right of all its peers, including Sky News. Some people seem to bizarrely think that because the BBC champions racial diversity/representation and some “woke” issues, that makes them left wing. The claims makes as much sense as saying that the Tories are left wing as they supported gay marriage and now have a fairly racially diverse cabinet.

People will only get fined if they admit to watching TV without a licence or they stupidly let the " licence inspector, s " in their homes.

Why did you engage with him ,?they have.,no rights to enter your home either ignore the door or say no thanks.and.close the door.

I think the Kuenssberg years essentially finished it off as a valid model. The majority of Tories have always hated it, but it always had overwhelming support from the other 60/70% of the electorate who voted for other Parties and saw it as providing a bit of balance against private MSM media which leans 80% right in the UK. But by the BBC bending their news coverage over the past decade to assuage the right wing threats of killing the license fee, they now find the model supported by only a small minority.

Yes I stopped. I don't want to give the BBC any money and i rarely watch live Tv and I never ever watch bbc live Tv.