TV Licensing, the BBC's loathsome revenue generation arm, routinely bully non-viewers into paying the £145.50 TV licence fee.
The BBC knows fine well the underhand tactics employed by its TV Licensing contractors, but it simply doesn't care as long as the money keeps rolling in - money to piss against the wall, but that's by the bye.
Current legislation requires that a TV licence is obtained for any property where:
- Equipment is installed or used to receive (e.g. watch or record) TV programmes at the same time as they are broadcast to other members of the general public;
- Equipment is installed or used to receive (e.g. watch or download) on-demand programme services provided by the BBC.
You would think, understandably, that if you don't legally need a TV licence - as millions of people genuinely don't - then you simply don't bother to buy one.
That should be the end of the matter, but it isn't. TV Licensing's mentality is such that any property without a valid TV licence is harbouring an evader; anyone claiming not to need a TV licence is a liar.
TV Licensing aggressively pursues these legitimately licence-free folk by sending them regular threat letters and occasional cold-callers. By the BBC's own admission more than 80% of people claiming not to need a TV licence are telling the truth, yet everyone without a licence gets tarred with the same evader brush.
People unfamiliar with TV Licensing's Gestapolike modus operandi wrongly assume that there is legal substance to its threats. There isn't. Anyone who doesn't legally need a TV licence is under no obligation at all to TV Licensing. They do not need to confirm anything to TV Licensing. TV Licensing is not legally entitled to know anything about them, despite its pseudo-official bullshit to the contrary.
TV Licensing thrives on the fact that people believe its hollow threats and absorb its misinformation. Get informed and flip TV Licensing the bird.
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I Don't stream Beeb on demand services, and I rarely watch BBC (Sport only). As soon as our license expires, I am not renewing it. I will happily head to the pub to catch any sport and stick to streaming Netflix and amazon.
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