T.V. Licensing

Author
Discussion

TonyRPH

12,963 posts

167 months

Friday 13th April 2012
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V8 Vum said:
What I find hard to understand is why do we need a license to view live Sky, if we have no way to view terrestrial telly?
We pay a subscription for heavens sake, so pay twice!
Because you're paying Sky for the delivery of the program content.

You still need to pay the licence fee for the BBC channels (BBC1 and 2 IIRC) regardless of how hey are delivered to you.



Brigand

2,544 posts

168 months

Friday 13th April 2012
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When I moved into the rental house I'm in now I didn't get a TV Licence for quite a few months, I lived alone whilst my ex was finding work near me, and I just used my PC to entertain myself until she arrived.
The TVL letters started flowing shortly after I arrived.

Once the ex was here, I got internet, TV etc set up, (TV mainly for her) and I planned on eventually getting a TVL, but there were more important things to spend my money on - and I wanted to see how far the situation would go having read many similar threads on here.

Then one morning, thankfully it was on a day off so I was in the house, there was a knock on the door. I went to answer it and closed the living room door to keep the cat in.
There was a kindly looking TVL man who asked if I had a TV. I was debating on whether to lie, when the "This Morning" theme tune was clearly heard by us both as my ex was watching TV.

It was a 'Fair cop Guv' situation and I admitted that I needed one.

He gave me the usual caution thingy, asked me how long I'd been here, (which was around four months by that point) and before I could answer he said "And don't say ages", so I said I had been here a couple of weeks.

"Good answer" he replied, and we sorted out the payment there and then.

Now the ex has gone, I hardly watch the TV now, so I plan on cancelling my TV subscription and the TVL in a few months, and no doubt the cycle will begin again...

wolf1

3,081 posts

249 months

Friday 13th April 2012
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Actually being in possesion of the equipment to recieve live broadcasts is irrelevant. If you do not watch or record programs as they are broadcast then you do not require a tv licence. You don't have to remove any aerials or sat dishes, you don't have to detune your tv or any other such action. You only have to refrain from watching or recording programs as they are broadcast.

I haven't had a tv licence for about 5 years now as I don't watch tv. The letters just get thrown in the bin.

daved

234 posts

283 months

Wednesday 18th April 2012
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I'm sure it's a lot more complicated than this, but the TV licensing people use the Post Office's address database, which contains all the addresses in the UK. They also have their own database of license holders. Subtract this from the address database and you're left with a list of unlicensed premises. They then go to work on this data, applying weighting to it based on various factors to produce a list (in their opinion) of addresses likely to be using a TV without a license. Then the letters start. So, if rumour has it, you're a single mum living on a dodgy estate, you'll be getting letters and maybe a visit.

aw51 121565

4,771 posts

232 months

Wednesday 18th April 2012
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But said single mum, if she is sans TV License and is canny, will only go to court if she coughs - if she denies it and the telly can't be seen flickering away through the lounge window she will be fine smile .

And boy! is 'their' database good... When I moved in with my now-wife, I rang Bristol to tell them I was moving and to ask for a refund (direct debits are paid in advance rolleyes ).

I got my refund.

















Then the letters started at the new place...

















...where my partner, now wife, already had a bleedin' TV License in her name paid for by direct debit.


silly

Lavs

80 posts

149 months

Wednesday 18th April 2012
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Just skimmed over the previous content so apologies if repost but I don't have a tv licence and went on the tvlicensing website to check if I needed one. They have a link where you can register that you don't watch live tv and they agree to not bother you for a couple of years, they will come back and ask if your situation has changed in a couple of years tho'. So now the tv is on view and no aerial connected and no knocks on the door or letters through the letterbox.

Pothole

34,367 posts

281 months

Wednesday 18th April 2012
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daved said:
the Post Office's address database, which contains all the addresses in the UK.
No, it doesn't, maddeningly!

Who me ?

7,455 posts

211 months

Wednesday 18th April 2012
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I look after my daughters empty house. Few years ago my son moved in to it .I suited both as he was homeless, and the house was empty. He bought a licence .At least two years ago he moved out, and the TV licence demands began .First it was polite, then it got nasty . About six months ago the ultimate threat "address was under active investigation,and investigators could call at any time" . Since then there's been several more ,up to a month or so ago . If anyone had called ,it was obvious ( except to a scammer like TV licencing) that the house was empty . Now the tone of the letters had gone back to less threatening. I have returned one addressed to "the occupier" as "not known" ,I'm not marking it "unoccupied" - the mail service is not without big mouths.But that didn't stop the letters. If the service is that efficient, I'm now not prepared to do anything. Perhaps if they're busy chasing and threatening an empty house ,some OAP,that can't afford a licence is getting left alone .

Rovinghawk

13,300 posts

157 months

Wednesday 18th April 2012
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daz3210 said:
Seen as you pretty much need an decent outside aerial or sat dish these days to receive TV, is it not enough for them to stand outside and look for the presence of such?

Certainly I know of no one who can receive digital without these things.
Two of my houses have the aerial in the loft and the TV reception is just fine.

RH

Brigand

2,544 posts

168 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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A few years ago they were running a big campaign on military bases to ensure everyone had a licence. The pamphlets they issued everywhere were camouflaged with "You can't hide" written on them.

Laughably, you could hide, as the inspectors would never arrive at the base and ask to tour the locked rooms of the personnel living in the accommodation. When we had our regular room inspections by military people (to make sure we were tidy and clean) we were to have our licence displayed if we had a TV, but we would get around this by hiding our TV's in our cupboards.

Long ago, all that was needed was one TV licence for the whole accommodation block, which could have tens of rooms, but the TVL lot realised how much money they could make by getting everyone in there to buy a licence, so they changed the rules.


AlexiusG55

655 posts

155 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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TonyRPH said:
AFAIK, detector vans relied on detecting the 15.625khz horizontal timebase signal present in old CRT TV sets.

In CRT sets, this was easily detectable, because of the EHT voltage generator stages (in most sets, it behaved as a mini transmitter on 15.625khz).

Newer CRT sets radiated far less, and LCD / Plasma sets have no radiation at all - so I'm dying to know how a detector van operates now...
Even before then, surely you'd have got a lot of false positives from CRT computer screens when people still had those, not to mention the people who had a TV but no aerial and just used it to watch videos.

mat777

10,360 posts

159 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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As a student living in halls, about 70% of the residents dont have Tv's so dont need a licence. There must be at least one stern letter, either demanding payment or warning of an imminent inspection, every 2 weeks for all such residents - which is immediately filed in the bin by each recipient. All that happens is the tone becomes increasingly shrill until they reach the end of the cycle and it starts again with the most basic letter..

PAULJ5555

3,554 posts

175 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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I know of someone who only pays a small amount, if they come knocking he'll start paying and say hes only had a TV 4 weeks ago, how can they prove someone watched TV from 8 weeks ago anyway. He will then cancel it until the next visit (very other year).

Motorrad

6,811 posts

186 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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PAULJ5555 said:
I know of someone who only pays a small amount, if they come knocking he'll start paying and say hes only had a TV 4 weeks ago, how can they prove someone watched TV from 8 weeks ago anyway. He will then cancel it until the next visit (very other year).
Presumably filing their junk mail in the bin and telling them to fk off when they call round would be even cheaper.

gherkins

483 posts

230 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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I would be happy to pay double the BBC licence fee if I could watch British telly easily here. Instead I pay 216 euros a year to not watch the most incredibly bad telly that you could imagine. For example, the equivalent of "Come Dine with Me" is shown at primetime as the top show of one of the main channels. The telly viewing in our household is all internet (VPN) and DVD based. But we still must pay, because you even have to pay if you have an internet connection! And what's more, you have to pay if you have just a radio - even in the car or even on a mobile. There was a visit from the licensing bods to my previous workplace and we were told to hide our mobiles to avoid the company being done for not having a licence.

A friend of a friend is a cameraman with a tiny local network. He earns a six-figure salary for doing a usual 20-hour week. He says that the networks are rolling in money, but with no incentive to spend it on programming.

On another area of licensing here, we have to use the VPN to get around the blocking of Youtube videos, including those actually put on there by the artists, because of GEMA. Our kid's kindergarten has to pay them for the children singing songs.

You think the BBC is bad. You have no idea.

MoggieMinor

457 posts

144 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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Not sure if it still happens but I remember one time when trying to buy a portable telly the sales assistant asked for my address. When I asked why they wanted it they gave me some waffle about it being "for the guarantee" I said I was quite able to sort out any issues with the guarantee myself and wouldn't give them the address, knowing that they wanted it to pass on to the licencing people. As they refused to sell me the TV unless I gave them my details they lost a sale that day! Why they could not just be honest about it I dont know!

Deva Link

26,934 posts

244 months

Thursday 19th April 2012
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aw51 121565 said:
But said single mum, if she is sans TV License and is canny, will only go to court if she coughs - if she denies it and the telly can't be seen flickering away through the lounge window she will be fine smile .
Said single mum is likely to live in the sort of house/flat, and have the sort of lifestyle, which means the blaring TV will be clearly audible as soon as she opens the front door.

AcidReflux

3,196 posts

253 months

Friday 20th April 2012
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MoggieMinor said:
Not sure if it still happens
Yes it does. Bought a shiny new LED Samsung a couple of weeks ago and Currys demanded an address. I made one up.

Afterwards I kinda regretted giving false details. Had I provided my real address it might have sent the licencing authority into some sort of indignant apoplectic rage. I've already achieved their "Grrrr your home is under active investigation!!!!" level of anger, but there must be more to come.

Wax1234

515 posts

173 months

Friday 20th April 2012
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I got a Plasma from Asda last month, expected to get asked my address but didn't!

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Friday 20th April 2012
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I binned my licence at the end of last year along with my Sky subscription. Polite letters from TVL informing me they'd refunded me. I guess I'll get the threatening letters in about 18 months' time judging from the experiences of others. They'll just be binned.

I genuinely don't watch live TV any more, so my conscience is clear.