Trust the BBC Trust

[The_Wanderer]

Did anyone read the recent story, The Guardian I think, that said (roughly) that the BBC Trust think that a licence should be needed to view iplayer - look forward to that one playing out!

[greysts]

To watch BBC television programmes you need a licence. The method you use to view those programmes seems to me to be irrelevant.

[Graham1186]

Thats my reading of the situation too Greysts. You pay your licence fee to watch/listen - you are not licensing a television set. The method of reception is irrelevant.

[The_Wanderer]

I think that was a commonly held belief but check out this news item. or this one.

[Graham1186]

Both sites were an interesting read and thank you for the links.

My previous opinion was obviously mistaken, For the time being only though ... it seems !
.

[greysts]

I should have made my reply clearer. I meant to say 'to watch live TV requires a licence, irrespective of the hardware used.'

[The_Wanderer]

There's the rub.

Extending it to include archived material begs the question why not DVD and Blu-ray and before you know it bingo increased revenues all round.

Interestingly the papers are not totally against it. They are hurting from declines in revenue and if they can get some goverment funding via a licence for websites by helpfully structuring a licence that way - they will be very happy indeed.

It will I think be interesting to see what happens.

[Jon98]

As a tv licence isn't required for watching Vod on the net, including the catch-up services of tv channels, I've started a blog to list sites that have Vod, as a source of information tp those who, like me, don't have a tv licence. See,

http://tvlicenceorvod.blogspot.com/

It's not a blog for debate about the virtue or otherwise of the licence, there are others that cater for that. And it certainly isn't intended to encourage breaking the law regarding the licence. Just a list, with a little info, on sites that have Vod that doesn't need a tv licence to watch, legally. Only just started it, but it will grow in content soon.

[wildthing666]

To me the license is just a con, if you have a TV but watch no BBC TV channels but do watch other channels as they are broadcast you still need a license yet these channels receive funds from advertising, not from the TV license. Does anyone think like me that the positioning of the channels on the frequency scale was done so no manufacturer could make a TV tuner that could avoid picking up the BBC channels thus people could buy that and watch the other channels without any access to BBC channels so possibly avoid paying for a TV license.

[myvices]

The TV licensing rules are outdated and ridiculous. You can watch TV without a license on any mobile device (Laptop, phone, etc.) as long as it is running on batteries. If you plug the charger in, you need a license and are breaking the law if you continue to watch TV on your device!

No idea how this would be policed though [img]/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]