An effective protest must include a refusal to fund the BBC. It is not enough to cancel direct debits you must inform the BBC owned TV Licensing that you are cancelling the TV Licence itself or they continue to harass you for the money. Give them no more information than is necessary to identify the Licence you wish to cancel. You do not need to justify to them why you are cancelling and there is no legal requirement for you to do so.
There are the four simple rules to ensure you stay within the law and that the BBC’s TV Licensing arm cannot bring a successful action against you in court:
Rule 1. Once you have cancelled your TV Licence, give ZERO further information and have ZERO further contact with any TV Licensing, G4S or BBC Capita appointed contractor representatives. If you answer the door by mistake and discover it is them, simply close the door. The BBC will always revert to the standard threat letter cycle which should be binned and shredded as soon as they arrive.
Rule 2. If a rare encounter with any BBC TV Licensing salesperson does occur, then ensure you NEVER ADMIT to them that you have watched or recorded ANY LIVE TV or the BBC iPlayer on ANY device for ANY reason. Also NEVER ADMIT TO WATCHING ANY INTERNET STREAMING BROADCAST as it is also shown on TV. This can be SKY NEWS or AL-JAZZERRA originally beamed from Doha. Note this is not restricted to just BBC as some mistakenly believe. Only ever say you watch DVD’s/Netflix etc and (non-BBC iPlayer) Catch-Up TV. Ideally just close the door.
Rule 3. Detune your TVs and disconnect any aerials or satellite feeds and cut or tape up the ends. (This is to satisfy the requirement that TV Receivers must not be installed)
Rule 4. DO NOT watch or record ANY LIVE TV or BBC iPlayer on ANY device for ANY reason. (You may watch OTHER Catch-Up TV services after they have been shown on TV)
Remember: the most important rule is Rule 1 – have ZERO further contact with any TV Licensing representatives.
You can find all the sordid detail of TV Licensing and further useful information on this site: http://licencefree.co.uk
1. What is live t.v, I use a freeview box by talktalk which can record and i have a now tv stick for movies only.
2. Do you write a cease and desist letter. If so how and what is it?
3. Any other info or sites, I’m just a bit scared to do it
Thanks
There is no concept of ‘cease and desist’ in English law. This is not the US. The UK’s BBC state broadcaster is fully backed by the state. If you feel ‘scared’ and unable to follow the advice in this post it is ALWAYS recommended you pay up. Other good sites are listed in the links under “Recommended Sites – BBC and TV Licence related”.
Try out IPTV. You can run it on an android box. Run a VPN to prevent your internet provider from watching. Just be sure to have unlimited internet. All kinds of sites available for 15 to 24 bucks a month. Just as good as cable at a fraction of the price.
It’s easier than that, cancel the license and refuse them right of access.
Tell them you don’t watch live TV. They will then leave you alone for a minimum of 2 years.
Did you know, that as a radio amateur. (A novice licence is relatively easy to obtain) You are authorised to transmit and receive high definition television at your home. The amateur radio licence is free of charge.
I am locked into a Virgin contract for 6 months. I want to use the catchup services on Virgin. Can I do that or do I need to disconnect the Tivo box to stay legal.
Or is there anyway to detune the live tv channels from the tivo.
I don’t pay a license and have not done for a long time. But I have also heard, that if you buy a TV second hand. There is nothing that says you must have a license to watch it. That only happens when you buy a new one, as you agree to the TOS when you buy one. But if it’s second hand, that goes out the window. And as you did not agree to the TOS then you don’t need a license. It’s something like that. Personally I just registered with the BBC that I don’t watch their shite. But legally if you have not signed anything, then it cannot be law
Do not engage in legal debates about what is and is not law. Just follow the advice in this article in particular note Rule 1. Do not have ANY contact with any people identifying themselves as “TV Licensing”. Simple as that.
Am I okay watching You Tube without a licence ?
yes it is fine as it is not live.
How can watching a live stream on Youtube, that is nothing to do with the BBC or major broadcasting companies, be affected by the licence? If it’s an independant person broadcasting their own live stream, surely thats nothing to do with the license!
Thanks for all the helpful info here. Having been a regular payer of the fee for donkey’s years, I feel the time has come to resist. If the BBC is funded from the license fee, they probably need a plan B pretty soon.
My question though, is as follows.. once cancelled, how do they even know what you’ve watched? I’m not suggesting one should cancel and continue to watch live TV channels, I’m sure most of us want to cancel because we don’t, but I am curious to know, in the unlikely event you stumbled across something and briefly watched, how would they even know? If you just watch Netflix or YouTube, it seems to me neither party can prove it either way?
I take the main point in not entering into any dialogue with them, I’m just curious to know if they know what you’re actually watching?
i am opting out of paying a t v licence only watch netflix
A lot of their funding comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. No conflict of interest there.
Aerials, I wish to cancel and no longer watch LIve TV.
I have a rooftop aerial and coaxial cables already wired to my living room.
I wont be removing them but just wont be using them, i assume its not an issue.
Like its not a license to have an aerial or cable.. I just wont be plugging it into the TV.. fair enough?
I got I in touch with the license line and I was kept on the phone for 35 minutes before I put the phone down in frustration and I want a refund I have still not received my application form to stop direct debits
What I have never understood is the TV ‘licence’ – which is paid to the BBC. If I have a TV but never watch BBC broadcasts on TV ONLY, then I should not need a ‘TV Licence’.
If I receive any other BBC programmes – apart from BBC TV – then again, surely I do not need a licence . . . . a Television Licence.
Finally pulled the plug on them. Should have done it years ago, as I never watch or listen to their lefty Establishment garbage. And like many people nowadays, I genuinely don’t watch live TV anymore. Btw, the call to them was simple. Even got offered a refund.
is there anything you can watch without paying for the tv licence,i dont waych live tv anyway what is live tv
Cancelled my direct debit a few days ago then went on to their email and said I no longer needed a licence. Had a reply today asking for what reason, I haven’t replied and also received a BBC have your say email. A coincidence? I think not… straight in the bin
I cancelled my licence successfully at the beginning of last year, stopped watching tv a couple of months before that. Today I’ve received an email from the BBC asking me to fill out a survey. They claim I ‘used’ my ‘account’ recently – utter LIARS. It’s impossible to unsubscribe from their emails unless you ‘sign into your account. Crafty and underhand. Any suggestions to stop these creeps emailing me?
I am eighty-two [82] years old, registered blind with just 22% vision in one eye. I received mail from TVLA marked “To The Legal Occupier”. I returned the mail with a sticker, NO CONTRACT – RETURN TO SENDER. A couple of weeks later I receiver another envelope from TVLA and this one was returned marked RETURN TO SENDER – NO CONTRACT. Illegal, unsolicited mail. The next one was returned with the same label. The fourth one was returned with a ‘Fee Schedule’ attached, pointing out that any further, unsolicited mail would have to have the fee attached [fees were in Gold sovereigns]. No fee, no response, no loss of honour. I also complained to the Procurator Fiscal about threatening behaviour, complete waste of time and effort, seems they are both paid out of the same pot. IT SEEMS THAT I AM NOW SCHEDULED FOR A VISIT. I do not watch television, either live or dead, trying to watch any flickering movement causes me problems, so don’t they have to prove their claim???
I actually got rid of the TV entirely years ago. I only use the Internet now with large screen / monitor. I barely watch anything ‘live’
The TV goons came round one summer and I let them in immediately and showed them round. The bloke looked disappointed and asked why we didn’t have a TV so I asked him to write on the form that “the BBC has become a propaganda channel for the right wing Tories” and I don’t want brain washing thanks. He wrote it down whilst smiling. They have never been back in years.
And I have never looked back, life improved massively – recommend it to everyone!
Set yourself Free!!!
A point about TV Detector Vans. There’s now no such thing. The old Detector Vans used a techology which was also used by the west’s spy agencies, known as ‘TEMPEST’, although TEMPEST was far more advanced, it was still the same base tech. It relied on the fact old TV’s , by use of large voltages emit large electromagnetic fields (radio waves) that can be picked up, and from the frequencies emitted, it can be deduced what you are watching. The technology was used to spy on the Russian Embassy computers in London in the 1990’s. Televisions made to day do not use high voltages, and do not therefore emit the same detectable radio waves, and so the TEMPEST based tehcnology does not work on them. How many Detector Vans were there? Well I was a Radio Ham in the 60’s – 80’s. I saw inside a van when i was a teen, and recognised the equiment. So thats one van. Twenty years later, i peeked inside another van, and it was empty. It had no radio equipment inside. I have always thus been of the view they had maybe two or three actual working vans, and a lot of empty vans as a bluff.