Will decriminalising non-payment of the TV license fee lead to an increase in prosecutions?

[PhotEx]

But they have the Supa-Sekrit detector vans with special technology* to locate license evaders.




* A list of names and addresses without licenses.

ah yes, the Supa-Sekrit technology that sends a standard ‘our records show you don’t have a TV licence‘ letter to every flat in a tower block.

 

[PhotEx]

Can't see anyone having a problem with the licence fee if the BBC were to be defunded and made to survive on their own merits. What seems to stick in the craw is the majority having to fund a broadcaster who despises them to constantly attack and vilify them for being who they are and daring to hold their own opinions.

Although pensioners should either get it free or at a greatly reduced rate.

nails it.

im quite happy to pay a small monthly fee to a number of outfits for prime content, Eurosport and Motortrend, who If they get cheeky with programming or get all woke, I can stop the subscription.
the BBC, wall to wall Woke TV by 3rd rate hugely overpaid presenters, it’s news output is ferociously pro left And Brussels, but I don’t have a choice but to pay a premium for something I rarely watch now. Look at this mornings news, a report from a tree hugger coperative growing edible flowers to send to food banks to feed the poor starving baybees in Boris’s heartless poverty stricken Britain.

IF the BBC was as wonderful as they fondly imagine, they’d grab the opporunity to Go to a premium PPV service and clean up..... The fact they don’t just shows they know perfectly well, if there was an option, their revenue would go full Titannic

 

[lokiuk]

Whenever they visit me I say that all I watch is porntube and invite them in to watch me cracking one out.
This seems to hold no attraction for them...

Wish I'd thought of that one

 

[lokiuk]

Can't see anyone having a problem with the licence fee if the BBC were to be defunded and made to survive on their own merits. What seems to stick in the craw is the majority having to fund a broadcaster who despises them to constantly attack and vilify them for being who they are and daring to hold their own opinions.

Although pensioners should either get it free or at a greatly reduced rate.

That was the spiteful bit using pensioners to try and blackmail the government for more money

 

[Andy71]

How does the I have a tv but don't watch or record any BBC output defence go?
How do they prove otherwise. Without a warrant?

Currently they rely on people incriminating themselves and admitting to watching any broadcast TV (not just BBC) when they knock on the door

 

[Listy]

A genuine question.
How does the presumption of possibility work? As we're now getting to the point where even fridges could be used to watch live TV and most mobile phones can. Indeed, anything with an internet connection falls into that category, would this mean that the net is being cast too wide?
Or do they specifically have to prove that you are watching services that fall into licence?

It raises questions for organisations as well. Libraries, museums and internet cafe's are places where any visitor could, theoretically watch live TV.

 

[skeetstar]

if you've ever used the small claims court & won

enforcement by bailiff's take a very long time

I threatened someone with small claims court and they caved in and said they would settle the outstanding bill. They didn't, so I looked further at my options. I was told that even if I won a judgement for debt at the court and payment was still not forthcoming, then my recourse was to the county court with all the cost that ensued, I gave up.

At the time I thought th SCC didn't have any 'teeth.. is that really the case?

 

[Moderator]

All they need to do is say they're going to simplify the tax law around tv licensing with just owning a tv being enough to need a license, back date it and lots of extra income to help with the Corona spend and later tax splurge

Easy

Garbage... Firstly, TV ownership would have to be established by... person? address? (Remember, no names and addresses have been collected against TV sales since 2013).

TVL: ”Hello Mr Braneflutter, this is TVL. Do you own a TV?
Mr Brainflutter: No.

What about every other device capable of receiving TV broadcasts? Do you tax them as well? If not, sales of jumbo monitors would rocket.

In the days when a TV receiver was the only means of viewing TV, it was easy to apply the licence tax to TV ownership. It was effectively what they actually did... until 2013 when there were more non-TV devices capable of receiving TV in peoples homes than TVs.

If it is going to be a general tax then it would have be applied equally to all tax payers - the vast majority of whom who’ll have already paid the existing annual tax for the privilege of watching live tv and will not be overly chuffed at being retrospectively taxed on something they have already paid an annual tax on.

The uprising by good honest TV licence buying citizens against an additional retrospective tax on TV would be something to behold... a lawyers wet dream.

 

[Moderator]

If memory serves, originally the tv licence was just that. A licence to own (operate) a television receiver.
Nothing about which of the 2 channels on offer was watched.
I am open to correction on this though.

No... It was always ‘to receive broadcasts’ that needed a licence but from 1971, the requirement was redefined to include only the reception of TV broadcasts. (Before 1971 a TV licence covered radio broadcasts too but if you only listened to the radio, then a radio only licence was needed.)

TV Retailers / Rental companies had to collect by law, the names and addresses of buyers/renters of TV receiving apparatus on behalf of TV Licensing* (which was then the Post Office) so tracking non licence payers was made easy. - If you 'owned' a TV then you were receiving broadcasts and thus you needed a licence - simple.

When the TV license started in 1946 (£2.00) there was only one channel - BBC. (Radio Licences were required from around 1920 but included TV until 1946).


*repealed 2013

 

[rebel_with_a_cause]

If the Licence Fee is effectively a tax to watch ANY broadcast output then perhaps said fee should be split between ALL broadcasters not just the BBC.

 

[Moderator]

Or do they specifically have to prove that you are watching services that fall into licence?

Yes.

No licence is needed to own, have or operate any equipment capable of receiving live TV.

It raises questions for organisations as well. Libraries, museums and internet cafe's are places where any visitor could, theoretically watch live TV.

All businesses need a TVLicence if anybody on the premises watches live TV as defined by TVL.

I’d imagine a TV licence would simply be an overhead for internet cafes - easier to pay for it than to evade it.

 

[4(T)]

I expect govt would like to find a politically non-lethal way to transfer a failing tax on TV reception to a gold-mine tax on general Internet reception.

 

[lokiuk]

Garbage... Firstly, TV ownership would have to be established by... person? address? (Remember, no names and addresses have been collected against TV sales since 2013).

TVL: ”Hello Mr Braneflutter, this is TVL. Do you own a TV?
Mr Brainflutter: No.

What about every other device capable of receiving TV broadcasts? Do you tax them as well? If not, sales of jumbo monitors would rocket.

In the days when a TV receiver was the only means of viewing TV, it was easy to apply the licence tax to TV ownership. It was effectively what they actually did... until 2013 when there were more non-TV devices capable of receiving TV in peoples homes than TVs.

If it is going to be a general tax then it would have be applied equally to all tax payers - the vast majority of whom who’ll have already paid the existing annual tax for the privilege of watching live tv and will not be overly chuffed at being retrospectively taxed on something they have already paid an annual tax on.

The uprising by good honest TV licence buying citizens against an additional retrospective tax on TV would be something to behold... a lawyers wet dream.

It's meant to be a general tax that literally is the point, it's just politically too unpalatable hence all these shenanigans

 

[lokiuk]

If the Licence Fee is effectively a tax to watch ANY broadcast output then perhaps said fee should be split between ALL broadcasters not just the BBC.

You can't have the money being shared with hideously white broadcasters, only the BAME broadcasting corporation is worthy of the proceeds of the telly tax, get with the program

 

[UKRaider]

I dislike the term 'evader'
I'm not 'evading' anything. I don't pay them because I don't have to.
I remain 100% LEGALLY Licence free and the Lefty feckers can shove their tax where the Sun don't shine.
I collect the disgusting monthly 'threatograms' they send me and recycle them accordingly.
About 10 years back I did some research into the BBC/Capita/TVL setup and it is quite horrific some of the things they have done to usually vulnerable people. Feck the BBC!

https://tvlicenceresistance.info/

 

[kimmi851]

From tales from prison warden friends (I make friends easily) rather a lot of the female jail population is there for TV licence evasion, no idea of the proportion for men but it is a large expense for the country to cover keeping people in jail for it. I suspect with other newer crimes like meeting your aunt and uncle and 4 cousins for a cup of tea being brought in that they want to make more space in prisons (only slightly facetious there).

Like many people I resent paying the licence fee and being told it is for high quality advert free TV - and then being forced to watch adverts because the only channels which seem to do anything I might watch is Pick and TCM (Pick are being very slack about re-showing Relic Hunter though - why have no other shows got any decent male eye candy?) I actually often delete BBC 1 and 2 after I have rescanned my TV channels at the same time as all the soft porn channels, the religious stuff and QVC because it is easier to delete all the channels which clog up the list to scrawl through but never have anything worth watching on. But I accept that I watch "Live TV" in the few channels with anything good on so I keep on paying like a good lawabiding type.

 

[Maninthestreet]

TV licence people are here regularly. I have more You Tube Patreon content than I have down time to watch, there's no way I'll watch a TV any time soon.

 

[ches]

Its a simple requirement - if you watch LIVE tv then you need a licence. Simple. You don't need one to watch Iplayer content although if accessing Iplayer via the app or via a PC connection you will have to fill in some basic per dets but thats easy to wangle - just use the next door neighbours address!

I seem to recall that other broadcasters (CH4 being one of them) receive some monies from TVL revenue.

I haven't had a license for about 12 years. Soon as I moved into my own place I found i wasn't watching anything on live TV so binned the TVL off after some quick googling. All my viewing back then was streaming or recorded/Iplayer based stuff. I finally persuaded the lass to bin the TVL off a few years ago for the same reasons. I've really gone anti BBC in the last 6 or 7 years so giving them a legit finger works for me.

 

[Chef]

If the Licence Fee is effectively a tax to watch ANY broadcast output then perhaps said fee should be split between ALL broadcasters not just the BBC.

The image of large quantities of tea being spluttered onto the BBC board room table if that was ever suggested made Oi larf. Thank you.

 

[Roadster280]

I never realised, they actually put people in jail for not having a TV Licence? Presumably it's not first offenders, or they're put in jail for not paying fines.

Even so, WTAF is that all about? It's high time the BBC was disbanded and broadcast TV consigned to history. It's not the 1950s anymore; much better technology exists to watch content, and many, many places exist to get the content from.

Christ, they'll be executing 9 year olds for stealing bread next.