Good Bye to my TV Licence

poppasmurf_bewdley

teajug wrote: »

I cannot watch TV even if I wanted to as they council employee a contract for out block to look after the digital aerial and that costs us £4 a month for maintenance. The lovely contractors did not connect me to the aerial on the roof of the building and do not get TV at all. I gave up in the end and watch catch up on my laptop, it save money. I resent as do other tenants that do not even own a TV paying the council contractors £4 a month for nothing and there is nothing anyone can do about it as it’s their policy.

And how many people in a block of council flats don't own a TV? From my experience, council tenants are the most likely group of people to have a TV. Indeed, having been in a position which took me into literally thousands of council homes of all types, I don't recall ever visiting one which didn't have at least one TV, and most had several.

Halifax81

teajug wrote: »

I cannot watch TV even if I wanted to as they council employee a contract for out block to look after the digital aerial and that costs us £4 a month for maintenance. The lovely contractors did not connect me to the aerial on the roof of the building and do not get TV at all. I gave up in the end and watch catch up on my laptop, it save money. I resent as do other tenants that do not even own a TV paying the council contractors £4 a month for nothing and there is nothing anyone can do about it as it’s their policy.

Surely the council aren't billing you for something that doesn't work?

I've always resented having to pay my TV licence but at least I now have a way out from it :beer:

Jarbuhu

Be careful. I had an ex who had a visit from the tv licensing because they said he was logging on to the BBC sites and watching from there. It ended in his favor, but was still a bit of a burden to begin with.

Blackpool_Saver

Those of you who don't have VM, who do you have your landline with ?

Halifax81

Jarbuhu wrote: »

Be careful. I had an ex who had a visit from the tv licensing because they said he was logging on to the BBC sites and watching from there. It ended in his favor, but was still a bit of a burden to begin with.

No need to be careful as all viewing will be On Demand which is licence free under current rules.

I doubt they would have known that your friend was watching a live stream on the internet as they can't trace that, its more likely the visit was to call his or her bluff

CC-Warrior

TVL basically run a protection racket, they'll try and hound anyone who doesn't have a license in to buying one even if it isn't required by law.

The only way of getting convicted is if you let them in and they witness you watching live feeds (they'll ask you to turn the TV on to a live feed, which of course you tell them no), if they turn the TV on themselves, they're on dodgy ground as you haven't consented to them using your electricity.

Remember, despite all of their doorstep bullying and intimidation, they have no legal powers to enter your property, unless they come back with a search warrant. Remember you can watch a live feed on a mobile phone if you really wanted, so what are they going to do, start rooting through people's mobile phones?

There seriously needs to be an investigation by the BBC in to TVL as their practices are disgusting.

DUTR

Halifax81 wrote: »

The equipment stays its supposed to be de-tuned and not connected to an aerial, they will come around to check every so often however they won't be gaining access to the property to look and yes I can leech off everyone else paying the fee however I will be doing it the legal way by using the On Demand services my ariel won't be connected.

As an observer (I don't mind paying TV license, the agro to avoid paying it is not worth my time) anyways, your thread started off well until the part in bold, so I'm not sure why you wouldn't want them to check as you have nothing to hide . Doesn't make sense to me or are you just dreaming?

Halifax81

DUTR wrote: »

As an observer (I don't mind paying TV license, the agro to avoid paying it is not worth my time) anyways, your thread started off well until the part in bold, so I'm not sure why you wouldn't want them to check as you have nothing to hide . Doesn't make sense to me or are you just dreaming?

They have no right of access to any property so if they wish to get a warrant or court order for entry to mine they would have to do this but then they would find a TV not hooked up to anything other than an Xbox for streaming On Demand content.

I don't require someone to come and check up on me if I say i'm not watching a live feed then thats what I mean

tiger_eyes

DUTR wrote: »

As an observer (I don't mind paying TV license, the agro to avoid paying it is not worth my time) anyways, your thread started off well until the part in bold, so I'm not sure why you wouldn't want them to check as you have nothing to hide . Doesn't make sense to me or are you just dreaming?

I can think of quite a few reasons why you wouldn't want a TV license inspector poking around your house. Let's start with the most obvious one: TV license inspectors have been convicted in court of assaulting people and fabricating confessions. So you could be entirely innocent and still end up assaulted and/or prosecuted.

Elsewhere

As the BBC is publicly funded I don't think they should make their programmes freely available on the internet to households without TV licenses, it is unfair to license payers. To watch BBC online it should be necessary to go through some sort of login process that includes the number of the TV license - maybe with some sort of limit on the number of devices that can be logged into the account simultaneously to allow for several family members with PCs, mobiles etc.