With the rise of online streaming services, iPlayer and millions of us watching TV on catch-up, does anyone actually have to pay for a TV licence these days? The facts
Netflix and Amazon Prime beam TV series into your homes, online services like iPlayer and 4oD let you watch almost live favourites like Bake Off and Strictly, and catch up TV means fewer and fewer people are watching live TV any more.
Considering it costs £145.50 for colour and £49.00 for a black and white BBC TV Licence, many people are asking if they now even need one any more – especially if the TV you DO watch is generally viewed on a laptop, tablet or phone.
The answer may well be “no”.
When you don’t need to pay for a BBC TV licence
If you’re not watching or recording live TV, you don’t need a licence. So catch-up TV, streaming or downloading programmes after they’ve been shown or programmes available online before being shown on TV don’t count.
So with no BBC licence you can still watch:
- On demand – including catch-up TV and on demand previews – through services like BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All4, My5, BT Vision/BT TV, Virgin Media, Sky Go, Now TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
- On demand movies from providers like Sky, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.
- Recorded films and programmes either from a disc (e.g. DVD or Blu-ray) or downloaded from the internet.
- On demand internet video clips through services like YouTube.
If you don’t watch or record live TV on any device you can let BBC TV Licensing know or they’ll presume you need one and pass it to Capita’s debt collection firm. Once cancelled have nothing more to do with them, zero communication.
iPlayer warning
You currently don’t need a TV licence to watch iPlayer, but that’s about to change.
“I will be bringing forward, as soon as practicable, secondary legislation which will extend the current TV licensing regime not only to cover those watching the BBC live, but also those watching the BBC on catch-up through the iPlayer,” Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said in March.
“When the licence fee was invented, video on demand did not exist.”
So if you’re watching iPlayer, but don’t have a licence, you might soon be risking a fine.
When you absolutely DO need a BBC TV licence
Anyone watching or recording live TV broadcasts needs to have a BBC TV licence – no matter what they’re watching it on – or they could get a hefty fine.
That means watching on a phone, laptop or tablet still counts as long as it’s broadcast. Yup, even using someone else’s SkyGo login at home means you need one as licences are tied to addresses.
The bottom line is so long as you are BBC TV Licence FREE and have nothing more to do with them the BBC can’t do a thing, just remember to never answer or confirm anything for strangers at the door because the BBC sales staff are on target based commission so have incentives to lie and set innocent people up