You’ll be able to legally cancel your BBC TV licence earlier than it goes as much as £180 this April and reduce your invoice to £0 in case you meet sure circumstances.
TV licence: A have a look at reforms made to payment in 2022
The BBC TV licence payment is about to rise once more, taking the brand new worth to £180 from this April.
The licence payment, which funds BBC TV and radio programmes in addition to public curiosity broadcasting like Welsh channel S4C, will go up in April, it has been confirmed as we speak by the federal government’s Division for Tradition, Media and Sport.
The price of an annual TV licence will rise by £5.50, on account of the inflation-based mannequin which determines worth rises.
Whereas many households gladly pay it to get their Strictly Come Dancing or Match of the Day repair, many others are realising that they need not pay it any extra for the forms of content material they watch and might legally cut back their invoice to £0.
Companies like Netflix, ITVX, YouTube, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video have seen the TV content material panorama shift away from sitting down in entrance of a scheduled programme to easily hitting the button everytime you’re prepared to observe one thing.
Individuals have been value slicing after one other value of residing disaster hit us with excessive inflation, mortgage will increase and ever-spiralling payments – so it is sensible to test whether or not you actually do want a TV licence or not.
In case you watch Match of The Day or Strictly Come Dancing then you definitely’re out of luck – however there are lots of different situations the place you’ll be able to legally get rid of it – and it isn’t simply relevant to college students.
What can I legally watch with out a TV licence?
A standard false impression is that TV licences are solely wanted to observe BBC content material. Many will remark saying issues like ‘oh effectively I do not watch something on the BBC so I need not pay’. It is a fable, and guidelines on streaming platforms had been modified some years in the past. However there are many methods you’ll be able to watch TV with out a TV licence.
A TV licence is a authorized requirement in case you do any of those:
- watch or document TV on any channel through any TV service (akin to Sky, Virgin, Freeview, Freesat)
- watch stay content material on streaming companies (e.g. ITVX, Channel 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now, Sky Go)
- use BBC iPlayer in any respect
TV licences are per home, not per particular person, although.
This implies in case you stay in a home with a number of folks, you do not all want a TV licence except your rooms are counted as separate addresses.
Put merely, one shared deal with equals one licence, so a gaggle of scholars all residing below one roof can break up the associated fee, however in case you stay in a separate flat with its personal entrance door, even inside a single home that is been break up into flats, you want your personal licence.
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A TV licence is just not wanted for some platforms (Picture: PA)
What you do not want a TV licence for:
- Watching DVDs or Blurays (sure, they nonetheless exist and in keeping with latest studies, gross sales are up as folks ditch costly streamers to return to constructing their very own collections)
- Watching Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV so long as it is NOT stay content material. E.g. you’ll be able to watch Drive To Survive, Stranger Issues, Ted Lasso or Clarkson’s Farm with out a TV licence, completely legally. However in case you stray over to watching a stay Premier League recreation on that very same Amazon Prime sub, you may want a licence.
- Because the TV Licensing says: “It is advisable to be lined by a TV licence to observe programmes stay on any on-line TV service – akin to ITVX, Channel 4, Amazon Prime Video, Now or Sky Go. You don’t want a TV licence in case you solely ever watch on-demand programmes on any TV service aside from BBC iPlayer.”
- LIVE isn’t just stay as in a stay match, however in case you watch Coronation Road because it’s being broadcast ‘stay’, you want a TV licence. Nevertheless, in case you watch an ITV or Channel 4 present on catch-up later, you do not want a licence for that.
If you resolve that you do not want a TV licence, you’ll be able to’t simply not purchase one and name it a day. You need to declare to TV Licensing that you’re exempt – for instance if you realize for certain you’ll solely watch Netflix or non-live YouTube movies, or simply play PS5 however not watch TV.
The notorious ‘TV licence detection vans’ are regarded as a fable by many, however the TV Licensing web site claims: “We’ve a fleet of detector vans that may detect the usage of TV receiving tools at particularly focused addresses inside minutes.”
It provides: “We’ve a database of roughly 31 million licensed and unlicensed addresses. This tells us in case your deal with has a TV licence.
“All our visiting officers have entry to this database. This implies they’ll test in case you have a licence or not.
“In case you inform us that you do not want a TV licence, our officers should still go to you to verify this.”
So it is best to contact TV Licensing earlier than they arrive and knock in your door.
To eliminate your TV licence, in case you positively will not watch stay TV, go to the TV Licensing web site the place you have to to make a declaration that you simply both do not personal a TV or do not use it for any circumstances during which a TV licence is required.
State pensioners may also apply for a free TV licence if they’re aged over 74 and obtain Pension Credit score, additionally lowering your invoice to £0. The federal government confirmed as we speak that the free TV licence for over-74s on Pension Credit score will stay in place, as will reductions for many who are registered blind.
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