Thousands of people have been caught watching TV illegally
Tens of thousands of people across the UK have been caught watching live or BBC television without a necessary licence. The TV Licensing company says it has a “range of detection tools at our disposal in our vans.”
It adds: “Some aspects of the equipment have been developed in such secrecy that engineers working on specific detection methods work in isolation – so not even they know how the other detection methods work. This gives us the best chance of catching licence evaders.”
Detector vans can “detect the use of TV receiving equipment at specifically targeted addresses within minutes”. The organisation also has a database of 31 million licensed and unlicensed addresses, and its visiting officers all have access to this.
In the year ending June 2024, some 28,542 people were prosecuted for evading the TV licence fee. If you are found to have been watching, recording or downloading any programmes illegally, you may be fined £1,000 and even taken to court.
Who needs a TV Licence?
Anyone who watches or records live TV programmes on any device, including televisions, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, or mobile phones, needs a licence. You also need one to watch BBC iPlayer, whether you’re viewing live TV or programmes on catch-up.
However, if you’re watching other streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, ITVX, Disney Plus, or YouTube, you don’t require a TV licence, unless you’re viewing live programmes through these services.
On its website, TV Licensing said: “We write to all addresses where there is no TV Licence or a current declaration to say that one isn’t needed. If you tell us you don’t need a TV Licence, we will stop sending you letters.
“We may confirm this with a visit. We do this because we’ve found that when we visit and make contact, 1 in 14 people who say they don’t need a licence actually do need one.
“Remember, a TV Licence isn’t just for TV sets. It applies to any device. If you tell us your property is empty, we’ll stop sending letters to your address for up to six months.
“If you have just told us you don’t need a licence and then receive a letter from us a day or so after, this is usually because our records are being updated. You don’t need to respond”.
A colour TV Licence currently costs £174.50. The fee may rise in April, though this has yet to be confirmed by the Government.
