TV Licence article Discussion

2010

I would have thought if these morons are sending threatening letters and banging on your door at all hours, and you genuinely don`t need a tv license, report them to the police for harrassment.
I havent`t looked up anything but surely there must be some form of legal action that you could take against them.

Cornucopia

2010 said:

I would have thought if these morons are sending threatening letters and banging on your door at all hours, and you genuinely don`t need a tv license, report them to the police for harrassment.
I havent`t looked up anything but surely there must be some form of legal action that you could take against them.

The pattern is this: if you feel harassed, you complain to the BBC or TVL and generally the harassment stops, typically for the same 2 years that applies to other TVL processes. In my case I made a fairly specialised complaint and the fairly specialised response was cessation of harassment indefinitely which is great.

 All of which is fair enough as long as you aren't too bothered about them harassing your neighbour or the people in the next street. From their POV, they are probably quite happy with a few harassment complaints because they can assume that they'll never get anywhere at those addresses and they can move on to the next one.

There is no point complaining to the Police because (a) they will just ask you if you've complained to the BBC, and (b) there are exemptions within harassment law that TV Licensing could reasonably be seen to fit within.

madanna62

TV guy called to my house and I told him I didn't watch live tv and he said it didn't matter that if I can receive it I had to have one. 

Watchkeeper

He lied. He's on commission for every licence sale.

jp919

My brother is schizophrenic  and mostly listens to the radio on the TV.  He very occasionally will watch news or Emerdale.  Does he need a license??

Watchkeeper

The TV licence is the State's permission to watch and/or record TV programmes at the time of transmission, no matter what device is used. That's all there is to it. If your brother watches or records the programmes you mention "live" (i.e. at the time of transmission) then yes, he needs a licence.

jp919

Thanks Watchkeeper!  So if I convince him to only listen to radio then he won’t need a license right?

cw18

Correct.  I listen to the radio via my hi-fi or my Amazon Dot and can do so without a licence.   When I go on holiday I have to listen via a TV that's connected to a Freesat box (no decent radio signal due to surrounding hills), but that's something I will do there (licenced property) that I wouldn't even consider at home (too much chance of someone connecting the TV to a Live TV channel).

Watchkeeper

In theory - you're right. I say "in theory" because if he is visited by a Capita salesman masquerading as a "TV Licensing Officer" he may admit to something which the salesman will twist to your brother's disadvantage. For example:

"Do you have a TV?"
"Yes, but I only use it for the radio."
"You need a licence for that. Yes, you do. You really, really do. Have you got one?"
"No."
"Gotcha!"

These salesman will lie to get their commission. The only solution (and this applies to everybody) is just to close the door on the powerless salesman and say nothing.

buglawton

The other day BBC World Service's World Business Report podcast had a detailed article about funding models for public service radio & TV around the world. Several Nordic/Baltic countries have already replaced the TV ownership license with an income linked tax surcharge. The simple logic for the Norwegian Parliament was the public electronic media needs a substantial funding allocation because it's a common good and people should pay according to ability.

Here you see how many advanced countries have abolished the TV license
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence
Many charge for public media via the electricity bill.

All super rational. I guess the UK hangs back due the the power of the BBC.