Student TV licence issues!

onejontwo

My daughter who is at uni. has just had a sort of threatening letter from the TV licensing company where they have informed her that she is under investigation for non-payment of the TV licence. She lives in a private key pass student residence and there is no aerial connection in the room, however she admits that some students occasionally watch "catch up" on their laptops, but she assures me she hasn't.
She has no TV so surely the onus is on the TV licensing people to prove that she is watching TV rather than my daughter prove that she isn't, a case of innocent until proven guilty!
I was wondering if this is just a general letter that they send out to thousands of students in the hope that the guilty ones might pay, or is this letter aimed at specific addresses?
Any info would be appreciated.

Lokolo

Yes it is a general letter but they can investigate. If she doesn't watch live TV, ignore it.

And FYI you can watch catchup TV (not the live tv streaming site, things like bbc iplayer), without a tv licence as you aren't watching whilst the show is being broadcast.

lucylucky

I heard an item on the radio the other day about students being warned about TV licences. Probably not aimed specifically at her but just a general trawl.

If she uses her laptop to watch catch up services then she does not need a licence anyway.

She has done/is doing nothing wrong so she can happily ignore the TVL people.

lucylucky

Lokolo wrote: »

Yes it is a general letter but they can investigate. If she doesn't watch live TV, ignore it.

And FYI you can watch catchup TV (not the live tv streaming site, things like bbc iplayer), without a tv licence as you aren't watching whilst the show is being broadcast.

iplayer does allow you to watch live TV so that is one to beware of.

However as long as she is only using it for a catch up then she is fine.

7891368

If you call and tell them you don't have a tv and have no intention of doing so theyy stop sending them.

This is all I did last year and just watched catch-up

Helix

lucylucky wrote: »

iplayer does allow you to watch live TV so that is one to beware of.

However as long as she is only using it for a catch up then she is fine.

They have added a pop-up now if you happen to click on a live stream. Sometimes it is easy to do when a programme has just finished and you think it is on catch up but it takes you to a live stream of the next programme. You now have to click a button to say you have a TV licence.

lucylucky

Helix wrote: »

They have added a pop-up now if you happen to click on a live stream. Sometimes it is easy to do when a programme has just finished and you think it is on catch up but it takes you to a live stream of the next programme. You now have to click a button to say you have a TV licence.

Thanks for pointing that out, hadn't noticed it before as I rarely watch live TV on the iplayer.

Interestingly it seems to be a pop up where you can click "watch now" or "I do not have a TV licence"

boliston

Surely the sensible answer would be to have a code issued with the tv licence that you input into your pc to watch a live stream, then if you don't have a code you can't use the live stream feature. I'm sure there is some way they could stop people sharing codes with other students.

Personally this would not bother me as I prefer to watch things when I choose rather than when the BBC choose to broadcast them.

Renya

Don't worry too much, they seem to be sending out a general letter to lots of people.
She can go here and declare that she doesn't need one.

lucylucky

"She has no TV so surely the onus is on the TV licensing people to prove that she is watching TV rather than my daughter prove that she isn't, a case of innocent until proven guilty!"

Exactly which is why I wouldn't bother contacting them at all.

If they want to take it further then fine but your daughter should not waste any of her time with TVL.

minerva_windsong

As others have said, it is legal to watch catch-up services like iPlayer/ITV Player/4oD etc after the programme has been broadcast without a TV licence, but not whilst it is being broadcast.

If I was her I'd check with her housemates to make sure they know about that loophole and aren't watching live streaming accidentally.