You may legally cancel your BBC TV licence and minimize your invoice to £0 in the event you match the circumstances.
TV licence: A have a look at reforms made to charge in 2022
TV licence prices will rise one other £5.50 from Tuesday, April 1, taking the BBC tax for reside TV to £180 per yr.
However many individuals do not realise, particularly within the wake of the streaming revolution, that there are a number of authorized methods to keep away from paying for a TV licence which may prevent the complete cost.
Providers 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.
From April 1, 2026 the TV licence, which is used to fund BBC TV companies in addition to another public service capabilities like Welsh channel S4C, is ready at £180 per yr, or about £15 a month on Direct Debit, the federal government has introduced this morning.
If you happen to watch Match of The Day or Strictly Come Dancing then you definately’re out of luck – however there are numerous different eventualities the place you may legally put off it – and it isn’t simply relevant to college students.
What can I legally watch with out a TV licence?
A typical false impression is that TV licences are solely wanted to observe BBC content material. Many will remark saying issues like ‘oh properly I do not watch something on the BBC so I needn’t pay’. This can be a delusion, and guidelines on streaming platforms had been modified some years in the past. However there are many methods you may watch TV with out a TV licence.
A TV licence is a authorized requirement in the event you do any of those:
- watch or document TV on any channel by way of any TV service (equivalent to Sky, Virgin, Freeview, Freesat)
- watch reside 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 the event you reside in a home with a number of folks, you do not all want a TV licence until your rooms are counted as separate addresses. Put merely, one shared tackle equals one licence, so a gaggle of scholars all residing below one roof can break up the price, however in the event you reside 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 isn’t 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 accordance with current experiences, 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 reside content material. E.g. you may watch Drive To Survive, Stranger Issues, Ted Lasso or Clarkson’s Farm with out a TV licence, completely legally. However in the event you stray over to watching a reside Premier League sport on that very same Amazon Prime sub, you may want a licence.
- Because the TV Licensing says: “It is advisable be coated by a TV Licence to observe programmes reside on any on-line TV service – equivalent to ITVX, Channel 4, Amazon Prime Video, Now or Sky Go. You don’t want a TV licence in the event you solely ever watch on-demand programmes on any TV service aside from BBC iPlayer.”
- LIVE is not only reside as in a reside match, however in the event you watch Coronation Avenue because it’s being broadcast ‘reside’, you want a TV licence. Nevertheless, in the event you watch an ITV or Channel 4 present on catch-up later, you do not want a licence for that.
Checklist of those that get a Free or discounted TV Licence:
- State pensioners can apply for a free TV licence if they’re aged over 74 and obtain Pension Credit score. Any family which has a state pensioner on Pension Credit score residing in it may possibly get a free TV licence for the complete family.
- Blind folks can get a reduced TV licence. If you’re legally blind, you will get a cut-price TV licence at 50% off, which is £84.75.
- Black and white TV licences nonetheless exist. When you have a really outdated TV solely in black and white, you may nonetheless get a black and white TV licence for £60.50
- In any other case, it is simply those that DON’T EVER watch any reside TV, or BBC iPlayer both reside or on catch up, together with streaming reside TV (equivalent to reside soccer or reside boxing).
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