Chris

The TV licence permits use of equipment to receive live TV, not ownership of that equipment. It doesnt matter how many TVs, Freesat boxes or VHS machines you own, if you don't use them to receive live TV, you don't need a licence. No need to rip any tuners out of anything.

It is in TVL's interest to muddy the waters because they are an agent that gets commission on licence sales so they want every household to have one, whether it's needed or not. Also, to be fair to them (not that they deserve it), almost every household in the UK does watch live telly, so a significant proportion of the unlicensed addresses in the country almost certainly *do* need a licence and the door-to-door enforcers salesmen agents have met every chav and scutter and heard all their lame excuses.