The UK 'TV Licence'

[GiGo 103]

I've had a long resentment for the BBC, harbouring people that or downright criminals (I won't be specific but Jimmy Saville is just one of many), but that aside, I have not had a TV Licence in over 10 years now and damn proud of it, I declare that I do not watch live broadcast television and tell them this every two years like the good boy I am, I watch Netflix and All4 mainly, but over the last few months with COVID-19, I've been streaming a fair few of the governments daily/weekly updates Live on YouTube, using either The Sun, Sky or The Telegraphs 'channels' which ever comes up first, just now I started Streaming CNN from America on YouTube to see what the latest is about the election over there.

This then got me thinking, 'well this is a way around the licence isn't it', I can stream the BBC News channel and other channels online live on YouTube, so I Googled "can I watch live broadcasts on youtube with a TV licence" (I meant to type in 'without'), turns out I cannot!  That's fine by me, I'll make do with Netflix et al, but on the TV Licence Website it states this;

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/Live-TV-and-how-you-watch-it

Quote

The law says you need to be covered by a TV Licence to:

• watch or record programmes as they’re being shown on TV, on any channel
• watch or stream programmes live on an online TV service (such as ITV Hub, All 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV, Sky Go, etc.)
• download or watch any BBC programmes on iPlayer.

This applies to any device you use, including a TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, games console, digital box or DVD/VHS recorder.

Live TV means any programme you watch or record as it’s being shown on TV or live on an online TV service. It’s not just live events like sport, news and music. It also covers soaps, series, documentaries and even movies.

An online TV service is any streaming or smart TV service, website or app that lets you watch live TV over the internet. This includes services like All 4, Sky Go, Virgin Media, Now TV, BT TV, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video and ITV Hub.

Now I realised before that streaming the 'Live broadcast version' of the Channel is not allowed if you do not have a TV Licence, which you can do on all APPS, like the ones the BBC mention above, I am a big user of All4, it's great!

But the questions I want answer to;

When the heck did they change it to include YouTube? Does that mean I should not watch ANY live stream, beit from a broadcasting company (it ITV, Channel 4), a news outlet (The Telegraph, The Sun, CNN) or 'Joe Bloggs' live streaming his CCTV or a friends live Vlog?

The term 'watch live TV' in there statement is very ambiguous, what is classified as 'TV'. Anyone know? Should I not be watching the COVID-19 updates from my elected officials on YouTube via a new outlet?

Just wondering what other peoples thoughts on this are, anyone else not bother with a TV Licence in the UK?

[ebr 14910]

Help out an ignorant Yank here...  Y'all have to purchase a license from the government to watch your publicly broadcast stations?

[CBers 6771]

7 minutes ago, ebr said:

Help out an ignorant Yank here...  Y'all have to purchase a license from the government to watch your publicly broadcast stations?

Yes. 

It's a licence payable to the BBC, but it covers all manner of broadcasting in the UK, even radio to a certain extent. 

Hopefully it will be gone in the next 10 years, then we can have adverts on the BBC and then remove them by software 

Edited November 8, 2020 by CBers

[vdatanet 1549]

5 hours ago, ebr said:

Help out an ignorant Yank here...  Y'all have to purchase a license from the government to watch your publicly broadcast stations?

Something similar happens in Spain, but this tax is paid by private tv channels instead of citizens. Now they have extended it to Netflix, Apple +, Prime... In addition, they are given part of the public budget, in charge of the citizens' taxes. 

[BAlGaInTl 279]

On 11/8/2020 at 8:55 AM, ebr said:

Help out an ignorant Yank here...  Y'all have to purchase a license from the government to watch your publicly broadcast stations?

Same is true in other European countries.

It's essentially a tax for any broadcast TV.  As a "Yank" living in Germany at one point, we had to essentially prove that we were exempt from the tax if we had a TV in the house.  We were covered by a SOFA that stated we didn't have to pay it.. it also covered things like the VAT on goods.

 

On 11/7/2020 at 4:10 PM, GiGo said:

I've had a long resentment for the BBC, harbouring people that or downright criminals (I won't be specific but Jimmy Saville is just one of many), but that aside, I have not had a TV Licence in over 10 years now and damn proud of it, I declare that I do not watch live broadcast television and tell them this every two years like the good boy I am, I watch Netflix and All4 mainly, but over the last few months with COVID-19, I've been streaming a fair few of the governments daily/weekly updates Live on YouTube, using either The Sun, Sky or The Telegraphs 'channels' which ever comes up first, just now I started Streaming CNN from America on YouTube to see what the latest is about the election over there.

This then got me thinking, 'well this is a way around the licence isn't it', I can stream the BBC News channel and other channels online live on YouTube, so I Googled "can I watch live broadcasts on youtube with a TV licence" (I meant to type in 'without'), turns out I cannot!  That's fine by me, I'll make do with Netflix et al, but on the TV Licence Website it states this;

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/Live-TV-and-how-you-watch-it

Now I realised before that streaming the 'Live broadcast version' of the Channel is not allowed if you do not have a TV Licence, which you can do on all APPS, like the ones the BBC mention above, I am a big user of All4, it's great!

But the questions I want answer to;

When the heck did they change it to include YouTube? Does that mean I should not watch ANY live stream, beit from a broadcasting company (it ITV, Channel 4), a news outlet (The Telegraph, The Sun, CNN) or 'Joe Bloggs' live streaming his CCTV or a friends live Vlog?

The term 'watch live TV' in there statement is very ambiguous, what is classified as 'TV'. Anyone know? Should I not be watching the COVID-19 updates from my elected officials on YouTube via a new outlet?

Just wondering what other peoples thoughts on this are, anyone else not bother with a TV Licence in the UK?

Based on the verbiage... it seems like you couldn't watch a "live" stream, but you could go and watch it after it has aired.

If I had to guess, it looks like they moved to close a loophole before it came too big a cost.