TV licensing people are after me!

  • Thread starter Thread starter 4p
  • Start date Start date
Gaidin109 said:
Sure, if you can prove that you had no intention of installing it, or using it in ghe future. Good luck with that.!!!
Click to expand...

If they cant get in your door, how can they prove otherwise. They arent allowed entry to your home.

So all this talk of having equipment able to recieve a signal being okay and not requiring you to pay for a license.

How can they prove anything when they arent allowed in your door.

I have a sky box, I have a tv with built in freeview. if i stopped paying my tv license and never let them in my door, and if i was asked if I use TV or Sky. If i replied "No"

What can they do to prove otherwise.
 
Amp34 said:
Yet quite a lot of those channels in the basic pack are available via freeview, which is covered and paid for by the TV licence (TV licence pays for broadcasting of all freeview channels as well as subsidising more than just the BBC channels).
Click to expand...

Tv license pays for broadcasting on terrestrial but Sky uses it's own satellite system so the TV licence funding is not required to air the channels on sky.

Following that, how many of the channels in the basic package actually create much of their own content? Almost all of them buy in most of their content from either abroad or within the UK terrestrial channels. Then look at the actual quality of the productions on those channels, there is nothing close to rivalling a large proportion of BBC content...
Click to expand...

Whether they create it themselves or not is irrelevant to the quality of content aired. Programmes like 24 and Lost certainly beat bargain hunt. At least on sky one there isn't 6+ hours of news repeated a day or 8 hours of football/rugy/snooker.

So for £12 a month you get around 30 channels, for an extra £18 a month you can get another 30 channels, after paying a £30 installation charge. Not as good value as you'd think, epecially considering there is nothing like the BBC documentaries on there (unless they are the BBC documentaries).
Click to expand...

A fair comparison is, either or, as TV licence funding is not required for most channels on sky.

So £12.125 pm for freeview or £18 for sky minus the licence funded content would be a proper comparison.

You also get a PVR, broadband and phone services...
 
Energize said:
Tv license pays for broadcasting on terrestrial but Sky uses it's own satellite system so the TV licence funding is not required to air the channels on sky.
Click to expand...

Well yes...


Energize said:
Whether they create it themselves or not is irrelevant to the quality of content aired. Programmes like 24 and Lost certainly beat bargain hunt. At least on sky one there isn't 6+ hours of news repeated a day or 8 hours of football/rugy/snooker.
Click to expand...

However they are few and far between. Most channels on sky (and a large number on freeview) just regurgitate old british/very poor American shows. Now I love the simpsons but 4 hours a day of repeat after repeat i'm not bothered about. Generally the content on the main 5 channels (well 4, as C5 is appaling) is a lot better than the content on freeview and Sky channels. In my personal opinion the only channels worth it on Sky are usually the channels you have to pay a lot more than the £18 to get.

Energize said:
A fair comparison is, either or, as TV licence funding is not required for most channels on sky.

So £12.125 pm for freeview or £18 for sky minus the licence funded content would be a proper comparison.

You also get a PVR, broadband and phone services...
Click to expand...

Quite possibly, however there is a huge amount of stuff you wouldn't realise was funded by the TV licence broadcast on Sky as well, so they would have to be removed, which would mean that or an increase in the Sky cost to cover a partial licence fee. Either way I would (and do) rather pay £12 for some half decent content on terrestrial/freesat than £18 for the tat that passes for TV on the sky basic package. Also how much does the HD version of sky cost extra? Freesat and freeview (in some places) provide HD channels for free, and the number provided is only going to rise.

As for the PVR, you can buy something similar for freeview or freesat for around £80 so not a huge issue, broadband and phone will depend on usage, and i've always found it annoying when stuff you don't need/want is bundled in with stuff you want.

Again, personally I would rather pay a one off cost (not much if you have a freesat TV) for freesat and it's HD channels, alongside the TV licence, than sky and it's dross (with or without the decent channels covered by the TV licence). :)
 
Last edited:
wannabedamned said:
If they cant get in your door, how can they prove otherwise. They arent allowed entry to your home.

So all this talk of having equipment able to recieve a signal being okay and not requiring you to pay for a license.

How can they prove anything when they arent allowed in your door.

I have a sky box, I have a tv with built in freeview. if i stopped paying my tv license and never let them in my door, and if i was asked if I use TV or Sky. If i replied "No"

What can they do to prove otherwise.
Click to expand...

There are many ways of being able to tell if you are recieving TV signals without entering your home, handheld scanning equipment, Detector Vans, the fact that sky are required to inform the licencing people of your subscription, as is the vendor of your TV set or PVR.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/detection-and-penalties-top5/
 
I moved in to student accomodation in september with no TV. I almost never watch stuff on Iplayer (never live) as it didnt (doesnt?) need a license. I rang them up at the start of october after i got my first letter saying i didnt have a tv and to take me off the list they said ok but we might send someone round to check. Since then i've had another 4 letters saying the same thing. So pointless even replying to them if you dont watch tv.
 
just reading off the TV licensing page

If you have a separate tenancy agreement for your room, you need your own licence.
Click to expand...

So if your in a shared student house. Whether or not you need 4 TV licenses or 1 TV licenses is defined not by whether you are all 4 sharing a house, or are in fact living in 4 seprate flats...

but is defined by a technicality with your paperwork ??

Thats got to be BS surely ?? if you have 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 kitchen and 1 living area, why do you need 4 TV licenses ???
 
Longbow said:
Hand held devices? What a load of crap. Why bother turning up and asking if you watch TV if they have these magical devices?
Click to expand...

I'd like to see a detector pinpoint a radio signal to one persons house on a street full of omni-directional transmitters transmitting at exactly the same frequency range at varying power levels. Even then it doesn't prove your watching tv, other devices can generate those same signals and it would be trivial to build a transmitter to do so. :D
 
Detector vans do exist but they are merely a mobile billboard rather than containing any form of detection equipment, their purpose is psychological, hence why they are parked in very public places (supermarket car parks, busy junctions).
 
Longbow said:
Hand held devices? What a load of crap. Why bother turning up and asking if you watch TV if they have these magical devices?
Click to expand...


From what I understand too, the detector vans that were paraded round around 20 years ago were also a big publicity stunt.

MrLOL said:
just reading off the TV licensing page



So if your in a shared student house. Whether or not you need 4 TV licenses or 1 TV licenses is defined not by whether you are all 4 sharing a house, or are in fact living in 4 seprate flats...

but is defined by a technicality with your paperwork ??

Thats got to be BS surely ?? if you have 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1 kitchen and 1 living area, why do you need 4 TV licenses ???
Click to expand...

Well no, as you are renting a room. Otherwise an entire block of flats would only need one licence. If none of you have a TV in your rooms, but one in the communal area you should only need to get one TV licence. Essentially those that have a TV in their rooms will need a licence and that licence will cover any TV's in the communal areas.

Makes sense to me. :)
 
Yes, it's defined by paperwork as far as I know.

So if 4 people live in a house, and the 3 people just pay the 4th guy at the end of the month to pay all the bills, then 1 licence is needed. If all people pay the landlord individually and have there own contract, then 4 licences are needed.

Energize said:
I'd like to see a detector pinpoint a radio signal to one persons house on a street full of omni-directional transmitters transmitting at exactly the same frequency range at varying power levels. Even then it doesn't prove your watching tv, other devices can generate those same signals and it would be trivial to build a transmitter to do so. :D
Click to expand...

Exactly, it's a load of scaremongering crap. They rely of fear tactics. Same with "It's all in the database", well obviously it's not.
 
Amp34 said:
Well no, as you are renting a room. Otherwise an entire block of flats would only need one licence.
Click to expand...

no the block of flats is clearly lots of separate houses, each with their own living and toilet facilities

when your a student sharing a house, you jointly rent the house. If you only rent the room you wouldnt be cooking in the kitchen or living in the living room.
 
But what about en-suit rooms? Stairwells, gardens and reception halls in blocks of flats are also classed as communal areas.

It makes sense to me, you have a seperate contract for your room you pay a seperate TV licence. If you are a group of students that have all signed one contract with the landlord then you pay only one TV licence.

I'm sure in the contract you ill also rent the room, which is why some pay more for bigger rooms. The communal areas come with the room.
 
Longbow said:
If all people pay the landlord individually and have there own contract, then 4 licences are needed.
Click to expand...

Yes, however it's not that likely the TV Licensing database would be able to determine this situation easily from the information they can obtain about an address.
 
Ah, the monthly TV licence argument featuring OCUK's finest sperging the hell out! I think this is the first time we've got down to particle level. I love this forum :)
 
I know, maybe we should add it to the FAQ the amount of times this comes up each month.

On a side note, those CityLink threads seem to have disappeared but now we have DPD ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom