Why do you have to have TV Licence if you buy a TV?

LiveOnce

I know it's for the BBC but let's say I have a TV but don't watch the BBC. Why should I have to pay the license fee?

And I am sure there are millions of people who watch them on the iPlayer without a license and all they have to do is tick a box with no proof required whatsoever.

btr30

The BBC service (and Ch4) is funded through the TV licence collection.
This includes TV, Radio, on line content etc.
However the TV licence itself is a universal charge, a bit like council tax, where the revenue is used to pay for services which you may not utilise, e.g. schools, if you have no children or refuse collection, and you take your own rubbish to the tip.


I wouldn't have thought it necessary to produce a licence to purchase a TV, as you could intend to use it for various other applications, like gaming, pc monitor, dvd playback, which don't require a TV licence.

[Deleted User]

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/tv-licence

Marvqn1

It's the first I've heard that you need a TV licence to buy a TV.

Years ago, when I bought a pocket TV from Argos, I had to fill out a form stating I have a licence. But unlike a regular TV, a pocket TV has a built-in aerial and can't be used for anything else than watching TV, so a TV licence is necessary for them.

Tammykitty

Some stores will ask you to confirm you have a licence when purchasing a TV.


And if you say you don't need one - they won't sell it too you - staff training issue I believe

Squire_Fulwood

I think they call it a Broadcast Receiving License so even if you only watch ITV you have to pay. Also, as of a couple of months ago you need a licence even if you only watch iPlayer. I am not an expert but have been listening to the experiences of a friend who has just been through all of this.

He had no licence since he only watched iPlayer on his computer but had to get one when the law changed. He is now thinking of getting a TV.

unforeseen

btr30 wrote: »

The BBC service (and Ch4) is funded through the TV licence collection.
This includes TV, Radio, on line content etc.
However the TV licence itself is a universal charge, a bit like council tax, where the revenue is used to pay for services which you may not utilise, e.g. schools, if you have no children or refuse collection, and you take your own rubbish to the tip.

Not forgetting that it also pays the BBC share of the costs of running Freeview and the terrestrial TV transmission system

VisionMan

Why do you have to have TV Licence if you buy a TV?

You don't. And the days when a shop or suppler asked you to fill in a form when buying a TV or PVR stopped years ago.

Pincher

Read something recently, somebody created a separate address for the garden shed, for tax reasons, and they got hounded by the TV license people because it's a separate address, so need a separate license.

In the end, if you are not homeless, you will have an address, and the TV License people will hassle you ad infinitum, until they get their money.

Well, house boat?

jasonwatkins

Pincher wrote: »

Read something recently, somebody created a separate address for the garden shed, for tax reasons, and they got hounded by the TV license people because it's a separate address, so need a separate license.

In the end, if you are not homeless, you will have an address, and the TV License people will hassle you ad infinitum, until they get their money.

Well, house boat?

And if you have even a cursory knowledge of your legal rights, Capita will never get any money from you. Obviously i wouldn't condone it as i have a licence myself but it is perfectly possible to never purchase one and not suffer a single consequence from that.

pogofish

btr30 wrote: »

The BBC service (and Ch4) is funded through the TV licence collection.
This includes TV, Radio, on line content etc.

Apart from S4C, Channel 4 has not been funded by the licence fee since 1998! The six year bail-out from the licence fee that was planned for 2007-2012 was cancelled by DCMS before any money changed hands.

Radio was zero-rated for licence purposes back in the 1960s.