this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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Casual UK
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Not many people know, but your standard British TV Licence actually functions as a "Televisual Letter of Marque".
The Letter of Marque permits you to legally seize televisual material from any other source in the name of the crown, as a state-sponsored privateer, rather than a common pirate.
At least, that was what I had been led to believe, officer. You'll have to take it up with TV Licencing. Nothing to do with me, officer.
I wasn't watching television, I was observing remote images!
God, bloody sheeple don't know their own natural law it seems.
What's that about, for the non-Brits casually hanging out in this community?
The BBC is weirdly aggressive about trying to get people to pay for their TV usage, but they’re also pretty impotent. They’ll try to come into your house to see if you have a TV set, at which point you’re probably obligated to pay for the license. You don’t have to let them in, though, so all they can really do is pester you
Iirc, revenue protection is run by our favourite outsourcing outfit, Capita.
Unless they can evidence you are watching live TV or BBC iPlayer you still don't require a TV licence!
The best thing to do is just go to the website they give you and fill out the form to say you don't watch broadcasts and they leave you alone for a couple of years.
That's still a thing? In Finland they got rid of that in 2013 (still later than I thought) and replaced that with a tax for funding out national broadcasting channels
It's a stupid system because no one can even work out what you're supposed to even pay for. According to the BBC even if you watch YouTube you still technically have to pay for a TV license, but they're the last people I trust to get accurate information from.
It really would make much more sense if it was just a tax
Ah ok, same as in Germany then. Though they are getting more and more liberties, to the point of signing you up by themselves and then it's on you to prove you don't own a TV. And since a few years, even a laptop or phone qualifies since you can use those to access public broadcasting channels through their website, making it really hard to prove you got absolutely nothing, unless you can somehow convince them to be both blind and deaf.
In Germany you can eventually get in trouble for not paying it, but afaik that’s not the case in the UK.
Yeah I managed to dodge them for a solid decade and then eventually moved away. Back then it was alright, they had no rights to demand entry just like in the UK, plus if you moved house you could instruct the city hall where you register your residency to put an address block in place (usually used for stalking victims and such, but there is no law forbidding average citizens from using one). That put your name on a blacklist denying access to your whereabouts to anyone but electorate campaigners and the tax office. So the TV fee people knew that I moved (since previous mail bounced), but had no means of getting my contact. I believe nowadays since they qualify as an actual tax they might be legally able to get the data regardless.
Youre allowed to own a tv or other device for gaming and streaming. You just have to show them that you dont have an aerial or dish connected to receive live tv. Bbc iplayer also requires a license. You need to declare that you dont watch live tv or iplayer though, which is pretty easy to do on their website. Ive been declaring no license needed for about 10 years, ive never had an inspection, but I work most days in the week so that doesnt necessarily mean they havent tried.
"Yes I'll be in, watching Christmas te-aaah you almost got me there!"
New Wallace and Grommet though, might be worth it.
"no"