TV in university halls
Discussion
Our daughter has just started a University course. She is in a hall of residence with a very nice room and a TV, but the hall blokey says she has to buy a TV licence if she wants to watch it. Anybody know what the legal position is if she watches programmes on her PC via tvcatchup.com? I'm guessing that's too easy a solution.
Mattt said:
IIRC - if you watch live TV you need one, if you watch pre-recorded (or on-demands I guess too) you don't.
Correct, Pre-recorded is fine. She'll have to be careful with IPlayer as it streams live shows now. With the rise of services like Iplayer and 4OD I imagine this won't be the case for much longer.They try and scare students - by sending random letters to halls, saying that the person in them has been witnessed watching TV and doesn't have a license.
Which would all be well and good, but they sent the letters to the Laundry Room and Kitchen on my floor (which had room numbers).
Their 'detection' vans are comical too.
Which would all be well and good, but they sent the letters to the Laundry Room and Kitchen on my floor (which had room numbers).
Their 'detection' vans are comical too.
Mattt said:
IIRC - if you watch live TV you need one, if you watch pre-recorded (or on-demands I guess too) you don't.
Correct. If she watches TVCatchup or the live streams on the BBC website, she'll need a TV licence. If she only watches non-live programmes on iPlayer etc she doesn't.If she has a TV there's also a bunch of rules surrounding who does and doesn't need a licence in a halls situation.
This is for students and may or may not help.
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one...
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one...
Edited by CatherineJ on Monday 13th September 19:06
tonym911 said:
tvcatchup.com is live TV which you can watch on your computer, iPhone or games console (to quote their own blurb). Isn't the licence for your TV tuner – and so not applicable to a service which doesn't require you to have a tuner?
No.If you watch or record live, broadcast TV, via any means be it DVB-T/S, IP, or carrier pigeon, you need a TV licence.
If you only watch on demand TV you do not need a licence.
Mattt said:
They try and scare students - by sending random letters to halls, saying that the person in them has been witnessed watching TV and doesn't have a license.
Which would all be well and good, but they sent the letters to the Laundry Room and Kitchen on my floor (which had room numbers).
Their 'detection' vans are comical too.
Do these detection vans actually exist? has anyone ever seen one?Which would all be well and good, but they sent the letters to the Laundry Room and Kitchen on my floor (which had room numbers).
Their 'detection' vans are comical too.
The thought a 'team' of plonkers go around scanning peoples houses on a daily basis amuses me.
How do these threads always go on and on and on and on? It can be summed up in one easy sentence:
If you watch live TV then you need a license.
Don't bother buying her one, she can just watch iplayer/4od/itv player/sky player
For those of you with sky tv and sky player at home, you're allowed to add multiple computers to it, so be nice and let your kids use it
If you watch live TV then you need a license.
Don't bother buying her one, she can just watch iplayer/4od/itv player/sky player
For those of you with sky tv and sky player at home, you're allowed to add multiple computers to it, so be nice and let your kids use it
tonym911 said:
Our daughter has just started a University course. She is in a hall of residence with a very nice room and a TV, but the hall blokey says she has to buy a TV licence if she wants to watch it. Anybody know what the legal position is if she watches programmes on her PC via tvcatchup.com? I'm guessing that's too easy a solution.
no, too easy a solution would be buying her a TV licence.TuxRacer said:
tonym911 said:
tvcatchup.com is live TV which you can watch on your computer, iPhone or games console (to quote their own blurb). Isn't the licence for your TV tuner – and so not applicable to a service which doesn't require you to have a tuner?
No.If you watch or record live, broadcast TV, via any means be it DVB-T/S, IP, or carrier pigeon, you need a TV licence.
If you only watch on demand TV you do not need a licence.
They'll send letters even if you don't have a TV, getting angrier and angrier telling you to inform them if you don't have a TV. I'm not calling them to tell them I'm not using their product so they can f
k off. No-one has ever even attempted to visit any property of mine let alone with a warrant.Edited by W00DY on Monday 13th September 19:52
I never had one through 4 years at university, 1 year halls then private house.
In halls every room has to have a license, likewise houses if each bedroom has a lock as it's classed as amseperate residence. (bit of a joke IMO as it's still a 'regular' house)
We used to get warning letters but we called upmsaying that room was empty etc which stopped the warnings. We also had one visit who demanded he came in to inspect, he got the door shut in his face.
In halls every room has to have a license, likewise houses if each bedroom has a lock as it's classed as amseperate residence. (bit of a joke IMO as it's still a 'regular' house)
We used to get warning letters but we called upmsaying that room was empty etc which stopped the warnings. We also had one visit who demanded he came in to inspect, he got the door shut in his face.
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