Can I cancel my TV Licence if I don't watch BBC?

Ciwan

Hi all

I am paying £12.83 a month for my TV Licence. My mobile phone bill is £5 a month.

I have a TV, but I do not really watch the BBC, not on my phone, not on my tablet and not on my computer. I just do not watch it.

I only watch Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Can I cancel my TV licence?

System

The answer that you are seeking is here:

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ104

heatherw_01

If you cancel you cannot watch any live tv nor iplayer

Ciwan

I do not watch any live TV nor watch iPlayer. I'll go ahead and cancel. Thank you.

wild666

Request a TV Licence refund
You can request a refund for your TV Licence if:

you won’t need your licence again before it expires, and you have at least one complete month left on it*
OR
your licence has already expired and less than two years have passed since the expiry date*.
* If you’re eligible for an over 75 or blind concession, you can apply at any time and for any length of time left on your licence.

Working out precise refund amounts can be complicated. But we will do it for you. We’ll look carefully at the information you give us and let you know if we can offer you a refund, and how much it will be.

Want more detail? Find out more about how we work out refunds. Or you can read our refund policy.

Refund form checklist
If you are asked to provide evidence:
Fill in the online refund form, ensuring you include the name on your TV Licence, address and postcode. You should also include the date from when you no longer need the licence.
If you pay for your licence by Direct Debit, please don’t cancel it. We will do this for you when we arrange your refund.
If you are asked to provide evidence please print out the form, or save it to print later, and sign it. Please remember that we can’t return original documents, so only send us photocopies and printouts. If you don’t have a printer, contact us and we will post a refund form to you.
Send your completed refund form and relevant evidence to this address: The Refund Centre, TV Licensing, Darlington DL98 1TL. We aim to process and issue refunds within 21 days of receiving the application.

When I cancelled mine in 2016 I got 3 months payments back even though I was paying monthly so continued to watch for a few months as they only repaid in quarters and according to them I went into the next quarter

phillw

Ciwan wrote: »

I have a TV, but I do not really watch the BBC, not on my phone, not on my tablet and not on my computer. I just do not watch it.

I only watch Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Whether you watch BBC is only relevant to iPlayer, which is a recent addition, if you watch itv/4od/ch5 catchup then you don't need a TV license. However if you watch or record any video in the UK as it's broadcast, no matter where in the world it's broadcast or how you're receiving it, then you need a TV license. Netflix doesn't do anything live yet, but Amazon Prime does.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201975140
Watch Live
Some Channel subscriptions also feature Watch Live, which gives you the option to live stream programming on supported devices the same time that it's broadcast on TV.

For more information about devices that support Prime Video Channel live programming, see Prime Video Devices & Features

Note: If you are using Watch Live with your Channel subscription, you must have a valid TV License.

Cornucopia

phillw wrote: »

Note: If you are using Watch Live with your Channel subscription, you must have a valid TV License.

I appreciate that you are quoting Amazon here, but they are being over-cautious in that choice of wording.

Live TV via the Internet requires a TV Licence to view it IF it is a parallel stream to a linear TV broadcast channel (probably a UK one). But not otherwise.