TV license

[Sky1992]

So AIBU to stop my direct debit towards TV license since the kids only watch netflix, you tube or Disney and I only watch eastenders and most times I watch it at my parents?

Also is it worth cancelling it and only watching eastenders when I'm not at home or downloading it at my parents who do have TV license and watch it mine once its downloaded?

Problem is, BBC/TV Licensing aren't interested in playing by the rules themselves.

I do, but they don't. They send a letter every month which is full of lies, and they can't even put together an explanation of what a Licence is needed for without confusing people.

That idea that it's not their fault, and they are treating me badly because of other bad people doesn't really work. It's not a grown-up way to go about law enforcement, and its counterproductive - they lose the sympathy of innocent people, and we then respond by refusing to cooperate because we don't have to.

It's a mess, and after experiencing it for a few years, it really feels like the BBC has a big problem with ordinary people that it probably needs to seek help with.

I think they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t, they have given the option to tell them licence not needed; however it feels as though it’s a stealthy way to get you on their radar.
it is definitely in a mess, they waste millions of public funding on this, I wonder though what the alternatives could be and I fear it could be some kind of taxation which means everyone would be forced to pay.

@CornucopiaTVLR
www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/07/bbc-will-go-online-only-by-2030s-says-director-general

if this were to happen would they then be able to put the service behind a paywall?

Yes - and that is by far the best solution to all of this - control access so that it goes only to those who pay (and conceivably those who get a free concessionary pass).

No need for lying letters and gruff doorsteppers.

@CornucopiaTVLR
I have to admit I do enjoy the Goon videos on YouTube though 🤣

Happy to pay. I didn’t think it was especially a BBC thing though.

It's fun to see them get their comeuppance, although what we don't ever seem to see are the many, many doorsteppings where they meet someone who doesn't know their rights, does fall for the bluff and bluster, does admit something that may not even be an offence, and gets prosecuted.

There don't seem to be any new videos, though - not sure what that means.

The Licence Fee funds the BBC, and it is enforced by the BBC.

It is very much a BBC thing.

I pay my TV licence because I do watch live TV (not as much anymore - we have Netflix prime and Disney+) but does anyone know, if you don't pay your licence fee, how the fuckity fuck are they going to know if you're watching live TV or not? I get they might know you're watching iplayer via log in details, but if you've downloaded elsewhere then how do they know if the device is bloody plugged in or not?! Shamefully, I work in tech so ought to know but this baffles me! Also if they come round and you let them in, and they can see you COULD be watching, then what? You just say you're not? Is it on you to prove it or them?

It's not rocket science... not even close.

They know when someone is evading, because they ask them, and then use their response as a confession. No physical evidence is involved in 99% of their cases.

In the old days it was probably a lot easier to find evaders of the licence fee as you could only watch it on the telly through an aerial so I suppose it was a bit more obvious and the vans detection thing a lot more plausible.

The government seem to want to change it but it seems to be the BBC that don't, I always thought it was a government thing

Do they still take your name and address if you buy a TV, they used to so they could tell the licence people, though it would be a bit farcical now to do that

Eh? I pay income tax, NI, VAT, Council Tax etc. This funds general government expenditure including schools, hospitals and defence. I don't however pay VED (because I don't have a car), Fuel Duty (ditto), Sugar Tax (I don't drink the drinks that it applies to) or tobacco tax (I don't smoke). So why should I pay a tax on watching TV when I don't watch TV?

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Do they still take your name and address if you buy a TV, they used to so they could tell the licence people, though it would be a bit farcical now to do that

yes, yet GDPR would legally stop the shop from sharing that data collected, so unless the shop tells you it’s sharing your data( which they don’t), it’s a data breech

have you not realised the irony of the fact that you still want to watch Eastenders?

how do you think it gets paid for? By the bloody licence fee! So you want to watch EE but you don’t want to pay the fee that actually funds the production of it..

here’s a dictionary - feel free to look up hypocrite

I got a hand-delivered "sorry we missed you" once. Otherwise it's a repeating cycle of letters that start tame, get more and more threatening, before reverting to the tame ones again. Likewise I recycle them.

@user2754977
the article I posted earlier is quite interesting in that regard, Tim Davie the BBC Controller is hoping that a labour government will bail them out to fund a switch over to digital. I think they could fund this themselves from the 5.33 billion revenue they receive from the public and from selling the rights to some of their shows, ( for instance Peaky Blinders to the Weinsten Corporation) and I imagine they have lots of other revenue streams, BUT they are reluctant to do this as they really want to make sure they protect the directors pension funds and ridiculously unjustified salaries for their presenters, in short they arent remotely interested in the public its all about feathering their own nests, they have had it too easy for too long.

5.33 billion I just checked that as a record revenue for 2021

The requirement for stores to inform was repealed in 2013. They don't have to keep rexords or send them to TV licence when you buy a TV.

So they just keep sending the threatening letters and hope it puts the wind up people, and gets them to confess. If you tell them to eff off and they can't see you watching from the front door, they can't do anything then!

Yep - the letters soften people up to the idea that they will be visited, and they also mislead people about what the visit will consist of, and suggest that the doorsteppers have powers that they don't have.

There's not even any need to open the door to them if you don't want to. For all the rubbish in their letters, they actually have no legal powers on their routine visits.

It is disgusting because I’m sure they do postcode discrimination. Many years ago I live in a poorer postcode in a flat and I get threatening letters and had once had a TV license guy visited my flat. I moved into a small house in a nicer part of town and I never had a visit or letter anymore. They just sent a reminder for me to declare I don’t need a license every couple of years.

I don’t watch live TV because I haven’t got a licence. So I have never thought how they will enforce. Most very up to date current affairs stuff, like the queens funeral, is on YouTube too.

Regarding iPlayer -

The message that pops up is nothing more than a redirect to send people who answer 'no' to the 'do you have a TV Licence?' prompt to a licence sign-up page. They do not, and can not monitor who is watching iPlayer online, as the specifics of which IP addresses belong to which household address is the knowledge of only your ISP, so the BBC would have to collude with them to ascertain this, both companies would be in breach of the law, and no attempt at a prosecution would get off the ground.

What they normally ask you to do once they are inside your property is show them your TV set and aerial point. They will physically check to see if your TV is connected to the aerial point or a Sky/Virgin/Freeview box or so on. If it is, they will ask you to turn the TV on, check you can actually receive BBC broadcasts, and go to iPlayer in order to see whether you are logged into that. You are of course completely within your liberty to say no to all of this, even if you have invited the Capita rep into your home, but at that point they will likely have enough suspicion to put you down as a potential case where petitioning for a warrant might be worthwhile, especially if the rep has seen a TV connected to an aerial or box.

You are under no obligation whatsoever to prove anything to them. You do not have to interact with them in any way. If they believe you are watching TV without a licence then it is entirely up to them to go about proving that and compiling a case, and, short of attaining a warrant so that entry can be demanded, they have no power to compel you to do anything. Even then, when they show up with a warrant they should be accompanied by police, as the warrant does not give them the right to force entry to your property, only demand entry at your convenience.

TV licence detection is not set up for modern TV viewing habits it was set up for the times when you had a TV and an aerial and the only reason you would have a TV would be to watch BBC and ITV so if you were found out to have one it would be pretty much an open and shut case. This all ended when videos appeared in the late 70s and people could use a TV without watching broadcast TV

It's worth having a look on YouTube at warrant enforcement for TV licencing, this one is an oldie.

They even connect his TV up.

The TV license inspectors were such idiots 😂

Do Capita even have the right to read the police caution? So doddy.