Cable Forum - View Single Post - General Crackdown as the number of homes without a TV licence increases to 7%.

RichardCoulter · 01-06-2019, 18:30

In 2015/16 the number of households without a TVL was 5%. In 2017/18 this had increased to 7% so, according to the Express newspaper, the BBC is to have a crackdown on evaders through the use of 'better field enforcement activities' and 'improved identification of false no licence needed declarations'. The BBC originally wanted to reduce this to 3.95% by next year, but say that they have revised this to a more realistic goal of 6% by 2021.

The NAO go on to say that 'the failure to reduce evasion remain a concern after measures to halt the rise have so far failed to reduce the offending rate'. I presume by this they are referring to the decision to make use of the iPlayer a licensable activity.

In response TVL insisted that 'evasion has remained broadly stable over the last three years with a jump linked to new methodology and that changes of less that 1% are not statistically significant'. This statement then begs the question as to why there is a need for a crackdown at all then!

It's worth remembering that, when the percentage of homes was 5%, the BBC estimated that only 1 in 5 of these homes were evading the TVL, with the rest legitimately not needing a licence. I've no idea how many are currently estimated to be evading the fee.

Also, despite the percentage of unlicensed properties increasing, I believe that because of population growth, the actual number of licences purchased must surely have increased.

For some reason I can't post the link to the source, but if anyone wants to read it just search for 'Express BBC crackdown'.

01-06-2019, 18:30	#1
RichardCoulter cf.mega poster Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 10,780	Crackdown as the number of homes without a TV licence increases to 7%. In 2015/16 the number of households without a TVL was 5%. In 2017/18 this had increased to 7% so, according to the Express newspaper, the BBC is to have a crackdown on evaders through the use of 'better field enforcement activities' and 'improved identification of false no licence needed declarations'. The BBC originally wanted to reduce this to 3.95% by next year, but say that they have revised this to a more realistic goal of 6% by 2021. The NAO go on to say that 'the failure to reduce evasion remain a concern after measures to halt the rise have so far failed to reduce the offending rate'. I presume by this they are referring to the decision to make use of the iPlayer a licensable activity. In response TVL insisted that 'evasion has remained broadly stable over the last three years with a jump linked to new methodology and that changes of less that 1% are not statistically significant'. This statement then begs the question as to why there is a need for a crackdown at all then! It's worth remembering that, when the percentage of homes was 5%, the BBC estimated that only 1 in 5 of these homes were evading the TVL, with the rest legitimately not needing a licence. I've no idea how many are currently estimated to be evading the fee. Also, despite the percentage of unlicensed properties increasing, I believe that because of population growth, the actual number of licences purchased must surely have increased. For some reason I can't post the link to the source, but if anyone wants to read it just search for 'Express BBC crackdown'.