julian_craster

How to legally dodge the TV licence fee: just watch repeats on your computer
The Times
July 19, 2008

How to dodge TV licence fee: just watch repeats on your computer - Times Online


Dan Sabbagh, Media Editor

The BBC is to conduct a review of the licence-fee system amid concern that a surge in the number of people watching television online is undermining support for the way that the corporation is funded.

More than 700,000 viewers are downloading BBC programmes every day through the iPlayer service. Launched at the beginning of this year, it is expected to have one million daily users by Christmas – and can be watched without a licence fee.

A licence fee is required for people who “watch or record TV programmes as they are broadcast”, according to TV Licensing, the body that collects the money, but it does not apply to Doctor Who, EastEnders and other recently transmitted programmes available via the BBC website. The licence fee raises £3.4 billion.

The BBC is confident that few viewers will refuse to watch live television to avoid the licence fee, but viewing habits are changing rapidly. Many viewers know that it is possible to link a computer to their television, and watch programmes delivered over the internet on a larger screen.

Now Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, wants to consult the public on the £139.50 annual licence fee, which is paid by more than 25.3 million households.

A spokesman for TV Licensing said: “If you only watch the iPlayer, and watch or record no live programmes, you don’t need a television licence, although very few people are likely to do that.” That follows from a long-standing exemption that also applies to purchased DVDs and videos. The popularity of the iPlayer has grown quickly. Last Sunday more than 300,000 people watched the finale of Doctor Who online – a record audience for the service. Doctor Who, The Apprentice, EastEnders and Top Gear regularly top the most requested programmes. Channel 4, and to a lesser extent ITV, run similar services.

The review is intended to focus on the way that the compulsory levy is operated and collected, and it will include public consultation on its operation, probably in the autumn. It will also reconsider the balance of its carrot-and-stick approach to enforcement and the tone of its advertising, which has generated a rash of complaints.

The BBC Trust hopes to avoid policy debates “about whether there should be a licence fee” but the inquiry will have to review whether the existing law is effective. Last week Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC, spelt out the limits of the current system when he told MPs on the Culture Select Committee that “if you watch live television through a mains-powered device, you have to pay a licence fee” and that “live [content] is the key point in the current definition”. Most content on the iPlayer has been transmitted previously, so the service is not classified as live. Opposition politicians said that the loophole demonstrated that the licence-fee system was not keeping up with changes in technology.

John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP who is chairman of the Culture Select Committee, said: “Technology is changing the nature of television and the way some of it is funded cannot be based on licensing a box in the corner of the room. In my view this is another reason why the licence fee cannot be sustained in the longer term.”

Don Foster, the Liberal Democrats’ culture spokesman, said: “It does look like the BBC have shot themselves in the foot a little by creating this licence-fee loophole with the iPlayer.”

However the BBC is confident that the loophole would not present a serious problem because of the popularity of live television, as shown by high audiences generated by sporting events, including the 13.1 million who watched the Wimbledon men’s final. It also believes that the licence-fee law could be changed if evasion became widespread.

About one in twenty households refuses to pay the levy, even though TV Licensing has long used aggressive advertising campaigns to scare the public into paying.

During May, viewers made 21.8 million requests to view on the iPlayer, whose success has been so great that internet providers have expressed concern that television traffic is clogging up the internet.

David Brent

You could move to Australia.

Do those TV detector vans still cruise the streets of the UK catching unsuspecting TV viewers without a licence?

Dave.

Steve Crook

I see the Murdoch press is as on the ball as usual.
The BBC iPlayer has only been around for about 6 months and they've only just discovered it

Steve

Steve Crook

In theory yes. But in practise I've never actually seen one.
Maybe they don't cruise the streets in the posh, respectable areas like where I live

Steve

Chevyman

They seem to be using computer data more than cruising

I expect they save their vans for finding data that is lost or left on a laptop in a wine bar

A Happy and Healthy New Year to all

"Don't tread on Greta Garbo, as you walk down the boulevard?"

johng

Having downloaded i player via real player on to the HD, how does one then transfer it to a DVD in a format which can be read by a normal DVD player?

essaljay

You'd be suprised. During my time with the Post Office I worked overtime as a licence investigator and in my experience it was the more well-to-do areas that had the most number of licence evaders.

julian_craster

<< it was the more well-to-do areas that had the most number of licence evaders.>>


including some extremely well paid television presenters.....

EHV_Emmetts

BBC NEWS | UK | 200,000 TV licence evaders caught

Steve Crook

I wouldn't be surprised, which is why I'm surprised that we never see a detector van. Maybe they're just getting sneaky and not making their vans obvious like they did when they started

Steve

CaptainWaggett

I thought they'd abandoned the vans ages ago and just work on the premise that everyone has a tv (which is a bit annoying for those who don't but probbaly more efficient than the vans)

JamesM

I actually know someone who doesn't have a television license and he is getting annoyed with the number of times someone keeps going round to pay him a visit. He's quite content with Radio 4. He has no television receiving equipment of any kind.

JamesM

If IBM could help the Nazis keep track of the Jewish population in Germany in the 1930s it is not hard to imagine how easily they or someone like them could be helping the BBC track down license fee evaders.

Having said that, I had a visit from someone (this was over 10 years ago though) asking if I had a TV. I told them I had one and then he tried to tell me I didn't. He should have told me his records didn't show him that I had one. He asked to see it so I told him I didn't have time to look for it but I said it in a manner to make him think I wasn't telling the truth. He then asked if I would sign a statement admitting I had a television (as I had admitted that). He went away with a smile on his face thinking he'd caught one.

I imagine they've got there act together now. Having said that, I had to tell off a woman in Asda who was trying to get my mother to supply her address when buying a non-recording DVD Player.

Captain Viking

Do you mean those TV detector vans with no TV detecting equipment inside?

Automotivehistorian

I wrote a couple of articles on Commer PA and PB vans recently and included a photo of the prototype PA van, a one-off from early 1967. This was followed by several more that year. However I also have a photo of a circa 1961 Austin Cambridge Estate car which had a humungous aerial on the roof, and an operator inside looking at a cathode ray tube.