How Will The Bbc Possibly Be Able To Enforce This?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37226030

This is what appears when you connect to BBC's iplayer.

Got a TV Licence?

You need one to watch any BBC programme on iPlayer - live, catch-up or on-demand. It's the law.

I have a TV licence.

I don't have a TV licence.

Which box do pensioners tick?

[jim360]

Everyone is over 18 on the internet, so I am going to go ahead and assume that this tick-box isn't the only thing the BBC have up their sleeves if they want to enforce this...

[Zacs-Master]

'we will simply use existing enforcement processes and techniques which we believe to be adequate and appropriate.'

[ummmm]

The I have a licence option.

It's the same when it comes up asking if you're 16. Like anyone wanting to watch a programme will click no.

[Peter Pedant]

you read the rules and then apply them....

OAPs have to pay for a licence
those over 75 get a free licence

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ53

and so you tick the one that says
I have a TV licence

..... unless you dont of course ....

[Mamyalynne]

It will be interesting to see how they enforce it above and beyond how they already do - I thought they may have gone down the PIN Number route.

[Zacs-Master]

mamya, a 'spokesman' said.....14.59

[ivor4781]

maybe get the isp from the internet suppliers who watching i player ? seems to expensive to check all that out.

[ivor4781]

sorry i mean ip addresses

[Mamyalynne]

Yes Zacs, I saw that - worded my response badly. I don't see how their current procedures can cover this new part of the rules.

[Gromit]

Rather worryingly, the BBC have equipment that can 'listen in' to your wifi, from outside your house, and detect if you are using iPlayer. It can then use the national data base of properties that have a tv license, and match it to your address.

An invasion of privacy?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/05/bbc-to-deploy-detection-vans-to-snoop-on-internet-users/

[Zacs-Master]

Probably articles like that which have led them to say 'we will simply use existing enforcement processes and techniques which we believe to be adequate and appropriate.'

[fiction-factory]

>maybe get the isp from the internet suppliers who watching i player

I am pretty sure that this would be a breach of confidentiality.

I doubt very much that detector vans will detect this- especially in blocks of flats or no-go' sensitive areas.

I think they are just relying on a fraction - maybe a quarter- of those who use iplayer but didn't have a TV/TV licence currently to elect to buy a licence. Even if only 500000 people buy a licence that's another 70 million a year income.

I think they are flogging a dead horse. A paid subscription/pin number would be better but we know people would share them or would find illegal ways to get it for free.

The licence fee is a tax on the honest watcher. So many now evade it I think it's a an unfair tax/revenue raiser. I wish they'd just accept that the BBC should be on subscription just like sky etc, but they won't because the transitional arrangements would lead to a short term revenue loss

[Gromit]

The BBC is the main way the Government (of either persausion) spreading its propaganda. The BBC is obliged by its charter to do news and current affairs programmes, which is really politician feeding their line to the masses. No Government is ever going to deny itself that useful tool by making it independent and commercial. It suits the Government to control the national broadcaster.

[bookbinder]

I have no TV set, never have had one, so I have no TV licence. I am over 75, anyway, so I wouldn't need to pay if I did have one. I occasionally watch BBC programmes on iPlayer, but now I have to have a TV licence to do that. I applied for one by email on the 13th of August, and I'm still waiting. It seems ironic, that, although I don't need a TV licence (because I'm over 75), I need a piece of paper to prove that I don't need a piece of paper.

[Old_Geezer]

There is a limit to what catching those freeloading is worth. If one spends £10x to catch, prosecute, and claim owed licence tax of £x then that's not worthwhile.

I suspect, like the detector vans, it's smoke and mirrors. Who's going to get permission from the legal industry (however/whoever it is obtained) to force the broadband suppliers to supply location and identity information on each suspected user, one at a time ?

It is so much easier to fund the national tv station from general taxation and stop all this expensive nonsense.

[jackthehat]

I don't believe they can.
As with TV Detector vans, the technology 'may' be there (although I doubt it) but translating that into successful prosecutions is a non-starter.

It'll still come down to door-knocking and catching people out that way.

[Gromit]

There are tv licence enforcement officers who regular visit homes that are not registered with a license. They now have a small device that can pick up the home owners wifi signal, and detect if an iplayer programme is being watched.

When the BBC streams a programme, it sends them out in small packets that have a unique sequence. The enforcement officer can see if any of these unique sequences are being transmitted by the router. If they are, and the household does not have a license, they can then take action. The enforcement officers already have permission to listen to your wifi router, no new legislation is needed.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm going to buy shares in lead wallpaper companies.

[jackthehat]

Notwithstanding that, gromit, I still maintain that it will be a challenge to translate that into successful prosecutions.

The sinister 'Detector Vans', despite their ability to determine in which room your TV was situated and which programme you were watching, were responsible for precisely '0' prosecutions....successful, or otherwise.

[Gromit]

JTH,
200,000 a year are caught. 3500 per week.