How does the UK TV license apply to non-BBC live TV??

[His Lordship]

The TV licensing website guff states:

The law says you need to be covered by a TV Licence to:
- watch or record programmes as they’re being shown on TV, on any channel
- watch or stream programmes live on an online TV service (such as ITV Hub, All 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV, Sky Go, etc.)
- download or watch any BBC programmes on iPlayer.

Now, as I understand it the TV License funds the BBC, and ONLY the BBC.
What the hell has it got to do with the other services mentioned??? they get nothing out of it do they??

Is this just a load of st?

[anonymous-user]

You need a licence to watch *any* live TV. Period.

[His Lordship]

Comstock said:

You need a licence to watch *any* live TV. Period.

But why?

I do the occasional live show via my YouTube channel, I dont get paid for them by the BBC, so I completely reject that this is a genuine legal requirement.

[super7]

It's a Tax. Simple as....

Forget about the BBC bit

[anonymous-user]

His Lordship said:

But why?

Ours is not to reason why, my friend. That's the law.

His Lordship said:

I do the occasional live show via my YouTube channel, I dont get paid for them by the BBC, so I completely reject that this is a genuine legal requirement.

I'm not sure whether that actually counts as TV or if it's just broadcast channels. Taking it to it's logical extreme, does a video call on Skype count as TV? Televison, after all, just means 'distance vision'

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 23 January 16:24

[Artykay]

The fee collected by TVL goes to the govt dept for media, culture etc. They dish it out. Not only to the BBC.

[anonymous-user]

Artykay said:

The fee collected by TVL goes to the govt dept for media, culture etc. They dish it out. Not only to the BBC.

Who else gets it though?

[His Lordship]

Comstock said:

His Lordship said:

But why?

Ours is not to reason why, my friend. That's the law.

His Lordship said:

I do the occasional live show via my YouTube channel, I dont get paid for them by the BBC, so I completely reject that this is a genuine legal requirement.

I'm not sure whether that actually counts as TV or if it's just broadcast channels. Taking it to it's logical extreme, does a video call on Skype count as TV? Televison, after all, just means 'distance vision'

Edited by Comstock on Thursday 23 January 16:24

For the first part I completely disagree with that mindset - if nobody questioned laws we would still be stoning women to death for showing a bit of ankle to her master's slave boy.


That is something that i am currently looking for a definition of, "TV" is used very specifically many times, presumably there muse be a legal definition of this that they are using.

(Yes, I'm bored at work...!!!)

[Artykay]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensi...

[His Lordship]

Comstock said:

Who else gets it though?

Almost all of it goes directly to the BBC:

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-on...

Absolutely none of it goes to fund any of those online services.

The only thing I can think is where you are watching a live BBC programme via the Sky Go app for example, if thats even possible.

[Shakermaker]

I can't watch the BBC on my Sky Go app

[Artykay]

His Lordship said:

Comstock said:

Who else gets it though?

Almost all of it goes directly to the BBC:

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-on...

Absolutely none of it goes to fund any of those online services.

The only thing I can think is where you are watching a live BBC programme via the Sky Go app for example, if thats even possible.

That looks like what the BBC spends not what TVL collects? The wiki link is 2010 ish but shows not just the BBC get the money.

[ChocolateFrog]

It's surprisingly easy to give up live TV, and BBC TV full stop for that matter.

I've never really looked back since I stopped paying for a TV Licence.

[Artykay]

I stopped watching TV so stopped paying. Phoned and told them I didn't need a licence and to stop sending stty letters. Amazingly they did.

[anonymous-user]

ChocolateFrog said:

It's surprisingly easy to give up live TV, and BBC TV full stop for that matter.

I've never really looked back since I stopped paying for a TV Licence.

Same here.

[anonymous-user]

Artykay said:

I stopped watching TV so stopped paying. Phoned and told them I didn't need a licence and to stop sending stty letters. Amazingly they did.

Who do I need to contact to tell them I don't need their services ?

Should I contact all the phone providers to tell them I don't need their services as "Three" provide mine.

Should I contact Apple to tell them I don't need their services as I am on Android.

The BBC and its funding model are archaic crap that need sending into the bin of history.

[anonymous-user]

His Lordship said:

Comstock said:

His Lordship said:

But why?

Ours is not to reason why, my friend. That's the law.

His Lordship said:

I do the occasional live show via my YouTube channel, I dont get paid for them by the BBC, so I completely reject that this is a genuine legal requirement.

I'm not sure whether that actually counts as TV or if it's just broadcast channels. Taking it to it's logical extreme, does a video call on Skype count as TV? Televison, after all, just means 'distance vision'

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 23 January 16:24

For the first part I completely disagree with that mindset - if nobody questioned laws we would still be stoning women to death for showing a bit of ankle to her master's slave boy.


That is something that i am currently looking for a definition of, "TV" is used very specifically many times, presumably there muse be a legal definition of this that they are using.

(Yes, I'm bored at work...!!!)

As I understand it, they only seem to go after people who watch the live channels that are available through an aerial or dish (so ITV, Channel 4, Sky Sports etc would all count ,as would foreign TV via satellite) regardless of how they are watched.

I'm not sure anything else has been tested in court. If they tried to prosecute me for watching your live YouTube stream it would be quite an interesting case.

[His Lordship]

Comstock said:

I'm not sure anything else has been tested in court. If they tried to prosecute me for watching your live YouTube stream it would be quite an interesting case.

Indeed - And in the (rather unlikely) situation you did get fined for that, should I be the one to receive 100% of the fine???!!

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

speedyguy said:

The BBC and its funding model are archaic crap that need sending into the bin of history.

I ain't so sure. Have you ever tried to watch USA TV? I reckon because we have channels with no adverts the other channels have less.

American TV is shocking.

Let me pay a three quid a week or whatever it is to keep the status quo!

[ceesvdelst]

youtube is not television, so it is perfectly legal to watch it without a licence. it's a website, privately owned and funded and not needing a broadcast device to be shown.

Iplayer is also perilously close to being legal as the BBC cannot really pursue anybody due to not being ale to legally get your IP address via data protection I think? but that one was pushed through a few years ago very quietly.

Netflix is not television, neither is Amazon Prime, none of these are covered by the tv licence, they are entirely separate. Even if shown on your home telly.

If you take it that far you could in theory be done for listening to Radio 2 in your car if you have not paid a licence, that one always seems to pass people by, but radio is also covered yet you never hear any prosecutions or noise from the goons about that kind of thing.