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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Cancelling TV license

137 replies

Halfheadhighlights · 08/07/2024 00:13

My husband wants us to cancel our tv licence. We barely watch live tv, have had it on for the euros and will probably watch some of the olympics.

I watch Netflix and Amazon but I’m not bothered about having live channels.

just wondering people’s experiences of cancelling, did tv licence people bug you with letters and threatening to visit? I just can’t be bothered with any hassle, especially as it didn’t cost much really.

H is very passionate about not giving money to the BBC though.

OP posts:
Wotcher · 09/07/2024 16:11

Whattodo1610 · 09/07/2024 15:27

You need a tv licence for this 🤷‍♀️

No I didn’t.

AbraAbraCadabra · 09/07/2024 16:43

x2boys · 09/07/2024 07:32

But that's just your subjective opnion
How hard is it to grasp different people like different things ?

So you think that literally EVERYTHING that the BBC produce and have produced over the years is “rubbish”. That doesn’t sound like an opinion, it sounds like a lazy sweeping statement.

x2boys · 09/07/2024 16:50

AbraAbraCadabra · 09/07/2024 16:43

So you think that literally EVERYTHING that the BBC produce and have produced over the years is “rubbish”. That doesn’t sound like an opinion, it sounds like a lazy sweeping statement.

I didn't say that ,but I dont think they produce much good quality stuff any more
I also didn't say people have to agree with.me .
If you think the BBC is great I'm delighted for you I don't, it's a matter of choice isn't it?

Whattodo1610 · 09/07/2024 16:55

Lellochip · 09/07/2024 15:32

No you don't, ITV catch up is neither live broadcast nor BBC?

My mistake … I’ve literally read it wrong 🤦‍♀️

Whattodo1610 · 09/07/2024 16:55

Wotcher · 09/07/2024 16:11

No I didn’t.

My mistake, I’ve literally read it wrong 🤦‍♀️

S0livagant · 09/07/2024 17:04

x2boys · 09/07/2024 16:50

I didn't say that ,but I dont think they produce much good quality stuff any more
I also didn't say people have to agree with.me .
If you think the BBC is great I'm delighted for you I don't, it's a matter of choice isn't it?

It's also a matter of whether they produce enough of what you want to watch to justify the cost. At a minimum you'd be paying £28 a month for the first six months if you don't already have a licence.

WestofaCrave · 09/07/2024 17:09

Whattodo1610 · 09/07/2024 15:27

You need a tv licence for this 🤷‍♀️

It categorically does not. Check your facts.

summeroccupation · 09/07/2024 17:13

SeismicSalad · 08/07/2024 09:42

This. We filled in the declaration years ago and never heard from them again. It’s really not a problem.

Same. I don't have a TV and don't watch anything live. Filled it in, sent it back and haven't heard from them since.

S0livagant · 09/07/2024 17:21

If you don't have a tv but use iplayer, it costs £169.50. If you have a black and white tv, it's about a third of the cost. Can you watch iplayer if you only have a black and white tv?

CommeUneVacheEspagnole · 09/07/2024 18:15

That's what pisses me off the most @S0livagant - you pay 6 months in advance and never get it back! I questioned it at the time (almost 20 years ago) and the person on the phone didn't see why I would have a problem with it. I asked if she would ever give that 6 months advance back, for example to my estate when I die, and she understood but said that's how it's done. If only I could bill everyone that way!

MrHarleyQuin · 09/07/2024 19:37

S0livagant · 09/07/2024 15:34

You pay over £150 a month for subscriptions? Not everyone has a spare £150 a year for a bit of Wimbledon (or a bit of whatever else another night).

That was just in a few hours not per year.

Sky, Prime, Netflix, it all adds up. BBC seems a bargain to me.

S0livagant · 09/07/2024 19:47

MrHarleyQuin · 09/07/2024 19:37

That was just in a few hours not per year.

Sky, Prime, Netflix, it all adds up. BBC seems a bargain to me.

I don't pay for any streaming subscriptions so nothing adds up to nothing. I have one free with my bank account that a couple of my family members use. Most of my friends and family only have one or two, CoL.

Towerofsong · 09/07/2024 20:35

I never watch live TV and can easily live without iPlayer content. I want to cancel my licence. I have a Firestick and some of the catch up apps on that have a section to select channels of live TV. I never watch this but can't seem to disable it to make sure it isn't even available in case 'they' check. I would also hate to have a visitor who unknowingly turns that on. Any ideas how to disable those options? There are some guides on Youtube but having followed them the Live channels are still showing as available. I seem to remember that TV licencing used to say that if you even had the capability to watch Live TV you had to have a licence - not sure if that has changed.

x2boys · 09/07/2024 21:09

Towerofsong · 09/07/2024 20:35

I never watch live TV and can easily live without iPlayer content. I want to cancel my licence. I have a Firestick and some of the catch up apps on that have a section to select channels of live TV. I never watch this but can't seem to disable it to make sure it isn't even available in case 'they' check. I would also hate to have a visitor who unknowingly turns that on. Any ideas how to disable those options? There are some guides on Youtube but having followed them the Live channels are still showing as available. I seem to remember that TV licencing used to say that if you even had the capability to watch Live TV you had to have a licence - not sure if that has changed.

You don't have to disable anything ,if someone turns up ( and it rarely happens) just dont engage with them ,don't allow them in your house ,they have no right of way they have zero powers.

CommeUneVacheEspagnole · 09/07/2024 21:17

Towerofsong · 09/07/2024 20:35

I never watch live TV and can easily live without iPlayer content. I want to cancel my licence. I have a Firestick and some of the catch up apps on that have a section to select channels of live TV. I never watch this but can't seem to disable it to make sure it isn't even available in case 'they' check. I would also hate to have a visitor who unknowingly turns that on. Any ideas how to disable those options? There are some guides on Youtube but having followed them the Live channels are still showing as available. I seem to remember that TV licencing used to say that if you even had the capability to watch Live TV you had to have a licence - not sure if that has changed.

I just leave them there and don't use them. I would have no issues arguing with them to say I'm not using it so I'm not paying. I think you're right that it's worded in a way that makes it look a grey area.

We may find as more people cancel that we do get people coming round but I wouldn't let them in and I don't watch it so am confident they would act on the facts as I present them.

CommeUneVacheEspagnole · 09/07/2024 21:19

In my whole life, I only know personally of two people getting a knock on the door. One is DP in the early 2000s who was watching but didn't have a licence and paid at the door with no issues and my dad in the 80s/90s who said he had a black and white licence but a colour tv and I think he just paid the difference too.

FraeBonnieBentos · 09/07/2024 21:56

I could fill in the declaration but honestly I can't be arsed and it's a non issue

As much as the BBC like to believe that they are special and nobody could possibly live without them, they are just another product that people can choose whether or not to buy.

We personally do choose to buy it and use their services, but it is absolutely outrageous that they consider everybody one of their customers by default and accuse them of stealing if they don't have a licence - and are allowed to send nasty letters, threatening people with court, if they have chosen not to be their customer. It's breath-taking arrogance. Why on earth should you be expected to take the trouble to tell them that you aren't their customer? Imagine if every service provider and shop out there that you don't use expected you to do the same!

I presume they must pay Crapita a huge amount for all of their many concerted and persistent efforts in doing the BBC's dirty work for them; so I wonder how much of the money that they manage to get in - a great amount of which comes from deliberately terrifying and bullying elderly and otherwise vulnerable people who very well may not need one (otherwise known as extortion) - goes straight into their own back pockets?

To be honest, the BBC now has so many adverts - for their own programmes, their own content (like BiteSize), government propaganda information and - ironically - for their licence fee, that I sometimes wonder if it might not jus be better to swap the adverts for ones for cornflakes or toothpaste, make it free for everybody and stop harassing people who don't want/need or can't afford a TV licence.

Do black & white licences still exist? I thought it was based on whether you could receive colour - and as every old B&W TV would now need to be connected to some kind of digital box, which have only ever been made to receive colour, who can legitimately claim that they only receive B&W?

I know some people used to buy B&W licences to use with their B&W tellies to save money each year, and blind or partially-sighted people might as well have done so (do they still have the half-price licence for people registered blind, though?).

There were (maybe still are) plenty of people who were/are indeed watching colour but figured that, with no licence, they would be hounded and caught; but if they bought one at a third of the price, they would be safely on the 'licensed' list and thus get away with it.

S0livagant · 09/07/2024 22:19

Do black & white licences still exist? I thought it was based on whether you could receive colour - and as every old B&W TV would now need to be connected to some kind of digital box, which have only ever been made to receive colour, who can legitimately claim that they only receive B&W?

It was 7000 b&w licences in 2018. The tv would only show b&w with a digital box surely?

Toastandbutterand · 09/07/2024 22:34

I don't have a TV so I don't have a license.

It's been a good 15 odd years. I declare it every few years.

They did come out once, the first year after the TV broke. I let them in to check (this was ages ago tho, they just looked for TVs). They asked when I got rid of the TV.

I rather surprisingly got a refund as a cheque a few weeks later for the expired license!

We have prime and Disney at the moment, both on deals, £8 a month for the two. I can't honestly see me ever bothering with live TV again. Both kids are adults and I don't have a TV, I just watch occasionally. But I do like it when I do watch!

FraeBonnieBentos · 09/07/2024 22:41

S0livagant · 09/07/2024 22:19

Do black & white licences still exist? I thought it was based on whether you could receive colour - and as every old B&W TV would now need to be connected to some kind of digital box, which have only ever been made to receive colour, who can legitimately claim that they only receive B&W?

It was 7000 b&w licences in 2018. The tv would only show b&w with a digital box surely?

But I always understood that it was based on the ability to receive the colour TV - i.e. what the digibox could get - and it was irrelevant if you didn't have a TV set that could display what it received?

Obviously, in the old days when it was all baked in to a single television set (as it is becoming again now, but that's beside the point!), you would obviously only be able to watch what the TV set itself could receive.

I very well may be wrong; but if this isn't the case and it only goes on the display you actually see, surely people could just record everything they wanted to watch with the telly turned off and then watch it back later, when it is no longer live TV?

FraeBonnieBentos · 09/07/2024 22:47

Regardless, I wonder how many of those 7,000 B&W licences were indeed genuinely for a B&W TV?

Even if you genuinely did prefer to watch everything in B&W (not a snooker fan!), or were blind and so it made no difference, the last B&W-only TV must have been made a very long time ago now; I'm amazed that so many would still be working now - at all, let alone just with limited functions, after what must be 35 or (probably) more years now.

justasking111 · 09/07/2024 22:49

I'd love to cancel but we have Sky so legally obligated to pay

S0livagant · 10/07/2024 06:07

FraeBonnieBentos · 09/07/2024 22:47

Regardless, I wonder how many of those 7,000 B&W licences were indeed genuinely for a B&W TV?

Even if you genuinely did prefer to watch everything in B&W (not a snooker fan!), or were blind and so it made no difference, the last B&W-only TV must have been made a very long time ago now; I'm amazed that so many would still be working now - at all, let alone just with limited functions, after what must be 35 or (probably) more years now.

They don't make things like they used to.

tamade · 10/07/2024 06:20

Just stop paying and ignore any letters or “enforcement visits” it’s all run by a private company on behalf of the BBC.
You wouldn’t let random strangers into your home so they can’t collect evidence/fit you up

CommeUneVacheEspagnole · 10/07/2024 07:10

FraeBonnieBentos · 09/07/2024 21:56

I could fill in the declaration but honestly I can't be arsed and it's a non issue

As much as the BBC like to believe that they are special and nobody could possibly live without them, they are just another product that people can choose whether or not to buy.

We personally do choose to buy it and use their services, but it is absolutely outrageous that they consider everybody one of their customers by default and accuse them of stealing if they don't have a licence - and are allowed to send nasty letters, threatening people with court, if they have chosen not to be their customer. It's breath-taking arrogance. Why on earth should you be expected to take the trouble to tell them that you aren't their customer? Imagine if every service provider and shop out there that you don't use expected you to do the same!

I presume they must pay Crapita a huge amount for all of their many concerted and persistent efforts in doing the BBC's dirty work for them; so I wonder how much of the money that they manage to get in - a great amount of which comes from deliberately terrifying and bullying elderly and otherwise vulnerable people who very well may not need one (otherwise known as extortion) - goes straight into their own back pockets?

To be honest, the BBC now has so many adverts - for their own programmes, their own content (like BiteSize), government propaganda information and - ironically - for their licence fee, that I sometimes wonder if it might not jus be better to swap the adverts for ones for cornflakes or toothpaste, make it free for everybody and stop harassing people who don't want/need or can't afford a TV licence.

Do black & white licences still exist? I thought it was based on whether you could receive colour - and as every old B&W TV would now need to be connected to some kind of digital box, which have only ever been made to receive colour, who can legitimately claim that they only receive B&W?

I know some people used to buy B&W licences to use with their B&W tellies to save money each year, and blind or partially-sighted people might as well have done so (do they still have the half-price licence for people registered blind, though?).

There were (maybe still are) plenty of people who were/are indeed watching colour but figured that, with no licence, they would be hounded and caught; but if they bought one at a third of the price, they would be safely on the 'licensed' list and thus get away with it.

Edited

Great points and I completely agree. I often wonder how much they spend with regular letters. As a student (without a tv) I received them biweekly and they were incredibly threatening in nature. I called them terrified they would take me to court as the letters stated and she still accused me down the phone. They never mentioned opting out but it was before the internet was so widespread. I think it was even modem days. They shouldn't be allowed to do it.