TV Licensing - Do I Need to Remove Antenna Cables from room?

I think that the combination of not having a TV Licence and answering "Yes" to the question: "Do you have a TV?" are deemed sufficient basis to begin further questioning.

Although the form has been tweaked to allow for the possibility that someone has a TV but does not use it for live broadcasts or iPlayer, it still lacks sufficient detail in that area, IMHO.

OTOH, TVL acknowledge themselves that interview under caution can be declined, although how that would work in practice, I don't know. Even though the "No Comment" interview seems to be well known amongst the Public, I've never heard of one in the TVL context, which seems strange.

silverwhistle wrote: »

And if I answer 'No' as is the case? I presume they ask to come in or ask if you use a phone or tablet etc.

Yes.

One of the cliches of TVL is: "You need a Licence for that" (whatever "that" is).

In principle, yes.

However, BBC/TV Licensing seem to have decided (or worse obtained advice) that because this is an adversarial situation, almost anything goes. Couple that with their endemic refusal to accept the full rigours of PACE and HRA, and I cannot recommend that anyone has anything to do with them - they are simply too much of an unknown quantity. And that's at the HQ/Policy level - the ill-discipline and poor supervision of some of their workforce comes on top of that.

I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that TV Licensing cannot be trusted, or the fact that the law appears to accept it.

One thing I would say is that I have seen no evidence to support the notion that the issues are solely or mainly about Capita. Certainly, an outsource arrangement does not help, and Capita has a poor reputation generally. However, the key staff in TV Licensing are BBC employees, and the BBC remains in control of policy and direction of the pseudo-organisation. Even if Capita were out of control, it would still be the BBC's responsibility to monitor and control them, ultimately sacking them if necessary.

You do not need a licence nor do you need to remove any leads or cables.

The Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 (as amended), states that you need to be covered by a TV Licence if you: - watch or record live TV programmes on any channel, or - download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer This could be on any device, including a TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, games console, digital box or Blu-ray/DVD/VHS recorder.

robti wrote: »

Do I need a license to listen to the radio through the airwaves or online, eg bbc radio 2 tuned normally or through the net radio on my av receiver

No.

However, beware that Radio iPlayer now asks for an ID registration, so you may want to change your online Radio service to:-

- http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/

- https://tunein.com/

Other radio services may be available.