Sky On Demand vs TV Licence

magicpockets

I've done a search and can't find anything specifically related to this.

My OH has a Sky box but only uses the On Demand services (so movies etc but no live TV channels). She has been visited by TV Licencing who told her she needed a licence and, when we followed up to question it by letter, she was also told she needs a TV licence. Specifically - "The use of Sky on demand requires a valid TV licence" (this is sent from one of TV Licencing's "Court Administrators"). She is now paying for a TV licence.

Am I missing something or mistaken to think that this is wrong? She 100% does not watch any live channels (this isn't "yeah, honest guv - I don't watch the live stuff").

Neil_Jones

If you use the iPlayer through Sky or any other platform a licence is required for that, but as a general rule it could be argued there's little financial point paying Sky just for on-demand, when the key stuff that most people want is already available at a cheaper (or no) price through the likes of Freeview Play and Now TV.  But that's another discussion so...

mjm3346

Don't see the point in paying SKY just to use their on demand services and there may be a chance of a "live" channel being shown at start up  even if only for a second before going "on demand"

pbartlett

you don't need a tv licence to watch on demand catch up services eg movies, box sets etc

Just make sure you don't watch any live broadcasts at all otherwise you will need a tvl.

you might be better ditching sky altogether and using netflix etc - depending on what you watch.

if tvl call don't engage with them, don't let them in.

matelodave

As said above catch-up services (apart from iPlayer), box sets and films dont need a licence but AFAIK recording a programme whilst it's being broadcast does,

ie you need a licence to record a football match whilst it's being played  even if you dont watch it until later

JJ_Egan

I wonder how many no licence holders deliberately watched the big football match live ??

pbartlett

Not many - tickets were very hard to come by.

Jenni_D

JJ_Egan said:

I wonder how many no licence holders deliberately watched the big football match live ??

If they went down the pub .........  

Cornucopia

magicpockets said:

I've done a search and can't find anything specifically related to this.

My OH has a Sky box but only uses the On Demand services (so movies etc but no live TV channels). She has been visited by TV Licencing who told her she needed a licence and, when we followed up to question it by letter, she was also told she needs a TV licence. Specifically - "The use of Sky on demand requires a valid TV licence" (this is sent from one of TV Licencing's "Court Administrators"). She is now paying for a TV licence.

Am I missing something or mistaken to think that this is wrong? She 100% does not watch any live channels (this isn't "yeah, honest guv - I don't watch the live stuff").

Technically, yes, it is correct - but perhaps not for an obvious reason.

In terms of usage, you don't need a Licence if you never watch scheduled TV broadcasts or iPlayer.   However, a fully installed Sky box will be tuned to a scheduled broadcast channel and potentially downloading programs even if you only ever use on-demand services.

Therefore, other pay-TV options are more appropriate if you don't want to have a TV Licence, such as Now TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+.  

Neil_Jones

The way Sky works for on-demand is two fold:

You've got the stuff you download yourself through iPlayer, Hub, All4, etc, and then you have the stuff that gets pushed to the box by Sky.  This comes over the satellite link, not down the internet connection at some unGodly hour of the morning.