TV licence for watching online live streams
 

I know this may have been discussed in similar ways, and please forgive me if I have posted this in the wrong section, but:

I understand the TV licensing laws of needing a licence for watching online live streams, but how it is properly enforced is another thing altogether.

I know if in an extreme case they wanted to find out, they could ask your ISP, but other than that, surely their so called "detector vans" with magic detection equipment can't detect what you are doing on your PC can they?

I read somewhere that if you have a Wi-Fi network, even if it is passworded, the TVL people, they'll bring laptops with them and use packet sniffing software for hacking into your network to check if your are watching live streams illeagally.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

From TV Licensing website
Eg if you watched 'Blade Runner' using BBC iPlayer whilst it was being broadcast on BBC3, you would need a license, but if you used iPlayer to watch it now, you wouldn't.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

What I wanted to know was is there anyway whatsoever they can detect what you are doing on your computer?

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

Interesting question .. I don't think so.

.. but as far as I know you need a licence for just listening to the radio .. unless they've changed the rules.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

There's no mention of detecting internet usage in their detection webpage. If you have a TV tuner card/device in use, they could detect that.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

doesn't the retailer have to notify the tv licensing when a tv tuner card is purchased ,as they do if you buy a tv ?

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

They changed the rules in 1971. ;)

Although at the time it was stated that the radio licence was being merged into the TV licence, in practice from that date you could listen to radio without any licence at all.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

I didn't know that! I remember my old dad having a row with the TV licensing people from way back then as he was a radio ham at the time .. quite funny thinking about it now!

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

TV detector vans are a myth. A scare story put out by the BBC. They exist, but cannot pin point a TV user in a block of flats.

They used to focus on a 35MHz Intermediate frequency emitted by the old TVs. LCDs & Plasmas emit so much stuff, not only would you struggle to find it, but trying to DF on it is nigh impossible.

They rely on the fact that every household has a TV and target those addresses that don't have a TVL.

As for seeing if you watch TV over the Internet would require a court order to your Internet provider and that may be too expensive for them.

In my student days a house next door had ~3 TVs and the silly looking van used to drive up and down about once a week and they were never even given a knock on the door.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

And the line timebase frequency of 15,625KHz, which LCD's/Plasma's don't have.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

I would have thought that they could track an IP address to a certain point and then maybe cross reference that with any accounts that are used for posting on blogs and stuff. So from that I would guess that a techie could make an educated guess. Although I doubt they'd be bothered.

Just the ability to receive a TV signal is what requires you to have a TV licence irrespective of what you watch on it, even if you only watch DVD's or games on it. I'm not sure if anyone has actually challenged that in a court of law.

Utlimately the BBC will do whatever they can to maximise their revenue. Although I'm sure it's all perfectly legal.

John

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

No it isn't.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ15/

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

It used to be.. but as Dilli points out it's no more and hasn;t been that way for I think a decade

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

Actually I don't think it's ever been a requirement to hold a licence simply to possess equipment capable of receiving broadcasts. The licence has I think always been to permit their use.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

Hmm. I stand corrected on that one.

The bit I don't understand is how anyone can prove (either way) whether you use your TV to watch or not watch TV. A knock at the door, whip the cable out and who's to say you were watching it? All seems a bit of a grey area to me.

If you were setting up a website to record the live TV then surely that would need licensing wouldn't it? Let alone a shed load of storage space.

John

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

OK but you are in a minority.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

Neighbour doesn't have a TV, and hasn't had once since 2005. They get harrassed about 3 times a year by TV Licence Inspectors, who refuse to believe they don't have a TV hidden away somewhere.

They have even let the inspectors search their proprty, on multiple occasions, and each time the inspectors go away empty handed, but they still keep coming. One inspector tried to claim that they needed a licence for their computer because they might watch TV on that. Their computer has no tuner card, I know for a fact because I built it, and maintain it for them.

Annoying people them inspectors, however he did his research and he knows the TV licencing laws as good as any lawyer.

You only need a licence to watch or record a TV broadcast while it is being broadcast.

If someone else records it for you, and you watch that recording, no licence is needed.

No licence is needed to own a TV or equipment capable of recieving a TV broadcast, provided its not used to watch or record a live broadcast.

etc

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

First things first - the inspectors get a bounty for each household they sign up for a licence. That's why they keep coming back. In fact, it certainly used to be the case that they could sign up a house for a Direct Debit, then when they cancel their DD 6 months later go back, sign them up again and get a second bounty - repeat endlessly for further enrichment. This was in the mid 2000s, it may have changed now, but I did know one inspector who made a tidy sum out of it.

Second - you don't need a tuner card in your PC to watch live TV on it. That hasn't been the case for some years now, with the explosion in live streaming services, not least from the BBC. The inspector is of course still wrong to claim your neighbour needs a licence for owning a piece of equipment that 'could be' used for watching TV.

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

Tuner card is irrelavant.. If they stream programs off the sites (for example the BBC news or sports site) at the same time as it's being shown on TV then you need a licence..

So for example all the F1 Free practice, qualifying and the race itself would need TV licence if watching/recording it live

Re: TV licence for watching online live streams
 

..and even then, it's upto TV Licencing to PROVE someone is actually using equipment to watch TV programmes as they are being shown