TV Licence Super Thread

Associate
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you don't need to remove the aerial from the roof, but I would advise disconnecting it from the TV, also might be worth resetting the TV to factory defaults to remove any channels that have been scanned.
 
Caporegime
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Interesting, is that just taken on trust then or do you have to remove your tv aerial from the roof?

You don't need to bother doing that, it is useful to have it in place + the sockets in the lounge for when you come to sell the house.

If you were to let them in though and/or they had a warrant (technically requires grounds for them to apply for one mind you) then it is perhaps best to not have an aerial wire connected to your TV and ideally to not have your TV tuned. Then if they want to turn on the device/inspect you've got a pretty strong argument that it isn't used for watching live broadcasts and they've pretty much got no argument to state it is.
 
Caporegime
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You don't need to bother doing that, it is useful to have it in place + the sockets in the lounge for when you come to sell the house.

If you were to let them in though and/or they had a warrant (technically requires grounds for them to apply for one mind you) then it is perhaps best to not have an aerial wire connected to your TV and ideally to not have your TV tuned. Then if they want to turn on the device/inspect you've got a pretty strong argument that it isn't used for watching live broadcasts and they've pretty much got no argument to state it is.

what if you have a nowtv box hooked up?

what if you have the iplayer app installed?

what if your watching live football via youtube / bt sport app?

it's not just for freeview.
 
Soldato
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what if you have a nowtv box hooked up?

what if you have the iplayer app installed?

what if your watching live football via youtube / bt sport app?

it's not just for freeview.
It’s pretty simple if you watch the live parts of those or use Iplayer you need a licence. If you are not watching the live parts and/or not using Iplayer you don’t need a licence. You can have Iplayer installed and not need a licence if you are not using it. Same for NowTV hooked up, if you only watch the none Live parts no licence needed.

YouTube and BT app it depends if its a live sports broadcast then you need a licence, if its delayed no licence.
 
Soldato
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Over the internet it's not really "live", it has to be buffered in to a file on the server end first :p
There seems to be a bit a bit of a grey area in the rules where they don't define how long the delay has to be, to be acceptable. 5seconds seems to be counted as live. 1 hour is not. But where is the cut off point?
 
Soldato
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If you're watching or recording (time shifting) whilst it's being broadcast, that's pretty much what they'd consider live.

That's for physical devices in your own home as they are still receiving it live as it enters the property. Not remote devices.
 
Soldato
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You just have to look at iPlayer to see how **** the BBC is actually is. They have the entire BBC back catalogue at their disposal, yet there is next to nothing on the iPlayer, and when there is actually something decent on there it's only available for a short time.
 
Soldato
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You just have to look at iPlayer to see how **** the BBC is actually is. They have the entire BBC back catalogue at their disposal, yet there is next to nothing on the iPlayer, and when there is actually something decent on there it's only available for a short time.

Because they don't actually make/own many of the shows (most of the good ones), only licence them.
 
Caporegime
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what if you have a nowtv box hooked up?

NowTV can be used like Netflix, Amazon prime etc... I don't have a box but perhaps you can elaborate there - is the box only used for live TV?

what if you have the iplayer app installed?

I don't use the iplayer app - does it require a log in? Is it there by default? If you were to open it would someone who doesn't use it/has it there by default be prompted to enter a username/password rather than have the app open under their account?

I mean this should be common sense - if someone turns on your TV and then opens an app which shows you've obviously just been watching content on player recently then you'd be a bit silly.

On the other hand, if you've got no need for the app then it might be worth uninstalling it.

what if your watching live football via youtube / bt sport app?

If you're watching BT Sport live then you'd need a license.

I'm not aware of live football on youtube - what are you actually referring to here? Dodgy streams etc..? If you're basically live streaming sky sports etc.. via Facebook/youtube etc.. then yeah you'd probably need a TV license as you're watching live TV (albeit via an illegal provider too).

it's not just for freeview.

No one has claimed a TV licence is just for Freeview - it is for watching TV as it is broadcast and for iplayer.
 
Caporegime
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Only a week or two back both the Europa Cup Final and the Champions League Final were streamed via BT Sport's YouTube channel. They weren't live though, they had something like a 10 second delay.

I don't think the 10 second delay matters here - it is more the question of whether it is also being broadcast, this would, in theory, need a TV license.

If they're offering a freely available catch up service via youtube then it's not iplayer so you should be fine to watch just as you can watch channel 4's catch up service etc..
 
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