MSE News: You'll need a TV licence to use iPlayer from 1 September this year

VisionMan

Cornucopia wrote: »

If, for whatever reason, you object to that activity (though I cannot fathom why anyone would), then I suggest you find an alternative spectator sport.

No, I don't object. Why would I? And the only spectator sport I watch is football.

Ron246235

Are we still allowed to do this without a licence?

When you are in a foreign country, you are obviously not subject to UK laws, so I assume this is still legal.

Cornucopia

Ron246235 wrote: »

Are we still allowed to do this without a licence?

When you are in a foreign country, you are obviously not subject to UK laws, so I assume this is still legal.

No. You now need a Licence to cover the downloading of content from iPlayer. Once it is downloaded you can watch it anywhere.

Marvqn1

EdSwippet wrote: »

Yeah, thanks. I think on balance I'm happy to go with that.

I do wonder, though, how long this 'Do you have a licence?' click-through will persist, because it's probably going to irritate a lot of users in short period.

I think it only shows it sometimes.

When I watched "Class of 92 Out of Their League" on iPlayer yesterday, it didn't show that message.

VisionMan

Interesting...

A YouView box is hybrid, meaning it needs both an aerial and internet connection to fully work. Upon clicking iPlayer content the following message comes up -

Got a TV Licence?

You need one to watch any BBC programme on iPlayer - live, catch up or on demand. Its the law.

VeGGie-STyLe

Just wondering... what exactly are people watching on BBC that they would start paying £145/year for???

I don't understand.

jenniewb

I only had the "do you have a license" message once, I downloaded the programme I wanted to watch at a location with the licence (and sat there waiting for the 30 minute show to download in 33 minutes!) and then wasn't asked again. I've only seen 2 shows since though, that's quite a lot for me, I rarely watch but can say the message only appeared once.


They're missing a trick here; if they just lowered the fee to something I could afford, or even just charged per show (something like 50p per programme or something) I'd be happy to pay, but £145 for what is about 30-40 hours a year at a push? Not worth it, and can't afford it anyway!

Cornucopia

VisionMan wrote: »

Interesting...

A YouView box is hybrid, meaning it needs both an aerial and internet connection to fully work.

My Talktalk Youview box works quite happily with just an Ethernet connection. Obviously, that means it has hardware (its Freeview receiver and hard drive) that is never used, but many of these boxes come bundled with Broadband contracts, like mine, so that's not a problem.

When you first install it, it needs an aerial connection to check the region before installing the ITV and C4 players, but since there's no need to watch TV broadcasts at that stage, you still don't need a Licence.

Overall, I think Youview is a good solution for being legally Licence-free. With iPlayer blocking URLs in place, it becomes an excellent solution.

almillar

what exactly are people watching on BBC

Er, you need it to watch any channels, not just BBC. Just for starters...

VeGGie-STyLe

almillar wrote: »

Er, you need it to watch any channels, not just BBC. Just for starters...

:sad:

I did just mean for catch-up viewers, who would now pay the TV license fee to use BBC iPlayer.

Please do continue though...