Thank God For The BBC and The Licence Fee.

[Fab Foodie]

TV detector vans were a myth made up by the BBC. They never existed.

Not strictly true.
They certainly existed and were seen around. Whether they could detect anything is another question.

 

[PeteXXX]

You should still have a licence I think tho' if you watch anything on it .

Only if watching Live TV ie BBC ITV. Without Live feeds, you do not need a licence.

 

[Illaveago]

The BBC used to make really good programmes like Meet the Ancestors and Local Hero. They just seem to want to make cooking programmes at the moment .

 

[Alex321]

Ad it happens I do have a licence...at the moment, but won't when it expires.

But sadly you are a little out of date. The law has changed and you no longer need a licence for simply owning equipment that is capable of receiving a tv signal.

He didn't say you do?

As the law stands now you only need a licence for watching - or recording - live tv. On demand streaming of the likes of Netflix, Prime, Britbox, or catch-up services, even the Sky movies box office, does not require licence as it is not live tv, even if you physically watch it on an actual television.

You are the one slightly out of date here.

Watching even catch up on iplayer (defined in the legislation as " an on-demand programme service which is provided by the BBC, ") now requires a licence - but only iplayer, not other catch up services. This provision was added in September 2016.

 

[Alex321]

You should still have a licence I think tho' if you watch anything on it .

Apart from iplayer, only if you watch programmes as they are broadcast (so anything over the air, or streaming services where they are "live").

You don't need a licence if all you watch is on-demand stuff such as Netflix or other (non iplayer) catch-up services.

 

[Dogtrousers]

The adverts are my favourite bit.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Yebbut you get The Adventure Show!!

(they covered an Audax in Scotland that I was riding - I couldn't watch it here in Englandshire! )

I think you could - the Highlands and Islands with the Swedish bunch?

 

[matticus]

I think you could - the Highlands and Islands with the Swedish bunch?

That's the one - I think someone copied it to YouTube, or something. I know I saw it by some means eventually (even if they cut the best interview of the whole week. Hrumph.)

 

[Chislenko]

But other than movies, for which I have Sky, and documentaries, which are invariably Skymof Freeview, I don't watch much telly and certainly no BBC. That being the case, even a B and W licence is frivolous when I'm not actually availing myself of the service.

Reading round the web this morning it seems the number of licences issued is falling year on year as more and more folk go to catch up, subscription, and other non live services. Seeing as thats mainly what I watch anyway then I may as well join them.



As itnp happens, not mine they can't. Due to one of my previous roles at work I am blocked on the register, particularly pertinent as I have a fairly unusualy name - I ain't no John Smith.

It would require a court order to have it disclosed, and a court is only going to overturn that ifmI were a suspect serious crime with good evidence against me, or if life and limb were at stake.

But leaving that aside, they can't use the register. The need the name of the adult allegedly watching live tv without a licence. Simply being an adult living at that address does not make that person you, particularly where there are multiple adults, or when the record is more than a year old.

Trust me, I investigated much scarier stuff than this for a living so I know how how the game is played and how little a private company can actually do.

Drago, a good friend of mine, sadly no longer with us, worked on Trident (to those not familiar with Trident it was a task force in London).

One of the TV companies did a documentary on Trident and my friend's face was always pixalated out. However we knew it was him by his rather portly shape!!

 

[cougie uk]

Sad thing is that people will pay big bucks for Sky and Netflix - but begrudge the licence because of some perceived bias.

The left think it's a government mouthpiece and the right think it's full of silly woke looney lefties.

Everyone attacks it so it will probably go and we will be left with crap commercial services run by twatty capitalists.

Control the media. Control the people.

We are doooooomed.

 

[Moodyman]

If you travel far and wide you’ll find 2 British institutions universally admired: The BBC and The NHS. BBC news is the most trusted single source worldwide.

It’s a shame the Tories don’t seem to understand this and constantly seek to run both into the ground rather than invest in enviable success….

I once read that if people in other countries heard or read a piece of news, they'd then click onto the BBC website to verify. If the Beeb ran the story then it must be true.

Such is the lack of trust in their domestic news sources.

 

[Drago]

As aforementioned elsewhere by Spokey, its been a long time since the Beeb were a consistent purveyor of quality output. Sure, they may pull the off blinder now and again, but that isn't good enough when some of the capitalist outfits are putting out consistently high quality content. That being the case, the olde "quality" argument has long fallen by the wayside, and in actual fact now falls in favour of many of its rivals.

But you do hit the nail on the head. We choose to subscribe to other services, the decision to get our wallets (or change purse in Accy's case) out is ours.

With the Beeb we have no such choice. We are compelled to subsidise it if we watch live tv, wven if we never avail ourselves of their programming. This being the case every programme should be top draw, every report should be balanced and unbiased, every show a triumph. But those days have ling gone and they are not.

So we are left with an imperfect choice. In this case I'll choose the capitalistsm because at least thats my choice. Sure, theres liable to be bias there too, just often in a direction that displeases a certain vocal segment. The big difference is that we're not being strong armed into a particular bias, its our free choice, and all the time we're getting the benefit of better programming.

On balance, ill take the better programming that I have chosen to fund, not the turgid same-old that I was forced to fund.

 

[Chislenko]

Just going slightly off tack if I may but one thing I have a real beef about is the "crown jewels of free to air television"

Considering, and the clue is in the name, British Broadcasting Corporation, that it is supposedly for all of Britain, why are England football matches regarded as one of the Crown Jewels and are therefore free to air but football matches of the other three home nations are only on Sky so subsequently at a cost to the viewer.

We are quite fortunate in Wales that Sky allow S4c to show our matches (as it is in a foreign language!!!!).

However, how long this will continue is anybody's guess, just announced yesterday that all of Wales's autumn rugger games will no longer be free to air and with be behind an Amazon pay wall.

 

[Dirk]

If you watch anything on a TV you are supposed to have a licence.

Not true.
You can legally watch catch up TV from any channel other than the BBC iPlayer
You only need a licence to watch live broadcasts from all channels.

 

[Pale Rider]

That's the one - I think someone copied it to YouTube, or something. I know I saw it by some means eventually (even if they cut the best interview of the whole week. Hrumph.)

I watched that programme on Sky - they have the BBC regions buried in the 900 channel numbers.

You could also watch news bulletins from regions other than your own.

However, the Adventure Show did cycling again more recently.

On that occasion, my attempt to watch BBC Scotland on Sky failed.

I've just had a root around the channel list again, and there's BBC Scotland HD on channel 194.

That has programmes such as Sportscene (Kilmarnock v Airdrie anyone?). so I suspect programmes such as The Adventure Show would appear there.