tv licence help

blakea8k

Hi. I have a tv which i only ever use for dvd's. I havent watched normal telly on it for well over a year. I used to have sky so the sky+ box and dish is still there. I have just found it easyer and cheaper to buy a series of something i like on dvd and watch that.
I was thinking, do i still need to be paying for a t.v. licence?. I would remove the sky box (don't think i could move the dish because im in a flat and its high up). Just seems i am paying £10 a month for something im not using.
thanks

garethp_2

You need to have the ariel removed from the TV by a professional and I guess the sky equipment removed.

Gareth

Rikki

I'm afraid if you own a television you will have you have a licence. You have the means tor watching television it is just your choice not too.

lipidicman

The website says

'If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence. You are required by law to have one.'

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp

It does not say 'if you own a tv'. I'm not sure how you could prove that you were not using it to receive programmes. Maybe removing the aerial isn't enough, maybe having the tuner section disabled is. I dont know.

lipidicman

Have a look at this, it is a little dated though
http://www.jifvik.org/tv/

I would suggest the best plan is to do as that guy did, write a letter and ask.

booey_2

You have to prove you do not receive a TV signal and are unable to watch TV.

blakea8k

thanks for the replies, i guess i will write to them

Swan_2

I chose not to watch telly for a couple of years recently, I still wanted to watch my DVDs & play games though. so I de-tuned my set & disconnected it from the aerial (which was rolled up & taped to the skirting well away from the telly) I wrote & told the TVL people, who thanked me for the information, but that they'd visit me to check it out ... they never did, which was fine with me

there have been at least a couple of other threads on the subject, one of them is HERE ... take note of JohalaReewi's post which makes the situation clear

there's a huge amount of misunderstanding about this issue, not helped by the information on the TVL site being (deliberately, in my opinion) ambiguous & misleading, in order to make you think you need a licence just for having a telly in the house :mad:

pcyam

If you have a TV set it doesnt mean that you have to have a TV licence, it just means that you DONT have an aerial plugged in and your TV is not tuned in to any channels. I only know this because 1) When i was a student in my first year other students and the uni staff told us when people from TV Licence were coming round and told us, and 2) I had the pleasure of a visit from them in my first year, and had only just moved in and didnt have aerial and just a DVD player but because it was tuned in from when I was at home, and even though the picture quality was poor I would need a TV licence or untune the channels completely. 3) My parents never watch TV at theirs so I called up TV licencing and they said thank you very much for calling and there will be someone visiting to soon to check BUT still no one has been to see everything yet.

djhworld

If you own a TV, but don't watch it, you're deemed 'strange' by the government and they'll come running to fine you.

The most annoying thing is the fact then if you purchase a TV from say, Argos (or any supermarket, tv retailer etc) - they get you to fill in a form, which is then sent to the TV liscensing office, who then send you an invoice for a license.

It's a waste of money really, for two channels </irrelavent rant>

Glad

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [email="abuse&#64;moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/email].