Can someone explain the TV license in the UK for me?

I've been aware of this for awhile, but have a few questions.

How can they tell if you're watching TV without paying for the license.

Is it a monthly fee, or a flat fee every year?

If you have cable TV, is it still taxed? If you don't watch stuff "over the air" and instead watch cable is that exempt?

Is it per household and independent of number of residents/TVs? How does this work with roommates?

Who dictates what is shown on the BBC?

It's weird for me to hear about, TV has always been free in the US, but we have to deal with a ridiculous number of commercials. Honestly wouldn't mind paying $10 a month or whatever if I got good programming that was commercial free and bipartisan. Not having freaking telethons would be nice too.

Are there other independent channels that you can get over the air? Do they have commercials?

All in all really doesn't sound bad at all when you consider the benefits.

a reply to: Domo1

TV is free in the US? Where? In Canada, analog "free" channels have been gone for quite some time. Now everyone pays a cable or satellite provider.

originally posted by: Domo1
I've been aware of this for awhile, but have a few questions.

How can they tell if you're watching TV without paying for the license.

Is it a monthly fee, or a flat fee every year?

If you have cable TV, is it still taxed? If you don't watch stuff "over the air" and instead watch cable is that exempt?

Is it per household and independent of number of residents/TVs? How does this work with roommates?

Who dictates what is shown on the BBC?

It's weird for me to hear about, TV has always been free in the US, but we have to deal with a ridiculous number of commercials. Honestly wouldn't mind paying $10 a month or whatever if I got good programming that was commercial free and bipartisan. Not having freaking telethons would be nice too.

Are there other independent channels that you can get over the air? Do they have commercials?

All in all really doesn't sound bad at all when you consider the benefits.

1. Nobody really knows, they say they have "detector vans".

2. Yearly.

3. I never knew we had cable (maybe Virgin). We do have satellite (Sky) and that's not part of the tax.
Sky is a monthly subscription fee separate from tax.

4. Per household.

5. Commissioners and administrators who work for the BBC.

6. TV is free. The BBC isn't though, but it's commercial free, hence the tax.

7. All apart from the BBC have commercials.

8. The BBC is 90% trash and if I had to choose between the license or no BBC it'd be a close decision in favour of keeping the BBC. Mainly for the F.A Cup and a couple other programmes at most.

a reply to: Atsbhct


We have what we call the welfare 5. The big 4 networks and pbs all digitally broadcast free.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Its not really good TV, but its free. I get 10-ish channels over the air that come in just fine (I think including a Canadian channel so I'm guessing you're joking). I don't really watch anything that isn't on Netflix or paid for, but sometimes I'll pop on local TV and watch the news or Football.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Instead of the welfare 5, can you rebrand it as Obama-cable? Off topic, but what is an Obamaphone?

originally posted by: Domo1
a reply to: Atsbhct

Its not really good TV, but its free. I get 10-ish channels over the air that come in just fine (I think including a Canadian channel so I'm guessing you're joking). I don't really watch anything that isn't on Netflix or paid for, but sometimes I'll pop on local TV and watch the news or Football.

I'm nt kidding, I really have no idea how I would access free television channels in Canada. When TV was analog, you could turn on the TV and get 3 or 5 channels depending on the length of your rabbit ears. Now, I don't think you can access them anymore, but if someone knows how you might do that, let us know.

a reply to: Atsbhct

Obama phones are phones given to low income families so they can do things like call the doctor.
But as usual any time you give something away free it's abused.

We call it the welfare five because it's free. It stays free because of commercials.

i pay £12.12 a month for bbc even tho i don,t even watch the crap they put on there,if i wasn,t forced to pay for crap i don,t watch i may actually be able to pay for stuff that i do.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

All apart from the BBC have commercials.

So there are other channels you can pick up without having cable or satellite?

I never knew we had cable (maybe Virgin). We do have satellite (Sky) and that's not part of the tax.
Sky is a monthly subscription fee separate from tax.

That seems strange to me. No cable? Here our high speed internet is basically controlled by the cable TV companies. Sat is for people who want too many channels and hate themselves, or people too far away from cable.

a reply to: Domo1

I don't think they (whoever they are) rigged up the cable enough for it to become nationwide so everyone has a satellite dish instead.


We do also get some freeview channels on digital...
Couple of CBS channels for Jerry Springer and Law & Order things like that, regular British channels (channels 3,4 & 5) and a few others like music and news but nothing to write home about.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I've never heard it called that but it's accurate.

Atsbhtc you plug an antenna into your TV like the old days, but I think it has to be digital or something now. It's maybe $20. I got it for Football games and news and because when I moved here the freaking cable company took forever to come out and I need background noise on occasion.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

Ahh that makes sense. Cable TV companies had a monopoly on that here because they already had everything in place I think. I'm sure you've heard about Comcast. So glad I have options in my neighborhood. So glad I get FiOS from Verizon.

So I feel like I'm doing a horrible job of asking the question, would you need a license for a freeview channel, or is just BBC?

a reply to: Domo1

Just for the BBC...

But...
Since we cannot get a freeview digital box without the BBC encrypted into the system, we still need a license.

It's basically forced on us. If we want a TV that is.

To be honest I stick with Sky Broadband.

Nature channels, documentary channels, all news channels, Fox (for American Dad) and Comedy Central (for South Park & Brickleberry) and everything between evangelists and radio even.

I've often envied the cable customer, but I'm sure it has it's own downfalls too.

We can pause the commercials and fast forward at the appropriate time with Sky.

a reply to: Domo1

They're very sneaky, usually they know when somebody has bought a new TV (I guess they request the information from the retailers) and send a letter saying you have to pay the license fee, even if you're already paying (they're not very savvy)

You can just phone them up and say you don't watch live TV and that will be that, their detectors cannot detect which houses specifically watch tv only an area so you can usually get away with it.

If they decide to persist with you, you can just refuse entry to any license people and there's not a damn thing they can do about it

Even IF they come with a warrant and police you can refuse entry if you're smart with the law like in this vid



There's quite a lot of hilarious TV license goons on the tube

Thanks to the internet and streaming though you don't ever need a license if you want to comply with the law, by just streaming.

a reply to: Discotech

They're very sneaky, usually they know when somebody has bought a new TV (I guess they request the information from the retailers) and send a letter saying you have to pay the license fee, even if you're already paying (they're not very savvy)

From the bit of Googling I've done I've been under the impression that they go after people who have recently moved. I would think you can still buy a TV with cash and not have to supply any identification. I would hope at least.

I don't get how you can refuse entry to a cop if there is an actual warrant. That cop was one of the biggest pussies I've ever seen. He hung his freaking head! So it wasn't an actual warrant, and the cop was just there to "keep the peace"? That's messed up. One thing that irritates me is that if a cop showed up here with a warrant I would have NO idea if the warrant was actually legit, I've never seen one.

a reply to: Domo1 nope as soon as you buy any tv equipment then you are on the radar,dvd,blueray anything.thats how i got caught cause i bought a dvd as a present,didn,t realize that the retalier informs tv licensing on it and within days of me buying it i had them at the door,i now have to pay for licence but i guarantee within a couple of year it will be faced out,bbc is cutting so many things that they can,t justifie anyone having to pay for a licence.

a reply to: sparky31

thats how i got caught cause i bought a dvd as a present,didn,t realize that the retalier informs tv licensing on it and within days of me buying it i had them at the door,

lol wut, if that's true, it's beyond ridiculous. Imagine all the costs associated with organizing all that, from tracking customers, reporting them, to sending out thugs, that's a rather large operation. I imagine much of the license fees collected go straight back towards funding their amazingly inefficient fee collection scheme. How about this for an idea... make the BBC channels like any other paid channel, if you want to watch it, then you have to pay, but if you don't watch it then you don't pay and don't get access to it. And make the billing system just like any other modern billing system, paid using electronic means, not sending out thuggish debt collectors to your door to threaten you. I mean this isn't exactly rocket science...

a reply to: Atsbhct

Digital TV is still free with a digital antenna and I actually have more channels now than before with analog and better channels than what I would get with basic cable. As for "free" it has been subsidized for years from the taxes collected perhaps you were unaware...PBS is subsidized by the government to the tune of millions per year.

a reply to: Domo1

I pay yearly (it's about £150...so $250, $300?) and it's worth every penny.

BBC TV rocks!

You know why it rocks?

NO ADVERTS.

You don't need a licence if you can demonstrate that you don't get BBC reception.

How can they tell if you're watching TV without paying for the license.

They can't. But the threat of making random house calls is usually sufficient. There's a heavy fine (my brother was caught out this way a few years back and had to pay the fine).