As sure as night turns into day, the new university year heralds a storm of TV Licensing bullshit and bluster about the number of naughty students caught evading the TV licence fee.
Unfortunately for TV Licensing, the coronavirus pandemic kind of put a dampener on their enforcement activities in the last year. That said, if you believe everything TV Licensing says, which you certainly should not, then somewhere in the region of 25,000 students a year are caught evading the TV licence fee.
To redress the balance we are republishing our own student guide to TV licence rules. Remember that our Quick Guide page, which is regularly updated, also contains a wealth of information that students might find of interest.
About TV Licensing:
The BBC is the statutory TV Licensing Authority, which is legally responsible for the administration and enforcement of the TV licence system. The BBC does not undertake TV licence functions in its own name, but instead contracts a series of private companies to fulfill the role. These companies operate under the smokescreen of TV Licensing, but make no mistake that the BBC is in charge.
The major contractor is Capita Business Services Ltd, which is responsible most of TV Licensing's customer interaction. Capita employees conduct visits to unlicensed properties and gather the evidence needed to prosecute TV licence evaders. Capita, which has shareholders to satisfy, makes no secret of the fact that it manages TV Licensing as a sales operation. Like most sales operations, it seeks to maximise revenue by whatever means it can. Capita employees, who earn close to the minimum wage, receive attractive bonuses for selling TV licences and catching evaders. This partly explains why some Capita employees behave is such an aggressive and dishonest manner when they visit people's homes (see an example of TV Licensing doorstep intimidation).
A separate contractor, currently Proximity London Ltd, is responsible for sending menacing TV Licensing letters to unlicensed properties. Proximity were sacked from an earlier contract for printing lies in TV Licensing letters, but the BBC saw fit to reappoint them.
TV Licence Rules:
There are three general situations that a student might find them self in:
- Situation 1: Their property does not legally require a TV licence at all.
A TV licence is only needed for those properties where equipment is used to receive TV programmes at the same time as they are broadcast on a normal TV channel or, from 1st September 2016, on-demand programmes via the BBC iPlayer.
A TV licence is not legally needed for the following:
- Watching DVDs.
- Watching content that has been previously downloaded from the web.
- Watching non-live, on-demand content on video sharing sites like YouTube.
- Watching non-live, on-demand programmes on platforms other than the BBC iPlayer.
- Watching non-live, on-demand content on subscription services like Netflix.
- Mere ownership of TV receiving equipment does not require a TV licence. It is perfectly legal to own a TV set without a licence, as long as it isn't used to receive TV programmes. Similarly it is perfectly legal to own an internet-enabled computer without a licence, as long as it isn't used to navigate to "live" broadcast TV programmes or BBC iPlayer on-demand programmes.
- Situation 2: They are already covered by a TV licence.
A student temporarily living in rented accommodation (e.g. a hall of residence or student property) is already covered to receive TV programmes on an unplugged device, as long as their non-term time address is covered by a valid TV licence. An unplugged device is something powered by its own internal battery and without an external aerial (e.g. a mobile phone or unplugged laptop/tablet receiving data via a wireless web connection). This rule is very useful and we consider that most students could adjust their viewing habits to benefit from it.
If the university provides a TV in a hall of residence communal area, then that is normally covered by the university's own TV licence.
- Situation 3: They need to obtain a TV licence.
If a student wishes to install (e.g. plug in a mains and aerial lead) equipment to receive TV programmes or BBC iPlayer programmes in their own self-contained rented room then they will need to obtain a TV licence.
The rules on shared student accommodation are more complicated. Read our earlier article about multiple occupation of student properties.
Your Rights
Anyone who does not legally require a TV licence is under no obligation to communicate or co-operate with TV Licensing. They do not legally need to confirm their no-TV status and it will probably be a wasted effort if they do. We recommend that anyone in this situation ignores TV Licensing entirely.
Remember that TV Licensing employees work for a BBC contracted company called Capita Business Services Ltd. They are simply salespeople with no special legal rights. According to TV Licensing’s own policies their employees must:
- Show their ID on request.
- Behave in a polite and courteous manner at all times.
- Leave immediately if the occupier of the room/property asks them to.
- Never threaten the use of a search warrant or the police.
It is important to note that TV Licensing has no special rights of access to any property. It relies heavily on the fact that most people mistakenly believe it does. If a TV Licensing goon calls at a property and the occupier tells them to leave then they must do so, save for the most exceptional of circumstances where they have a search warrant (which they never, ever will on a first visit).
Furthermore, despite TV Licensing's pretence to the contrary, no university would ever grant access to student rooms in the absence of the occupants. Doing so would leave that institution financially liable for any loss or damage incurred, not to mention the instant distrust such an unlawful action would attract.
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