Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I don’t pay for a TV Lic

73 replies

StarDolphins · 13/05/2023 20:29

But I really want to watch 24 hours in police custody. Tv Lic website says I can’t watch anything with live tv or BBC Iplets either live or catch up.

Can I still download the Channel 4 App to watch this non-live programme even though the app has watch live things too?

OP posts:
tommika · 14/05/2023 22:56

thinandsparse · 13/05/2023 21:51

Wait, what? I thought you needed a tv licence if you had a tv? I get one every year. I reserve threatening letters years ago with threats of them knocking on the door and finding you if you owned a tv. How do they know if you're watching live tv or not?

You don’t need a TV licence just for having a TV, this has not been the case for many years

You need a licence if you watch broadcast TV
(standard channels, Virgin, Sky etc) or if you watch BBC iPlayer

CharlottenBerg · 14/05/2023 23:04

@JaneyGee - "The BBC is ... is effectively a woke/left-wing propaganda unit," kindly get back under your stone.

Theoldwoman · 14/05/2023 23:08

Gosh tv licences in Australia were abolished in 1974 and in NZ 1999. Can’t believe you are still paying them.

APurpleSquirrel · 14/05/2023 23:12

Here you go

I don’t pay for a TV Lic
DdraigGoch · 14/05/2023 23:20

JonahAndTheSnail · 14/05/2023 21:57

How do they know if you're watching live tv or not?

They don't. I've never watched live TV since I left home, but always had a TV to watch DVDS (back in the day), play computer games and stream from netflix etc. Consistently had the 'scary' letters from TV liscensing reminding me I need a license for the past two decades but noones ever shown up to check. If they do, you don't even have any legal obligation to let them into your house.

As well as the cycle of threatening letters (they get steadily worse before reverting back to the start) that I recycle, I've had a couple of "we called but no one was in" notes. Well what did they expect if they're going to turn up at 11am on a weekday?

Out of interest, does anyone know where live videos on Facebook or Youtube stand?

Hummusanddipdip · 14/05/2023 23:21

Ahh thanks @Pemba being that way for decades would explain why the info I found relates to TV with no mention of radio.

QueueEtwo · 14/05/2023 23:22

'Isn’t it obvious? Because the BBC no longer even pretends to be impartial. It is effectively a woke/left-wing propaganda unit, and makes no apologies for that. Even Radio 4 is rubbish now. The last time I tuned in, there was a discussion about Jane Austen. At last, I thought, the BBC is doing its job and promoting high culture. How naive! Within five minutes, they got on about a minor character in one of Austen’s novels who owns a sugar plantation. That then became an excuse to spend the rest of the show talking about slavery and colonialism. About the only good thing left is In Our Time. But Melvyn Bragg is getting old. As soon as he dies, or retires, they’ll ‘revamp’ it. Or, to put it another way, ruin it.

I barely watch TV anymore. I make do with YouTube, DVDs, books and video games'

🤣🤣🤣 I don't suppose you've watched Laura Kuenssberg on a Sunday morning then!

Original poster
StarDolphins · 15/05/2023 09:44

Bathroomlove · 14/05/2023 22:17

@StarDolphins Do you know someone on it?

I pay for the licence for 2 reasons 1) because I appreciate the work the BBC does & I think it's important to have a national & international news broadcaster and 2) because it's too bloody complicated to work out what's ok & what isn't! & I like to feel free to watch what I want.

however, if I didn't feel like that, I'd just take the risk & watch the odd thing if I really wanted to. The world won't end.

Yes I get what you mean, I just don’t want them to somehow know I’ve watched anything I shouldn’t! You’re right, I find it a bit complicated as to what I could watch but I get it now! I just never really watched anything BBC anyway.

OP posts:
Roundandnour · 15/05/2023 10:55

It’s not really complicated.
If you are watching it as it’s aired you need a license
If you have a sky/virgin subscription you need a license.

I get the letters several times a year. Have done so for several years. All addresses to the occupier.

No one has ever been.

If they do come you don’t have to let them in. They may lie and say they can.

They can only come in with a warrant. To get a warrant they have to prove you are watching live tv.

There are no vans.

caringcarer · 15/05/2023 10:56

I pay for a TV licence just to watch live sport. I never watch the woke BBC.

jessicama · 15/05/2023 11:13

As other have said, Channel 4 is partially funded by the licence fee - but you can watch catch up legally without a licence.

Of course the irony of saying you can watch BBC shows on Netflix etc. is that if everyone stopped paying their licence fee, there would be no BBC shows at all, anywhere!

I guess it would be even harder for them to monitor who was using every bit of BBC content. But the license pays for more than TV (despite the name).

I reckon there's very few people who don't actually use the BBC in some way... I wonder how many people can say hand-on-heart that they never listen to a BBC radio station, look at BBC weather, news or sport? Or their kids use BBC Bitesize.

(Btw, not trying to be inflammatory - just personally think we'd be a lot worse off without the BBC as a whole!)

CharlottenBerg · 15/05/2023 11:16

Could people please stop banging on about the BBC being 'woke'?

jc12689 · 15/05/2023 11:21

Honestly, they don't know and they cannot prove it unless they catch you in the act.

I guess if they investigate and you have a sky or virgin subscription then they might be able to prove something that way. Everything you watch tracked.

GasPanic · 15/05/2023 11:22

I don't mind paying the fee for the broadcasting infrastructure, although I think that would be better raised from general taxation.

I don't like the portion of the fee that goes to the BBC. I should have the choice of paying for the BBC separate from the broadcasting infrastructure and it should be possible for example to watch livetv on sky and pay the infrastructure fee without having to pay the BBC fee.

If the BBC wants to pay millions to have people sit in a hide for 4 weeks to get 2 seconds of lion footage and pay sports presenters 2 million quid for rambling on about nonsense that's fine. Just that I shouldn't be expected to pony up for it.

EasterBreak · 15/05/2023 11:23

I don't have one and would just watch it. I let them know I don't need one. £13.25pm or whatever it is now for that heap of crap. No thanks.

EasterBreak · 15/05/2023 11:28

If some randomer wants to come in to look at my TV it will be a big fat no. You don't see netflix knocking on doors. They cannot prove you don't have one. I actually use my friends bbc iplayer log in and have done forever.

EasterBreak · 15/05/2023 11:29

Cannot prove what you watch even, only if you log in with your details. Which I do not.

Watchkeys · 15/05/2023 11:35

thinandsparse · 13/05/2023 21:51

Wait, what? I thought you needed a tv licence if you had a tv? I get one every year. I reserve threatening letters years ago with threats of them knocking on the door and finding you if you owned a tv. How do they know if you're watching live tv or not?

If they knock on the door, you're not legally bound to answer, and if you do, you're not legally bound to let them in. So even if they did come a-calling (and it's very rare), they still can't do anything about it. The threatening letters are horrific. If you read them carefully, they say things like 'We could take you to court and fine you up to £1000 if we find you're breaching our rules, and we're sending someone round to check up on you.'

Imagine if any other company did that. Imagine if Sainsbury's sent us letters telling us they thought we'd stolen from them and they were sending someone round to check inside our houses. We'd just tell them to f* off, and if they kept doing it, we'd report them to the authorities.

The onus is not on the consumer to prove that they haven't committed a crime. Unless there is reasonable cause for suspicion, they have no right to do anything.

Frogger8395 · 15/05/2023 11:45

I don’t have a tv licence and I watch what I want. Just watch it op, they wont know. The “inspectors” are sales people with no authority.

Im99912 · 15/05/2023 11:50

I’ve never paid for a tv licence
I still watch bbc I player and everything else on my TV iPad & phone

Bathroomlove · 15/05/2023 12:42

jessicama · 15/05/2023 11:13

As other have said, Channel 4 is partially funded by the licence fee - but you can watch catch up legally without a licence.

Of course the irony of saying you can watch BBC shows on Netflix etc. is that if everyone stopped paying their licence fee, there would be no BBC shows at all, anywhere!

I guess it would be even harder for them to monitor who was using every bit of BBC content. But the license pays for more than TV (despite the name).

I reckon there's very few people who don't actually use the BBC in some way... I wonder how many people can say hand-on-heart that they never listen to a BBC radio station, look at BBC weather, news or sport? Or their kids use BBC Bitesize.

(Btw, not trying to be inflammatory - just personally think we'd be a lot worse off without the BBC as a whole!)

@jessicama

you said it far better than me 😊

Bathroomlove · 15/05/2023 12:46

@Frogger8395
@Im99912

its not big and it's not clever to sponge off the back of people who do pay it. Why do you think that's ok to do?

Watchkeys · 15/05/2023 12:47

Do you think being big and clever is important, @Bathroomlove ?

theGooHasGone · 15/05/2023 12:48

Out of interest, does anyone know where live videos on Facebook or Youtube stand?

@DdraigGoch Nothing at all to do with the BBC or the license fee. If someone was re-streaming live TV they'd probably make an argument that you had to be covered by a licence, but anything that's just a random live stream has nothing to do with them.

MakesMeFeelSad · 15/05/2023 12:56

I cancelled mine last year online. I haven't had any letters about it but someone did come round, I just td him I don't watch any live TV and I've not heard anything since