E-mails and letters from TV Licensing about iPlayer

frugal_sharkey

Hi all, hoping somebody can offer some advice for me as I'm a bit concerned at the moment.

About 6 months ago I cancelled my TV license. I never really watch TV anyway, and I just generally don't want to be paying them anymore, so I submitted my No License Needed online and that was that. Or so I thought.

I received e-mails in my junk folder (so I did think they were not genuine) from TV Licensing saying "we notice you've been watching iPlayer" - after looking into the e-mails headers etc, I established that they are genuine. Then yesterday I received a letter through my door saying "Your No License Needed status will soon be cancelled" and then goes on to say that this has indeed been cancelled and that I now need to buy a TV License for my address.

Thing is, I haven't watched iPlayer at all, I am certain of it. Now I'm not sure if it was still logged in on my smart TV and my partner or her kids have clicked onto something when they've been round, but I have no reason to watch iPlayer! 

Now my question is, do I get back to them about this, or do I just ignore? I feel if it get in touch with them they will then demand I pay for the license. The letter goes on to say that "if we don't hear from you, your details will be passed to our enforcement division" and that there could be a fine of up to £1,000.

Obviously this is a concern, what is my best course of action here? 

Thank you

DE_612183

I don't  think they can tell if you are watching iPlayer or not - I'd just email them back as say you don't watch iPlayer

Brie

Yes unfortunately this is one of those things where somehow you are expected to prove something that never happened.  

All you can do in fact is to repeat to them again that you don't no the licence for any reason whatsoever.  They should go away but will likely pop up again in a couple of years, and repeat, and repeat.

powerful_Rogue

No need to do a no licence needed. If you get any letters, just put them in the recycling.

If you get a knock at the door, just say 'No thank you' and shut the door.

Have a look at this chaps videos about what to do when you don't need a TV licence.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChilliJonCarne

Brie

I might also be tempted to tell them to remove your email address from their records as they no longer require it to contact you under data protection regulations etc etc etc.  That way at least you will get a letter when they pop up again rather than depending on spotting something in your junk folder.

Olinda99

Don't you just love it - your no licence needed  status will soon be cancelled !

If you don't need a licence they certainly can't cancel that

MarzipanCrumble

Actually TV Licensing can tell if you have been watching or downloading from iPlayer and it does not matter if it was you or a visitor if it happened from a TV at your address.
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ310#:~:text=We contact customers who have,BBC iPlayer on several occasions.
...........................................................................................................................................................

Yes, the TV Licensing authority can tell if you have been watching BBC iPlayer: 

• Contacting customers: TV Licensing may contact customers who have declared they don't need a license but are using BBC iPlayer. 

Accessing internet records: The BBC can access internet records to see which sites you have visited. Detecting non-TV device use: The BBC can detect people watching live programming on non-TV devices. TV Licensing visits: A TV Licensing officer may visit your home to check for TV equipment and interview you if they suspect it's being used. 

You can request a copy of your BBC account data to see what BBC iPlayer use is associated with your account. 

Watching or downloading BBC iPlayer without a TV license is a criminal offense. You could be prosecuted and fined up to £1000. 

DE_612183

MarzipanCrumble said:

Actually TV Licensing can tell if you have been watching or downloading from iPlayer and it does not matter if it was you or a visitor if it happened from a TV at your address.
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ310#:~:text=We contact customers who have,BBC iPlayer on several occasions.
...........................................................................................................................................................

Yes, the TV Licensing authority can tell if you have been watching BBC iPlayer: 

• Contacting customers: TV Licensing may contact customers who have declared they don't need a license but are using BBC iPlayer. 
• Accessing internet records: The BBC can access internet records to see which sites you have visited. 
• Detecting non-TV device use: The BBC can detect people watching live programming on non-TV devices. 
• TV Licensing visits: A TV Licensing officer may visit your home to check for TV equipment and interview you if they suspect it's being used. 

You can request a copy of your BBC account data to see what BBC iPlayer use is associated with your account. 

Watching or downloading BBC iPlayer without a TV license is a criminal offense. You could be prosecuted and fined up to £1000. 

Don''t see how that can be - what if you use mobile data? What if you use a browser that doesn't collect site visit data?

Can the BBC access internet history? I very much doubt that - what they can do is capture the IP address of the machine accessing iPlayer - but I'm not sure what they could actually do with that 

sheslookinhot

To the OP, and others, if you do not require a licence, do not communicate with them.

littleboo

DE_612183 said:

MarzipanCrumble said:

Actually TV Licensing can tell if you have been watching or downloading from iPlayer and it does not matter if it was you or a visitor if it happened from a TV at your address.
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ310#:~:text=We contact customers who have,BBC iPlayer on several occasions.
...........................................................................................................................................................

Yes, the TV Licensing authority can tell if you have been watching BBC iPlayer: 

• Contacting customers: TV Licensing may contact customers who have declared they don't need a license but are using BBC iPlayer. 
• Accessing internet records: The BBC can access internet records to see which sites you have visited. 
• Detecting non-TV device use: The BBC can detect people watching live programming on non-TV devices. 
• TV Licensing visits: A TV Licensing officer may visit your home to check for TV equipment and interview you if they suspect it's being used. 

You can request a copy of your BBC account data to see what BBC iPlayer use is associated with your account. 

Watching or downloading BBC iPlayer without a TV license is a criminal offense. You could be prosecuted and fined up to £1000. 

Don''t see how that can be - what if you use mobile data? What if you use a browser that doesn't collect site visit data?

Can the BBC access internet history? I very much doubt that - what they can do is capture the IP address of the machine accessing iPlayer - but I'm not sure what they could actually do with that 

Yes its nonsense. What they do do is to get 3rd party data to associate an email address with a physical address - the pizza you ordered for example. If they see that email address used in iPlayer, they check if the address that the pizza was delivered to has a licence. 

Cornucopia

MarzipanCrumble said:

Actually TV Licensing can tell if you have been watching or downloading from iPlayer and it does not matter if it was you or a visitor if it happened from a TV at your address.
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ310#:~:text=We contact customers who have,BBC iPlayer on several occasions.
...........................................................................................................................................................

Yes, the TV Licensing authority can tell if you have been watching BBC iPlayer: 

• Contacting customers: TV Licensing may contact customers who have declared they don't need a license but are using BBC iPlayer. 
• Accessing internet records: The BBC can access internet records to see which sites you have visited. 
• Detecting non-TV device use: The BBC can detect people watching live programming on non-TV devices. 
• TV Licensing visits: A TV Licensing officer may visit your home to check for TV equipment and interview you if they suspect it's being used. 

You can request a copy of your BBC account data to see what BBC iPlayer use is associated with your account. 

Watching or downloading BBC iPlayer without a TV license is a criminal offense. You could be prosecuted and fined up to £1000. 

Even within that response from BBC/TVL, there are still a lot of unanswered questions.   The main unanswered question is: can they definitively detect that iPlayer has been used at a specific street address, and I think the answer to that is: No.

If they can't do that, then everything else is moot, and they should not be contacting people about alleged offences that they cannot prove to a level of reasonable suspicion.

Use of the inexact term "TV Licensing authority" and the spelling error "offense" are probably giveaways, but a quick check on that link shows the second chunk of text isn't there.   

Anyway...     

Getting into the detail of what "they" have said, it's also untrue that they can access "Internet Records" (depending on what "they" mean by that presumably intentionally vague term).   And "they" have no business "seeing which sites you have visited" - the only question for them in this context is whether iPlayer has been used at an unlicensed location.

They can only routinely check your premises for TVs if you consent (which you should not do), and they can (in theory) only interview you under caution with your informed consent (which you should not give).