TV Licence article Discussion

teneighty

Cornucopia wrote: »

Yes, that is how TVL summarise the Law. The key word being "summarise", because the actual Law is somewhat more complicated. It talks about equipment being "installed or used for the purpose of receiving TV (broadcasts)". This is where it gets complicated, and the fact that TVL summarise the Law in a particular way does not prevent them from enforcing it differently. (They are like that)..

That has got me slightly worried. I gave up watching TV about a year ago and have not had a licence for about 9 months. I went through the TVL guidance and as I don't watch TV I thought I was OK but I do still use my TV for digital radio through freeview so it is connected to an aerial. The guidance clearly states you do not need a licence to receive digital radio broadcasts.

I would emphasise that I really don't watch "live" TV, there is nothing that I want to watch but very occasionally watch on demand catch-up via the internet connected to TV if there is a programme that interests me. The last thing I watched was "The Last Kingdom" and "The Detectorists" which shows it is quite infrequent.

I'm beginning to think I might have a bit of trouble justifying the aerial being connected if they ever do get a warrant to enter my home. Unlikely I know but I do want to make sure that I am not inadvertently breaking the rules.

[Deleted User]

teneighty wrote: »

That has got me slightly worried. I gave up watching TV about a year ago and have not had a licence for about 9 months. I went through the TVL guidance and as I don't watch TV I thought I was OK but I do still use my TV for digital radio through freeview so it is connected to an aerial. The guidance clearly states you do not need a licence to receive digital radio broadcasts.

I would emphasise that I really don't watch "live" TV, there is nothing that I want to watch but very occasionally watch on demand catch-up via the internet connected to TV if there is a programme that interests me. The last thing I watched was "The Last Kingdom" and "The Detectorists" which shows it is quite infrequent.

I'm beginning to think I might have a bit of trouble justifying the aerial being connected if they ever do get a warrant to enter my home. Unlikely I know but I do want to make sure that I am not inadvertently breaking the rules.

I would just buy a radio or use an app on my phone.

Cornucopia

That particular configuration is problematic.

TVL have previously told me that it is acceptable, but when I asked for more detail of how to configure it so that it would "pass" in the event of a "visit" or warrant, they refused to tell me.

Personally, I would suggest listening to the radio in some other way, if possible. Certainly detune all the TV channels on the TV, if possible.

If you have an old Freeview box anywhere, that would be a better solution, as it could be connected to the TV or hifi just with audio leads, and the TV could then be completely detuned.

teneighty

Thanks for the quick and helpful response. I will see if I can de-tune the TV channels.

It is a bit of a minefield. I've got a small digital radio but the reception and sound quality is rubbish, the TV/Freeview radio reception is excellent. It does seem crazy that I should have to go to considerable expense and/or trouble to try and justify that I am NOT doing something.

JimmyTheWig

I guess, with your current setup teneighty, that if the cat trod on the remote, etc, there is a chance that live TV would be switched on while you were watching at which point you'd need a licence.
Fair enough you may not have a cat, but I would think over the course of a year something like that may happen.

De-tuning the channels sounds like a good move to me.

teneighty

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I guess, with your current setup teneighty, that if the cat trod on the remote, etc, there is a chance that live TV would be switched on while you were watching at which point you'd need a licence.
Fair enough you may not have a cat, but I would think over the course of a year something like that may happen.

De-tuning the channels sounds like a good move to me.

Good point, I expect that it would be my luck that the dog would jump on the remote just as the inspector looked through the window.

I did have one near miss. There are occasional update messages to re-programme/update freeview and I clicked yes without thinking and then left the room. I didn't realise that when it finished looking for new channels it defaults to BBC 1, so the dog got about 30 seconds of bargain hunt or some similar mindless BBC rubbish before I quickly turned it off.

JimmyTheWig

teneighty wrote: »

the dog got about 30 seconds of bargain hunt or some similar mindless BBC rubbish before I quickly turned it off.

I wonder if they'd try to prosecute the dog?

[Deleted User]

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I wonder if they'd try to prosecute the dog?

I doubt it, but the RSPCA might prosecute you for animal cruelty

[Deleted User]

teneighty wrote: »

Thanks for the quick and helpful response. I will see if I can de-tune the TV channels.

It is a bit of a minefield. I've got a small digital radio but the reception and sound quality is rubbish, the TV/Freeview radio reception is excellent. It does seem crazy that I should have to go to considerable expense and/or trouble to try and justify that I am NOT doing something.

After removing all UHF leads and the signal boosters I tried to detune the TV. Unfortunately I could not get it to de-tune, perhaps because it could not pick anything up!?


Samsung BTW.


Cheers

Cornucopia

Usually just going through the auto-tuning process without an aerial connection will delete all the stored channels.

Failing that - factory reset?