Question about TV licence

kam1977

Just a wee moan, as this really bugs me . I will start the post by saying I think the BBC is worth every single penny we pay for it, I just hate the way it's dealt with.
1) Firstly when I bought my first house for the first weeks I only watched NETFLIX, because I wanted to split my 3 big annual bills up. The letters I got from TVL at that time were absolutely disgusting basically assuming you were watching tv and breaking the law. Although most people watch tv a lot of people don't there are 2 people in my team (of 8) at work who genuinely don't need a licence as you know they are too busy living life to watch tv.

2) I bought my licence on the 3rd September 2016 why oh why do they expire on the last working day of the month?

3) Whilst I would prefer to pay my TV Licence yearly, if I did want to pay it monthly you have to pay for 18 months in first 12 . If your lucky enough to live to 75 I assume you get the 6 months back then,

4) I would have preferred to buy my TV Licence on the 3rd of the month, but wanted to watch the Xfactor tonight so bought it today, what part of the fee pays for ITV?

5) If I had waited until Monday to buy my licence on Monday, technically I would be breaking the law right now, but come Monday I would have paid for today anyway (per point 2)

It's a stupidly flawed system in this day and age surely they can encrypt BBC so only those that pay for it can use it and those who don't watch it can either watch other channels without breaking the law or live a tv free life without getting nasty letters through the door periodically.

Uxb

The BBC freeview encoding was deliberatelydesigned without encryption as this means that the BBC has to rely on the licence fee as its source of revenue.

If it could be encrypted then then as you say the calls for it to be done and for the BBC to be subscription only channel would be overwhelming.
Of course this would result in revenues plummeting for the BBC as comparatively few would be prepared to pay just to watch the BBC.

So it's all a deliberate ploy by the BBC to force us the public to continue to pay for them even if we do not watch them.

Well, not me I've not had a licence nor watch any TV at all from any source since 1999.So at nearly 19 years and at one letter/snot-o-gram from the BBC every month that means I've received and binned in landfill around 228 letters.
Mudder-fackers....

Cornucopia

kam1977 wrote: »

It's a stupidly flawed system in this day and age surely they can encrypt BBC so only those that pay for it can use it and those who don't watch it can either watch other channels without breaking the law or live a tv free life without getting nasty letters through the door periodically.

Not to detract from your post, but those are just the start of the flaws with the TV Licensing system - there are probably at least 50 or 60 individual issues of various degrees of severity. It is a mess, and the BBC has managed to take a system that came out of Government in a flawed state and make it much, much worse.

Arguably, the enforcement system is unlawful. It fails compliance with both the Human Rights Act and with PACE.

OTOH, it is a tax, and no State likes it when its tax income is jeopardised. They also like arbitrary rules about taxes...

Autumn86

If you get upset, bothered, (or even phased in any way blunt letters) you seriously need to toughen up!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Not sure why people are worried about 'the TV license men',
but they have no way whatsoever of knowing what you do inside your own house with your TV.

I haven't ever paid for a TV license (so 10years x £140 = I've saved £1,400 cash that I'd otherwise of wasted paying a silly direct-debit for no reason).

All you have to do when they send you the form is tick the box saying that ''you don't watch live TV, only use the TV to watch dvds/play games consoles'', and job done.
I even have Sky TV, but so just tick the box saying I only use my TV for the above/to listen to the radio (as Sky does offer radio channels too).


Not sure who would actually be foolish enough to waste their money paying for ''a license to watch TV'', but I guess there will always be fools & simpletons around... :rotfl::rotfl:

Cornucopia

To be clear, since the above post is ambiguous, MSE does not condone Licence Fee evasion.


The issue with TV Licensing is that (a) they go out of their way to create a level of mystery and threat around what they do, and (b) some people seem to be inclined to imagine the worst when faced with such an approach, when the more obvious conclusion (and the truth) is that TV Licensing adopt a mysterious, threatening approach because they lack the powers that they claim or imply.

There is a further dimension, though, which is that some of their workforce seem to believe the hype, too, and this can lead to bullying, bluster, and in extreme cases deceit and law-breaking on the doorstep. Such things are a disgrace, but in a further twist the BBC is unaccountable to anyone very much, and therefore gets away with denials and platitudes.

[Deleted User]

Autumn86 wrote: »

If you get upset, bothered, (or even phased in any way blunt letters) you seriously need to toughen up!! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Not sure why people are worried about 'the TV license men',
but they have no way whatsoever of knowing what you do inside your own house with your TV.

I haven't ever paid for a TV license (so 10years x £140 = I've saved £1,400 cash that I'd otherwise of wasted paying a silly direct-debit for no reason).

All you have to do when they send you the form is tick the box saying that ''you don't watch live TV, only use the TV to watch dvds/play games consoles'', and job done.
I even have Sky TV, but so just tick the box saying I only use my TV for the above/to listen to the radio (as Sky does offer radio channels too).


Not sure who would actually be foolish enough to waste their money paying for ''a license to watch TV'', but I guess there will always be fools & simpletons around... :rotfl::rotfl:

Thank you Autumn86 for your truthful account of how you personally deal with TVL.Its refreshing to read the truth for a change on here.
Got to disagree with the poster who thinks the BBC s subscription channel would be very small..not a chance of that happening.
Just look at the viewing figures to see that is complete nonsense. This years World Cup figures alone completely dispel that .
Bring it on BBC and lets be rid of the hangers on leeching off the honest licence fee paying viewers. Sooner the better .
The BBC have indicated that a new way of paying for their funding will have to be in place by 2025

fatbelly

For those who don't need a licence it's very easy to stop the harassment. Just fill this in

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/no-licence-needed/about.app

worried_jim

Houbara wrote: »

Thank you Autumn86 for your truthful account of how you personally deal with TVL.Its refreshing to read the truth for a change on here.
Got to disagree with the poster who thinks the BBC s subscription channel would be very small..not a chance of that happening.
Just look at the viewing figures to see that is complete nonsense. This years World Cup figures alone completely dispel that .
Bring it on BBC and lets be rid of the hangers on leeching off the honest licence fee paying viewers. Sooner the better .
The BBC have indicated that a new way of paying for their funding will have to be in place by 2025

Totally agree, let's get it encrypted and subscribted so I can ignore it.

Just watched the Excellent Jack Ryan on Prime- at last some proper man's television.

Cornucopia

fatbelly wrote: »

For those who don't need a licence it's very easy to stop the harassment. Just fill this in

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/no-licence-needed/about.app

If only it were that simple...

If you tell us you don’t need a licence, we may confirm this with a visit to your address.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/telling-us-you-dont-need-a-tv-licence

So, whilst some people may get some peace from the TVL letters for a while, they are still at risk of receiving a visit from them. In legal terms, the letters are a nuisance (and can be stopped using Cease and Desist), whereas the "home visits" take TVL into proper Human Rights abuse territory. Therefore, to an extent, filling in the "declaration" simply escalates things from being in-scope of nuisance to being in-scope of Human Rights issues.

I'd therefore suggest that rather than fill in the meaningless "declaration", anyone who wants to stop the offensive letters should write to TV Licensing in the following terms:-

Dear TVL,

Please Cease and Desist from sending your mass enforcement mailings to this address. I/we find them threatening, misleading and offensive.

Yours ...

This has the advantage of making no claims or assertions regarding your licence status, and therefore cannot be subsequently used against you.

Autumn86

How exactly can a house be 'uninhabitable'??

If you want to watch TV just watch it though.
No-one is going to come peering through your window and then break down your door just because you don't waste your money paying for a 'license' to watch TV. lol