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Watching television without a licence in the UK is actually a criminal (rather than civil) offence, and hundreds of thousands of purple are convicted each year
by djmobley 7y ago
Watching television without a licence in the UK is actually a criminal (rather than civil) offence, and hundreds of thousands of purple are convicted each year of the offence.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/24/in-court-non-payment-tv-licence-television-desperate-cases https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/24/in-court-non...
- _-___________-_ 7y agoTo be clear, this only applies to television that is paid for by the license (BBC etc, including streaming via iPlayer). I have a television and use it only to watch Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and am thus not required to pay the license. Which goes to show how ridiculous these vans are, since they can't tell where you're getting the content you're watching.
- fourthark 7y agoSounded like they do have technology to tell what content you are watching, which is even more ridiculous.
- al2o3cr 7y agoIt would've been borderline-possible in the days of over-the-air television - the first local oscillator in the TV is going to be tuned to a frequency directly related to the channel being watched, so RF leakage would make the channel detectable.
- lilyball 7y agoIf you can get any light fluctuation reading at all from the room, you could correlate that with the live channel broadcast and get a match.
- _-___________-_ 7y agoWhich content you’re watching isn’t actually relevant, it’s where you are getting the content from. I could be watching a programme via an on-demand service at the same time as it’s shown on live TV, and I still wouldn’t need a license.
- djmobley 7y agoIf what you are watching is live TV, it doesn't matter what device or service you use to watch it. It doesn't matter if you're streaming it, watching it via a service like All 4, ITV Hub, etc. If it is live TV, you need a licence. See: https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/Live-TV-and-how-you-watch-it https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/L...
- _-___________-_ 7y agoI specifically used the word on-demand, which is not live TV...
- djmobley 7y agoThis is incorrect advice that could get someone convicted. A licence is required if you watch live TV on any channel. See: https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ95 https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ95
- mytailorisrich 7y agoNetflix and Amazon prime are not TV and don't require a TV licence. https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ104 https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ104 But indeed, watching any channel on TV (not just the BBC) requires a licence.
- heavenlyblue 7y agoI think they make it incredibly clear in their message though: If you’re watching live TV, you need to be covered by a TV Licence: a. if you’re watching on TV or on an online TV service b. for all channels, not just the BBC c. ...
- qilo 7y ago> You don’t need a TV Licence if you only ever use these services to watch on demand or catch up programmes [...] I would think that Netflix and Amazon are considered on demand services.
- UK-Al05 7y agoNetflix and amazon are not considered live TV. iPlayer isn't either, but they've recently put in an exception for that.
- amiga-workbench 7y agoIncredibly vague, does a live stream fall afoul of that rule?
- heavenlyblue 7y agoIs that live stream being shown on tv while you are watching it? Yes or no? Same answer for having the tv license.
- jotm 7y agoWow, that article almost reads like a 1st of April joke. Why doesn't it affect your credit score, unlike non-payment of an electric/gas bill? I reckon that would make more people pay for it. I kept getting these letters for years, even though I did not have a TV, or antenna.