My TV hasn’t been switched on for months, I’ve watched no more than 10 hours in the last year (mostly around 9/10 actually).
I got a letter from TV licensing asking for £100+ for another year of having a TV sat under a table so I’m getting rid of it (it’s an old portable 9" TV).
I have a VCR and a self of DVD’s and VHS cassettes. I’m not getting rid of these, someday I will invest in a big TV/projector for watching movies on.
If an inspector came (as they’ve said they will if I tell them I do not have a telly) and sees I have videos - can I be fined?
I think not, as I won’t have ‘TV recieving equipment’ - They can’t get me on circumstantial evidence can they?
The license is for any device that receives TV signals and either records or displays them. So if you have no TV but still have a video recorder then you’re still liable for the fee.
Just having video cassettes and DVDs does not mean you have to pay. If you had a DVD player and a projector that could not receive TV transmissions then I think you’d be exempt.
Have a look at www.tvlicensing.co.uk. If all else fails ring the number on that site and ask them. I’m sure they’re good people and wouldn’t stick your name on the “trying to avoid paying” list and harass you into an early grave.
Maybe I live under a rock, but I never knew that in the UK you need a licensce for a TV (or eqiupment for recording TV). I noticed something odd on that page though. Why is it that students don’t need a licensce for a TV that is powered soley by it’s own batteries? Why is that any different?
It’s not so much as a TV tax (in theory, at least), more as a way to pay for BBC channels and radio stations away so that they can produce high-quality broadcasting away from short-term commercial pressures. Well, that’s the theory anyway.
Most European countries have similar set-ups to finance PBS services. Some of them have limited advertising on their publicly-funded stations, some (like the BBC) have no advertising.
To address the OP, I don’t think you’d need to sell your VCR - just box it away out of view. As long as it’s not switched on the licensing people would have no way of knowing you had it. They tend to make housecalls to people who are on their “no licence” list and where the monitoring equipment shows a receiver is currently operating.
On the off chance that they called by anyway and saw your tapes you could tell the truth about not have a TV - there’d be no circumstantial evidence to contradict you.
What about computers? If you have a TV tuner on your PC, can you get away with it? Or will the TV detector man insist on searching your computer for a tuner?
Yes you do need a licence to watch TV on your PC. I don’t know anyone who has a TV tuner card but no TV, but there has been some controversy over the fact that people can use such devices to watch BBC programming outside of the UK without buying a UK TV licence.
The TV detector equipment is installed in a van that drives round your neighbourhood periodically and can detect tuner activity from the street - including channel recognition and an estimate of which room the set is in. There have already been some threads here about it (I’ll have a search for them if you like).
A few years ago ( when VCRs were expensive ) you could buy a device which would play your pr-recorded tapes but did not have a TV tuner or recording facility. If you could get hold of one of them you would not need a licence. I doubt if you can buy new models of these because VCRs are so cheap now that they all come with a tuner. The other possibility is to disable the tuner in your present VCR .
It’s a cut-off point for the odd genuinely portable TVs you get, which are covered by the domestic license of the owner (or, in the case of students, the owner’s parents). If I’m wandering the streets with my 2" battery-powered LCD-screen pocket TV, I’m licensed to receive broadcasts on it, because I pay for the license for my home address. (I guess students get this little loophole because they’re supposedly still partially dependent on their parents.)
Dunno if the terminology is the same in the States, but over here a “portable” TV is a mains-powered appliance that’s somewhat smaller than a normal set (14" rather than 20" screen, that sort of thing). A standard “portable” wouldn’t get the exemption. Something that’s “portable” in the sense that you can carry it around with you, on the other hand, would. (Obviously, such devices have to be battery powered. Or have a really long extension cord.)
Recent TV licensing advertisments (adverts! on the BBC) seem to imply that students do require a TV licence (although under what conditions was not mentioned).
They do if they have mains-powered sets… nothing new about that, I got the standard warning about this when I moved into the university halls of residence back in 19coughcoughcough.
The web site mentioned above doesn’t have all the fine print. You CAN have a TV and VCR without paying a fee, you just have to send them a letter basically saying “yes, I have a TV, but I promise not to use it to receive broadcasts”.
I agree Mangetout, declaring that you aren’t actually using your TV would almost guarantee a visit from the van. Actually, you are even supposed to fill in a form for them even if you don’t have a TV at all. I’ve never had a TV, and have never sent in the form, so get mail from them regularly. Sometimes it’s clever stuff disguised as advertising, other times it’s heavy handed “pay up or we’ll be kicking in your door” type letters. I’m still waiting for the visit.
