The Television Licence – Do You Need One?

To some, the BBC provides a wonderful range of quality television, radio and online content. Indeed many are happy to pay for their TV licence as it funds this long standing institution. The current licence fee is £145.50 a year and goes towards the cost of programming and the high salaried TV stars that light up our living rooms. You can pay for your licence upfront in one no fuss, no hassle fee, or if you choose, you can spread the cost by paying in monthly instalments. The BBC, a private company, employs another private company in the form the TV Licensing who, on the BBC’s behalf, arrange for collection of payment and visit unlicensed addresses to make sure that the “current occupier” is obeying the law.

Do you need a TV licence? The TV Licensing Company state that “You need to be covered by a valid TV licence if you watch or record TV as it’s being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone, or DVD/video recorder”. If you do not have a television capable of receiving a live broadcast, then you are not required to get a TV licence. However, simply informing TV Licensing of this is not enough. This private company will insist on entering your property to see for themselves. A point to be remembered is that you have no obligation to allow them access to your property, nor are you obliged to tell them your name or whether or not your are the occupier of the property. The company then has three choices, they can either accept that you do not require a TV licence and leave you alone, continue to send you harassing letters with warnings and threats, or if that fails, they will apply to a judge to obtain a warrant to enter your premises to ascertain whether or not you require a TV licence. The third option is their last resort.

I spoke with a TV Licensing representative on their customer service helpline to ask what evidence would satisfy a judge that the occupier was watching or capable of receiving live television. I was advised that:

“They could obtain any evidence to send out a warrant so that’s information they have received from service providers, even by the signals if the signals have been checked or if someone has reported yourself”.

I asked if he meant the internet service provider:

“It could be from your television service provider.”

What if you do not have a television service provider? This question seemed to cause him some consternation and he advised that he would get the customer specialist unit to call me back to answer my questions but they never did. I was intrigued by his claim that television service providers give the TV Licensing company such sensitive information. I contacted Sky, BT and Virgin but thus far only Virgin have responded.

A Virgin Media Spokeswomen had this to say:

“We’ve looked into this and can confirm we do not share customer information with TV licensing authorities. Sometimes we may release information to public authorities but only to assist with an investigation or via a court order.”

It is entirely possible that the TV Licensing representative was mistaken so I will not hold what he said to be an actual practice of the TV Licensing, although I am still awaiting a response from BskyB and BT. In the meantime, I decided to contacted the TV Licensing press office to ask what evidence a judge requires to grant a warrant to enter a premises.

A TV Licensing spokesperson said:

“We only apply for a search warrant as a last resort and we state this on our website. Each application is considered scrupulously before it is submitted, and a warrant cannot be granted by the court unless there are reasonable grounds for the application.”

In addition to the official comment the spokesperson also advised that:

“TV Licensing apply to a magistrate (or sheriff in Scotland) for a search warrant when there is reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed, evidence of the offence is likely to be found on the premises and entry will not be granted unless a warrant is produced. We’re open about the fact we only apply for a search warrant as a last resort. We don’t give out specific examples of the type of evidence we might use to support a search warrant application, because this information might be useful to people looking to avoid paying the fee.”

Below is a cleverly edited video showing how the TV Licensing company work.

Evidence is likely to be found on the premises. Just remember that statement and remember that a TV Licensing agent has no authority to enter your premises. This means that by giving an agent no details, as to your identity, and refusing them access to your property, then they are unable to gather any evidence that they might present to a judge. I have asked for further clarification on what other evidence they might use, however, as you can see they are unwilling to let that information be known. I have, as a result of this response, made an FOI (Freedom of Information) request to ascertain exactly how many warrants the TV Licensing people apply for and how many are successful. Additionally, I have requested “what other evidence” might be used in order gain entry to your property. I will also be writing to the Sheriff officer for Glasgow to get their side of it, their processes, and how they evaluate the evidence presented by the TV Licensing company. I will keep you updated once I have received another response from my FOI request and I have spoken to the Sheriff Officer.

Peace and love fellow human.

BBC Claim Impartiality Over Referendum

The aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum has seen a number of yes voters threaten to cancel their TV licence. This is due to perceived bias from the BBC in their referendum coverage. Aggrieved campaigners feel that the BBC was responsible for driving a sustained and deliberate tactic of overrepresentation of Better Together’s arguments. Furthermore, that the BBC were wilfully ignoring stories which would have been positive for the yes campaign. It is argued that this greatly helped the case for a no vote.

What is important to remember is that the BBC and its employees are driven by a Royal Charter which forbids them from being biased. As per the agreement, all controversial subjects must be reported with accuracy and impartiality. Not only was it the yes camp which accused the BBC of bias, Better Together did also. Perhaps this may indicate that the BBC got something right over their coverage. Proving whether the BBC has broken its Royal Charter could turn out to be difficult.

I contacted the BBC Scotland press office to challenge them on this perceived bias. A BBC spokesperson stated: “We believe our coverage of the referendum has been rigorously impartial and in line with our guidelines on fairness and impartiality.” However, Yes campaigners would strongly disagree with that statement, so much so, that they even protested at the BBC headquarters in Glasgow. The BBC had no comment to make on the licence fee boycott; instead the spokesperson referred me to TV Licensing.

Public protest against the BBC.

The campaign to boycott the TV Licence originated on social media with several thousand people claiming to have already cancelled their subscription payment. There are numerous Facebook and Twitter pages dedicated to informing the public on ways to to avoid paying for the TV Licence, sometimes by illegal means. However, most of these groups existed before the referendum got underway. I contacted the TV Licensing Company, who collects the licence fee on behalf of the BBC, to find out if they had seen a rise in cancellations since the vote on Scottish independence two weeks ago. A TV Licensing spokesperson said:

“We don’t routinely collect information about TV Licence cancellations in each nation or region, only across our entire database. We have not seen any increase in UK-wide cancellation figures this month compared to the same period last year. If you don’t have a valid TV Licence when you need one, it’s against the law and you risk prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000.”

Collects the licence fee on behalf of the BBC.

It could be too early to tell if the boycott will have any meaningful impact. The BBC’s 2013/14 annual report saw a rise of £16 million for licence fee income on the previous year. “Total licence fee income increased from £3,706million to £3,722million as a result of modest household growth”. Please click here for the BBC annual report 2013/14. The next annual report is due in April 2015 and should highlight any significant fall in TV licence revenue, if any. It should be noted that TV Licencing are a private company, and that there are legal steps you can take to stop their agents from visiting your property or from sending threatening letters. The Telegraph produced an article on the legal way to avoid paying the TV licence fee, which can be found by clicking here.

Peace and love fellow human.