Want to cancel tv licence

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82098087#Comment_82098087

Again, its any live/scheduled tv not just the BBC… so what are you using your Virgin Media for?

Generally they dont, they claim to have caught you and hope you cough up

saajan_12

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82029764#Comment_82029764

What do you watch on Virgin TV if not BBC? You still need a licence for that.

mta999

You need a licence if you watch or record TV at the same time as it is being broadcast anywhere in the world (sometimes called live TV) on all channels which would include BBC, Sky, Virgin, Australia 1, Pakistan 3 etc etc

You don't need a licence if you only watch catch-up TV but don't use iPlayer (except S4C)

textbook

I guess if iplayer is registered to an email which has your name on they could work out you're watching iplayer from that but using different name not atxaddress wouldn't know

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104443#Comment_82104443

The thing about BBC TV Licensing is that it's a numbers game - they simply don't undertake that kind of investigation of individual addresses (for all that they overuse the word).

The email matching process for iPlayer involves matching any email addresses associated with live iPlayer accounts to the list of email addresses that they have from old Licence accounts and/or No Licence Needed that can provide a street address. Even that process is flawed and doesn't provide information of an evidential standard (and they do not use it as such).

Cornucopia

The advice always used to be that having Sky or Virgin TV hardware and TV package was a bad idea without a TV Licence. This was based upon (a) the clause in the law about installing TV receiving equipment and (b) the ability of TVL to obtain details of a specific subscriber's TV subscription from Pay TV operators.

That advice can probably be toned down now that streaming is a substantial proportion of the market. The number of actual TVL prosecutions has reduced to the extent that they rarely crop up in the news or on social media, so the exact position is unknown.

textbook

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104681#Comment_82104681

So even if someone watched iplayer with an email address matching their registered one without a licence, this still isn't sufficient evidence?

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82117311#Comment_82117311

No. An iPlayer account can be operated by someone other than the person who registered it originally, it can be operated at a different street address to the one known to TVL, and an email account could be shared or given away. The whole thing is an exercise in "what can be done relatively cheaply to scare people". But it cannot provide the basis for prosecution as it stands.

In addition to the practical issues with email matching as a method of detection as described above, there is also a legal requirement to identify an accused person reasonably robustly, and this doesn't do that.

They could use the email matching to trigger a visit to the premises, but AFAIK they are not doing that. It's possible that it could raise some data protection issues.

textbook

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82098233#Comment_82098233

So if you have virgin is that evidence you need a tv licence?

Cornucopia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82123210#Comment_82123210

It's not a black & white rule. The law is about receiving TV broadcasts (or using iPlayer to access BBC TV).

The question is to what extent having Virgin TV receiving equipment and a pay TV subscription suggests that a person might be using it to receive TV broadcasts. As I said before, this used to be quite important, but I suspect that it isn't so serious any more.

However, there are better solutions from a licence-free viewpoint (depending on what on-demand content you are intending to access).