Forest vs Chelsea last night - Agree to disagree.

[DorsetJon]

Morning,

I know I'm 100% right on this one.

Long story short,we were all watching the Nottingham Forest v Chelsea match in the pub,last night.

We'd all had a few beers,when someone raised the following question :-

"Are you sure you need to fork out over 150 quid for a tv licence,to be able to watch Sky?"

Safe to say a lot of the guys were unsure to what I told them,and had a bit of a shock.

Hence,why I've title this post"Agree to disagree"

[MarkGoldsmith]

Interesting - not really a discussion possible on this on this as it's essentially a tax that has a legal requirement to be paid under a set of circumstances. I think a lot of people think if they don't watch BBc they don't need a license fee which is factually incorrect as the license fee doesn't go directly to the BBC its essentially a tax that is used to fund the BBC.

A TV Licence is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment to watch TV channels on any TV service, watch live TV on streaming services, and to use BBC iPlayer*. This includes recording and downloading. On any device. 

Simply put unless you only watch on-demand shows on services other than BBC IPlayer (and S4C) and never watch a live stream on any service you have to pay for a TV license.

[TimmyBGood]

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@DorsetJon wrote:

"Are you sure you need to fork out over 150 quid for a tv licence,to be able to watch Sky?"

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It's useful to contemplate the word 'licence', as in 'permission to carry out an action'.

In this case, payment is licencing a premises for the reception of television 'as it is being broadcast' via any device and from any source.  That the revenue gathered goes to the BBC is actually incidental: the government of the day is required to renew that disbursement every decade (and could theoretically donate it to Battersea Dogs Home instead ; )

As @MarkGoldsmith indicates, this is essentially a legal bodge going back almost a century so that the 'state broadcaster' isn't funded through direct taxation and therefore subject to direct political control.

[nolte]

As per https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one

A TV Licence covers you for:

• All TV channels, like BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Dave and international channels
• Pay TV services, like Sky, Virgin Media and BT
• Live TV on streaming services, like YouTube and Amazon Prime Video
• Everything on BBC iPlayer

This includes recording and downloading.

On any device.

[gilbo2]

Umm, interesting. So if Sky were to market a device that only allowed the viewing of Sky Subscription channels, blocking out BBC/ITV/Freeview/iPlayer/Youtube/radio etc etc, would a TV license be required?

[TimmyBGood]

@gilbo2 

It's incredibly unlikely they would choose to do so even if that were permitted: being a regulated platform has obligations including PSB carriage.

Even if it happened, just possessing such a device isn't automatically a defence against an allegation of unlicensed consumption at an address, given that multiple other gadgets can also display live television.

Radio hasn't required a licence for many years.

[TimmyBGood]

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@gilbo2 wrote:

 a device that only allowed the viewing of Sky Subscription channels

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Live television from any source requires a licence.  Such a device could not display a broadcast or streaming channel EPG: by definition it would have to be 'catch-up' only.