AncientBrit wrote:I gather that a licence is only necessary if you have the facility to view live TV as it's broadcast.
If you are watching catch-up TV from the internet on a mobile or PC, and have no other TV in the house, apparently a licence is not need.
An unlikely situation I agree.
Not really, I know quite a few people who have no television set at all. This concept seems totally alien to TV Licensing UK though!
In fact, just having a TV in the house doesn't necessarily mean you need a licence either. You can fill in a form to say that you don't use it for receiving live television* and theoretically they then leave you alone. Of course in reality they will continue to send you piles of angry letters. "How dare you not buy a TV licence? Of course you watch TV, everyone does! give us your money!"
If they send their inspectors around to harass you for not buying a licence for a TV you don't have, you should tell them to come back when they have a warrant and slam the door in their face.
If they tell you that you have to let them in to inspect, it's the law etc. Then ask to see their ID. take down their name and report them to the police.
Of course if you
do watch live tv, either broadcast or streamed then you need to have a licence. It's down to your individual conscience if you evade the licence fee. Personally I think despite its faults the BBC does a pretty good job.
*This traces back to the days when VDUs were very expensive and most home computers generated a baseband or UHF modulated composite signal to feed into a domestic television, but the same still applies if using a TV set to watch DVDs etc. The onus is on them to prove that you're lying.