TV Licence Super Thread
- Thread starter Ken
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That's already a law for live broadcast content. YT, Netflix, Amazon all require a licence for that.
Soldato
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“Live” is quite broad though isn’t it?
Do you need one to watch the recent rocket launch? Or a Red Bull live stream on YT? (Trying to think of niche things that might be shown on YT live)
Do you need one to watch the recent rocket launch? Or a Red Bull live stream on YT? (Trying to think of niche things that might be shown on YT live)
You don't need one to watch user content live, even though the BBC might say you do (or word their site to make it sound that way). Because they technically are not broadcasts and not covered by the law. There are a few grey areas, but they avoid being honest about it.
Next they will try to claim you need one for teams meetings, because live
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If its a rocket launch or Red Bull live from a licensed broadcaster or professional provider then yes it requires a licence even on YT, Netflix or Amazon.
thought that was the distinction ^
Anyway the live from the millenial/genalpha perspective is reality tv junk where thw brownie points ares being able to share social media comments before your peer group,
celebrity get out of here, love island, traitors, similar to the cult of wordle&co. - ephemeral data.
Soldato
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So if Red Bull host a live event on YT, how does any of the licence fee go to Red Bull? (I watched the Red Bull Hardline MTB event last year)
As far as I can tell the licences fee doesn't go to or benefit anyone else. Amazon, Youtube, Netflix and all the others, none of then benefit.
We need it to keep the cycle of rage in this thread going
Soldato
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I haven't tried myself as I no longer have a licence. But I've heard that the BBC live broadcast on YouTube is blocked for everyone in the UK but available to everyone outside of the UK. I assume that is to ensure you can't watch it without a licence. But the rest of the world can apparently watch it for free. As I said, I've not personally checked that so I could be off the mark on that one.
Ahh right, but that still technically doesn't stop a UK non licence holder from watching it anyway.
iPlayer does give you a "do you have a TV licence" prompt that means nothing technically of course, but YouTube isn't theirs for them to impose such a message.
Honestly none of these rules make any sense considering the lack of technical enforcement.
No idea about BBC's own streams on YouTube I didn't even know they had any but taking the Royal Institutes christmas lectures as an example they are sponsored by the BBC and the Royal Institutes YouTube channel geo blocks people in the UK from viewing them. Although I think they become available after a year or something like that, until then legally you can only watch them on iPlayer with a TV licence if you live in the UK.
Another example was the BBC / Disney Dr Who partnership, people with a UK Disney+ subscription weren't allowed to watch it, it was only available on iPlayer with a TV licence.
Well I guess you could watch it when you visited your relatives in the EU or go on holiday but if you used a VPN say to bypass the geo lock then you are probably breaking YouTubes terms and conditions and potentially also risk being prosecuted for not having a TV licence. UK ISPs have to keep a record of your internet use so in theory they might be able to identify people that stream BBC content without a licence but if they had prosecuted someone for say watching on YouTube I would have thought the press would have picked up on it.
Personally I think that if content is made using licence payers money then people outside the UK should also have to pay if they want to watch it.
Yeah, but these rules are pointless without technical enforcement honestly. The BBC have just been asking for trouble.
Anyhow, this just goes back to the point of putting the TV/radio arm to a subscription and world service under general taxation.
Soldato
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Surely this would just crash and burn pretty quick - most wouldn't sign up to it I'd guess - apart from die hards like my Mum itching to watch Eastenders.
They are enforcing it with geo locks I don't know if VPNs work to access the content but some websites can and do block users that are using VPN's so if YouTube wanted to ban VPN users they could do so.
They still have a lot of viewers and some good content; I'd consider taking out monthly subs now and again in the same way I do with Disney, Netflix, Apple TV etc their problem is if everyone paid piecemeal month to month they wouldn't have a steady income and it would be very hard for them to budget / invest in new content.
No one is asking you to, so why even post?