Fake News

So,  a press release from TV Licensing in the Express.

You can legally cancel your BBC TV Licence and cut your bill to £0 if you fit the circumstances.

Okay, so let’s see just how accurate their information is.

A common misconception is that TV Licences are only needed to watch BBC content. Many will comment saying things like ‘oh well I don’t watch anything on the BBC so I don’t need to pay’. This is a myth, and rules on streaming platforms were changed some years ago. But there are lots of ways you can watch TV without a TV Licence.

A TV Licence is a legal requirement if you do any of these:

  • watch or record TV on any channel via any TV service (such as Sky, Virgin, Freeview, Freesat)
  • watch live content on streaming services (e.g. ITVX, Channel 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now, Sky Go)
  • use BBC iPlayer at all

Yes, live broadcast TV on any channel or streaming service. However, you can watch S4C on iPlayer without a licence. It’s an odd exception, but it is there, nonetheless.

When you decide that you don’t need a TV licence, you can’t just not buy one and call it a day. You have to declare to TV Licensing that you are exempt…

Nope. Not true. You are under no obligation to tell them anything. Just cancel your direct debit and blank them. Sure, they will pester you, but they do that anyway even if you have told them you don’t need it.

The infamous ‘TV Licence detection vans’ are thought to be a myth by many, but the TV Licensing website claims: “We have a fleet of detector vans that can detect the use of TV receiving equipment at specifically targeted addresses within minutes.”

They are a myth. Yes, there is evidence that they drove around with these things, but the ability to detect what people are watching – especially with modern equipment – is zero. It’s a scare tactic, nothing more.

“All our visiting officers have access to this database. This means they can check if you have a licence or not.

“If you tell us that you do not need a TV Licence, our officers may still visit you to confirm this.”

So there you are, don’t speak to them. And they are not officers. They have no legal powers. They are door-to-door salesmen. Treat them accordingly.

So it’s best to contact the TV Licensing before they come knock on your door.

Given that you’ve already contradicted this, not really. Blanking them is the best policy.

If the bastards do turn up and you answer the door, say nothing to them. Confirm nothing. Don’t enter into any conversation and don’t sign anything. Just say ‘no thank you,’ and shut the door. Bin the letters and carry on with your life.

17 Comments

  1. A press release! I think that they might be getting worried.

    “A common misconception is that TV Licences are only needed to watch BBC content. Many will comment saying things like ‘oh well I don’t watch anything on the BBC so I don’t need to pay”

    As I mentioned in an earlier comment, this is a pretty reasonable assumption. In fact, having to pay for services that you never use is an outrage, in what other field of human interactions would this be considered remotely acceptable? The fact that they have spelled it out in writing here must surely have more people thinking that it’s outrageous too.

    • The whole concept is both outdated and outrageous. The idea that they can bully people in this way is doubly outrageous. They start from the idea that we all have televisions. I don’t. I have no business with them and have no need to contact them.

  2. “Just say ‘no thank you,’ and shut the door.”

    I find myself doing this more and more, although sometimes I just say ‘No’. It’s generally religious types, but includes some double glazing salesman. If I’m feeling chatty I’ll say “I buy nothing on the doorstep.”

    There ought to be a proper name for doorstep refuseniks because I think it is spreading.

    • I’ve always done it. If I want something, I’ll research the market and buy accordingly. I’m not going to buy from a random stranger who knocks on my door.

      • but clearly some people do or they wouldn’t keep doing it. It may only be a small percentage, maybe even less that 1% but it must work our profitable because if it was not making money then they wouldn’t be doing it.

        • The Scientologists and scammers (okay, there may be an overlap here) work on the same numbers game. One in one thousand is a score. Meanwhile, everyone else is pissed off by the calls, junk mail and spam.

  3. If, as Crapita say, you need a tv licence to record channels other than So Been or iPlayer, considering that it is only the BBC that benefits from the tv licence, does this mean they are acting on behalf of the other channels? If so, is it with the knowledge and permission of those channels, and are they being paid for doing so, or is it simply out of the goodness of their hearts?
    My mate down the pub says the licence fee is for simply receiving a television signal, irrespective of the channel being watched. If this is so, then why isn’t the fee shared out amongst the other channels?
    As my brain now hurts, I think I’ll just continue to ignore the threatening letters.

  4. Never had a doorstep visit.
    But I do the declaration online. I don’t tell them my name, all the letters just come to occupier.

    Even if it was free, I still wouldn’t watch the BBC.

    As for other areas where we pay for things we don’t use… That’s just the public sector in general isn’t it? I don’t use public libraries, for example, but I still have to fund them for some reason. I don’t use the NHS, yet I still have to fund it.

    • In which case, be honest and call it a tax. No one knocks on your door demanding that you prove you don’t need to see your GP or go to the nearest A&E or why you don’t have a library ticket. It’s the behaviour here that’s the problem.

  5. I just got the very same letter as your previous licence post. I have until 12th feb before the locusts and plague of boils.

    If they were to look through the 10 say window, all that would greet them would be my great hairy ringpiece!

  6. “watch live content on streaming services (e.g. ITVX, Channel 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now, Sky Go)”

    More fake news. Ofcom is vague about this, but does accept that only content from “recognised broadcasters” on YouTube requires a licence. Who are the “recognised broadcasters”? Presumably anyone who’s also on Freeview and/or subscription services, but beyond that it’s anyone’s guess. Foreign TV channels? You tell me. Sports leagues and promoters cutting out the middleman with their own channels? Fuck knows. My guess is that there’s a half-formed idea floating around their heads that nobody should be settling down for the evening in front of YouTube to watch sitcoms and soaps without giving the Beeb its pound of flesh. But that bloke with 1500 subscribers talking about model trains? Definitely not. You do not need a licence.

    And they know the backlash they’d face if they decided you do. I mean, that’s barely a step away from them demanding a licence for Zoom. (Note that they don’t mention Twitch. Possibly they haven’t heard of it, but more likely they know how absurd it would look.) The whole thing’s a relic of the 20th Century – the early 20th Century, at that; it’s basically a legacy of the early radio sets which both recieved and transmitted, bunging up the radio spectrum – and it’s long past its bedtime.

  7. Your ISP can only guess that you are streaming content based on the website that you are connected to and the bandwidth being used, it will not know for certain that you are streaming and will definitely not know that you are streaming live content. If you use a VPN, all it will see is that you are connected to a VPN.

    Since you can legally watch content from streaming services without a tv licence, merely subscribing doesn’t mean that you are watching live content.

    So, basically, they have no way of proving that you are streaming content that requires a licence.

  8. Here in New Zealand, we don’t have have a TV licence and everything is funded by adverts. Some of the programmes are good, but most are utter crap. (where do they find the contestants for “Celebrity Love Island” and RuPauls Drag Race ? )
    We just have the news headlines and then head over to one of the streaming services to find something with a little quality. We also subscribe to Youtube ,as we find we can get a lot of interesting items that are the equal of anything put out by the BBC and don’t have a woke agenda. All our content come via the interwebs and not through a dish or aerial. Keep up the resistance !

  9. I only use radio as don’t have a TV. It can’t cost much to put on local radio which I listen to. Don’t want to pay for TV programming I don’t benefit from.
    I’m surprised the government hasn’t reintroduced licences for dogs or even cats, all have to be registered. I use to get a licence for my dog in the early 1980s, cost 35p as never increased. Went one year and got told it was costing more to administer so it’s cancelled.
    Dont tell this government or they’ll be racing our pets.

  10. I’ve had a similar experience with a missing Council Tax payment. I changed banks and have had an offer to repay ignored. Then the threatening letters, texts and emails started. I’m ignoring them because I work in the same depot as the Enforcement Officers and Neighbourhood Wardens and I’m hardly quaking in my boots

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