I am curious, as my tv license just expired, I have lived in this house two years but they didn’t put an ariel in I have never got round to it. This is because we use Netflix and Now TV and so not really affected us not having one.
So by law do I need a tv license?
Is Now TV broadcast? I think it is, so you need a licence.
But there are no BBC channels on it at all. In fact I don’t think there is any terrestrial.
When I had a trial for Now TV it was just on demand, not a broadcast. This was last year.
Not really, I’ve made an account before using random details and it was never checked… probably still works, might check it when I go away next week.
I’m not saying now, but its something they could do down the line.
It doesn’t matter. You need a licence for live television regardless of source. For on demand material (which I far prefer), only iPlayer.
What I find funny about all this licence crap is that they only want money from those that live in the UK but what about the millions that watch BBC in say Spain and the iPlayer in say Australia?
I love the BBC. Even if I never watched BBC TV, I’d still pay for their radio and their websites.
I tend to watch BBC Four more than any other BBC TV channel.
Commercial-free public broadcasting is important.
Also the BBC sell the rights to their shows such as Top Gear and that generates millions so in reality that should be sufficient enough funds to save taking from us.
Justin has a point, I think a lot of folks would pay the license fee because they support public broadcasting.
I see people are passionate about the licence fee, but I’m referring to the value of TV itself. I don’t condone theft at all. If you need a TV licence, buy one! I don’t have one because I don’t need it. I’m curious people’s feelings on TV itself.
I never watch broadcast TV so I don’t have a license. I only ever use Netflix or Amazon Prime TV these days, so I still don’t need a TV License.
I do listen to one BBC Podcast (Friday Night Comedy), and will sometimes check the BBC News website, so I do use some BBC services which are funded by license payer money. However those uses don’t fall under the requirements for a license.
And also for specific programming.
Despite always having a license, for most years around renewal time I’ve always found myself questioning why I was still paying, as I’d very rarely watch ‘live’ TV.
Since the broadcast of Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, I’ll happily pay my license fee without question - just to support the BBC’s Natural History unit in some way. IMO by far the best broadcast television in a long time.
I am waiting for that to become available in 4K on iTunes.
So you don’t watch iPlayer?
Nope, I used to but I quit when the law changed to require a licence. Got myself a subscription to DisneyLife instead. Cheaper and I like the content better.
You can not legally watch BBC iPlayer material outside of the UK. Of course, you can use VPNs to bypass geo-restrictions but that’s just as bad as using Kodi in UK to watch shows not available for free, also illegal I think.
But many people do but nothing is done about it…
I don’t use VPN’s I prefer DNS
It should be paid via tax - then everybody would pay equally.
It makes no sense that a home with six people within, pays the same same as a home with one person.
If everybody over 16 in work, paid an extra micro-amount of tax, it wouldn’t be an issue.
It’d be like private healthcare… If you’re happy with the NHS or to poor to pay for Bupa, you’d still be catered for.
But, having said that, I really don’t mind paying the license fee at all.