Caporegime
Can you watch live broadcast TV through your computer? if no your answer would be "I don't have any TV receiving equipment"
You only need a TV licence if you watch broadcast TV Live.
TV Licence Super Thread
- Thread starter Ken
- Start date
Can you watch live broadcast TV through your computer? if no your answer would be "I don't have any TV receiving equipment"
You only need a TV licence if you watch broadcast TV Live.
Soldato
You've definitely overthought that but yeah the latter choice would make more sense. It's really referring to TVs. Don't sweat it, you don't need a TV license either way!
you could just ignore them like most sane people do.
I ignored them for 10 years never had anyone come out as far as I'm aware.
the threatening letters they send are just an automated loop to scare people
if you ignore them long enough you see it go back to the friendly tone and repeat
Soldato
I don't really mind filling out a form if it shuts them up for a couple of years, but I never give them my actual name or email address, just make something up and use a throwaway email I generate
At that point the reason doesn't really matter anymore.
Man of Honour
They've widened the range of the term "live broadcast TV" to include using Youtube for it. Somehow. I suppose a TV company could use the streaming service side of Youtube for that purpose. I've no idea if any do, but it's technically possible and that would make anything running a web browser TV receiving equipment. Although I'd argue that it's debateable if that really counts as "broadcasting" because it's targeted and initiated by the viewer.
I don't really mind filling out a form if it shuts them up for a couple of years, but I never give them my actual name or email address, just make something up and use a throwaway email I generate
At that point the reason doesn't really matter anymore.
That's true, but they already have my actual name and the email address I use for them is my very public "anyone can send to this address, I don't care" email address.
Soldato
Wouldn’t it only apply to a live broadcast on YouTube that was also being broadcast on TV as well? I.e. watching a specific channel on YouTube. Watching a random live stream of someone on YouTube doesn’t seem reasonable or even enforceable in anyway.
Soldato
The whole sham isn't enforceable.
That's what I usually put as well, they're supposed to chase you every 2 years but I guess because of the pandemic they're behind on their nagging letter quotas, I haven't heard from them for quite some time now
I haven't paid for a license or watched live TV in 8 years maybe. We weren't really watching it for a year or two before that either, so we were long due past cancelling it. It's mostly rubbish and the few things worth watching end up on Netflix and the like a year or two later anyway. We hear from them every few years and just do that online form and be done with it.
I love this thread, it's just a loop of the same arguments. Have there been any freeman arguments lately? Those are always great.
I love this thread, it's just a loop of the same arguments. Have there been any freeman arguments lately? Those are always great.
Doesn’t make a difference, you’re just declaring you understand why and when you need a licence and when not.
“You said you had a tv but it’s actually a monitor, that’s a £1000 fine” is never going to happen
Soldato
Ah don't you just love it when folk say ah you still need a licence because your laptop has a web browser and is therefore able to receive programmes at the same time they are broadcast and iPlayer etc etc. The answer is still no because I am not watching programmes as they are broadcast or watching iPlayer...
I've been in my house coming up for 4 years now, I get a letter every couple of months to the "legal occupier" regarding TV licencing. In that time I've only ever seen one visit by one of their staff captured on CCTV as I wasn't home. Frankly as far as I'm concerned it's one big intimidation racket, I wouldn't pay a bit of notice to it.
Soldato
No one has been to my house in 5 years. I think longer the times passes the less chance of them visiting anyway as they mostly know they probably won't get anywhere. They harass the newly unlicensed more.
In fact it's been quite a while since I had a "Legal Occupier" letter from them, at one point it was nearly every month.
In fact it's been quite a while since I had a "Legal Occupier" letter from them, at one point it was nearly every month.
Soldato
Have to be careful though. I've heard tv detector vans drive around and can spot your signal if you're secretly watching live broadcasts behind the curtain /s
I'm joking. But for the younger people on the forum. That was one of the lies put out by the BBC to threaten people to pay the license fee.
^^ Pure lies. The detector vans didn't pick up signals being received by the tv. They picked up the general signal being broadcast, and also had the addresses of houses that hadn't got a tv license registered to it. So they tried to trick people in to thinking they had been caught doing something illegal, when they hadn't. I wonder if their tactics have ever been challenged in court as I'd say it was a form of entrapment, which I thought was illegal in the UK.
I'm joking. But for the younger people on the forum. That was one of the lies put out by the BBC to threaten people to pay the license fee.
^^ Pure lies. The detector vans didn't pick up signals being received by the tv. They picked up the general signal being broadcast, and also had the addresses of houses that hadn't got a tv license registered to it. So they tried to trick people in to thinking they had been caught doing something illegal, when they hadn't. I wonder if their tactics have ever been challenged in court as I'd say it was a form of entrapment, which I thought was illegal in the UK.
ive watched so much youtube / TV shows that all aired years ago in the last 5 years i dont really understand why anyone wants "live tv"... jsut seems so 1990's..
I hate the idea of giving my money to the BBC for them to pay multi millionaires i don't even like to present live crap.. the hole old boys club needs to be shut down... 100 / 50 / even 20 years ago maybe it was a good thing but now its jsut a scam
Soldato
Yeap, it's only if you watch someone streaming "Live UK TV" via Youtube (Live US/Europe/Aus etc TV doesn't count). Then if someone records Live UK TV, and a few days later uploads it to Youtube it doesn't count because it's not classed as "Live" any more. I use my TV purely as a PC Monitor for Gaming, Web and more recently Streaming US TV services, and I haven't been physically connected to an TV Aerial for well over 10 years by now so I don't think a mandatory TV license, especially for something so politically devise as the BBC is now, is the way forward.
Soldato
BBC could be run on the same basis as Ch4 I suppose and I much prefer their news so maybe it would improve them a bit competitively. The subsidy element of BBC is valid for the news possibly just the radio which is significant globally, that budget would be tiny vs the amount wasted on TV which could work vs adverts.
The military had tech which could see what someone was watching on a CRT screen from outside a building. Maybe the BBC had it, probably not. You can't do that with modern screens though.
The BBC goons rely on peeping through a window, talking their way in the house or tricking someone. I've never seen a van in my local ar area. Probably because it's not full of 80+ year olds or single mums. This is my 3rd year in a row with no licence.
I don't really mind filling out a form if it shuts them up for a couple of years, but I never give them my actual name or email address, just make something up and use a throwaway email I generate
At that point the reason doesn't really matter anymore.
I put "the home owner" as my name, since that is what they like putting on the letters
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Soldato
I wonder how it detected it though? The TV doesn't transmit anything, and surely if you're watching a dvd you're tv would still be receiving some signal? They might know you had the CRT on, but how detailed I wonder was the military tech?