News - BBC license fee to rise to £145.50 next month

[borandi]

I think we are talking about quite a grey area. As far as I understood it, watching iplayer on a computer was OK without a licence, but as soon as you have a TV with a tuner (not a monitor) with the capability to receive TV, dont you need a license even if you dont watch it?

As long as what you watch on iPlayer isn't being broadcast on TV at the same time, i.e. 'Live'. iPlayer come in two parts - the incorporation of live streaming from the channel for certain programs, and those broadcast that week. If you watch the live stream, or record any of it (even the older programs), you'll need a licence.

[MonkeyL]

Almost right. To be slightly more accurate, it's if you don't receive broadcast transmissions, not whether you watch them. For instance, if you record them when broadcast, you need a license. But if you only watch DVDs, play your XBox/PS3 etc, or use delay services like iPlayer to watch/record stuff that isn't live at the time, then you don't.

Hence the inclusion of "de-tune".

[Saracen]

Hence the inclusion of "de-tune".

Yes, agreed about that. All I was getting at is that the "watch" bit could be misinterpreted. It's an area where a lot of people are confused, ranging from those that think you need a licence merely to possess equipment regardless of whether you use it or not, to those that think you're okay if you don't "watch" live TV, when in fact you may not be.

I do agree .... disconnect and detune should be enough to make sure you don't break the law, but it isn't bout whether you watch or not.

[Saracen]

I think we are talking about quite a grey area. As far as I understood it, watching iplayer on a computer was OK without a licence, but as soon as you have a TV with a tuner (not a monitor) with the capability to receive TV, dont you need a license even if you dont watch it?

You've got that a bit garbled, I think.

I'm not sure it's a grey area exactly. More like it's been a fast-moving issue subject to some disingenuous interpretation by the licensing authority, and that the technology has been evolving faster than the law gets reinterpreted to keep up.

It's worth bearing in mind that this dates back to laws originally drafted before TV was invented (or at least, in service), let alone the internet ... that is, the original Wireless and Telegraphy Act in, what, 1949 or thereabouts. Successive legislation referred to rather vague terms like "receiving" and "operating" receiving equipment, and over precisely what a "broadcast transmission" is. It got rather more confused with the arrival of satellite transmissions which may be received in the UK, whether intended to be or not, but originated outside the UK. Next came issues over where a program originated? If a program is made in the UK, for the UK market, but shipped to another country where the satellite uplink is based, then transmitted in a way that at least includes the UK, is it a broadcast transmission for licensing purposes. There were those that argued since the transmission started with the uplink and that that was the "broadcast", it didn't originate in the UK even if the program was made here, so it wasn't covered. As that would have allowed Sky satellite users to detune UK terrestrial channels and rely solely on Sky, thereby avoiding the license fee, the authorities rapidly "clarified" that situation. And pretty much the same has happened about using the internet at a "transmission" medium.

As far as I can make out (and I'm not a lawyer) the current state of affairs is that if you receive broadcast TV transmissions made and intended for the UK market, you need a license unless you've covered by one of the very few exceptions (like students using battery-powered TVs and where their "home" address is licensed.

And "broadcast" has now been reinterpreted to make the medium of transmsission pretty much irrelevant. It might be terrestrial TV, satellite transmission or an internet IP "broadcast", it's still a broadcast as far as the authorities are concerned.

However, "broadcast" seems to be where the TV company decide when to show a given program, and we "tune in", or don't. If that's the model of service provision, you need a license to receive it. However, if you use some on-demand service to replay it later, them it's merely the modern technological equivalent of renting a tape and you don't need a license to do that.

So ... you don't need a license to own "receiving equipment", regardless of whether it's a TV, or a video/HD recorder, a suitably equipped mobile phone or a tuner card in a PC. Just owning it isn't enough. That is now a long-established principle. I cna have a TV standing in a corner that hasn't been turned on for years and it doesn't mean I need a licence. I can use that TV for paying back tapes or discs, or as a screen for a games console and I don't need a licence.

As for watching iPlayer, if what you are watching is a "broadcast", then you to be covered by a licence. So, for instance, a football match on the iPlayer at the same time as the event is happening, or at least at the time it's being shown on TV, would be a broadcast and require a license. But using that same phone or computer to use iPlayer to watch, on demand, like night's Eastenders of last week's Desperate Housewives isn't a "broadcast", since the stream of data is specifically initiated by you and you alone, at a given instant.

In other words, we now seem to have reached the point where it's not about the nature of the equipment or technology used, be it a TV or iPlayer, or about the medium, regardless of it being terrestrial TV, satellite or internet, but about the interpretation of phrases like "receiving" and "broadcast transmission".

Oh, and as I understand it, material originating outside the UK and not intended for the UK market still doesn't require a license even if it's receivable and received inside the UK. If you have a large satellite dish and use it to pick up Arabic or Asian broadcast stations intended for non-UK markets, then you don't need a license even if you receive them in the UK.

[mikerr]

Actually, I'm happy paying the TV licence just for iPlayer TBH
despite it not being technically required, but obviously funded by it.

I watch just about all my BBC content on iPlayer,
and rarely record or watch BBC channels via the tuner.