anyone watch DvDs without a TV licence..?

Yardbent

Yardbent

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John
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haven't watched TV for months

but have a massive DvD film collection - all original [ no downloads nor copies]

anyone cancelled their TV licence without any bother....thanks..:D
 
I think they do a form now so you can tell them why you don't need one - in theory so they have a record and 'don't bother you' in future. Whether it works that way in practise is another matter! :LOL:

Never needed to myself as I do watch TV. Hopefully someone with first hand experience will be along shortly.
 
Not had a TV licence for 6 years.

I have a 42" plasma without a tuner card & only use it for watching DVDs.

Did get letters from TV Licencing threatening to come around to check but they never bothered.

Funny thing is though, I have never missed the TV !
 
It's crazy but you can legally watch iPlayer, etc. without a TV licence. As long as you don't watch live streams you're fine.
 
I lived in a cottage in Devon which was in a steep valley and couldn't receive a TV signal. I wrote to TV Licensing to explain and received a few threatening letters over the following months. I kept replying letting them know there was no way to watch live TV and eventually they gave up writing.
 
I didn't re-new last year, and still watch dvds on it. I seem to recall they made some noises about making sure the aerial was disconnected and not easily set up again. We've not had any bother.
Don't miss it one bit!
 
thank's all

will pull aerial plug...:D and write a letter/form
 
giantwolf said:
I think they do a form now so you can tell them why you don't need one - in theory so they have a record and 'don't bother you' in future. Whether it works that way in practise is another matter! :LOL:

Never needed to myself as I do watch TV. Hopefully someone with first hand experience will be along shortly.
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I can almost guarantee that they will hassle you, despite telling the tv licensing people that I had moved out of the house and that it was empty we still received their threatening letters through the post once every month. I have very little time for tv licensing because I do not like the way they operate, its all threatening letters and unsubstantiated claims, the only way they have to detect whether or not you need a tv license is that every house must have a tv license, the detection vans for example probably contain nothing!
 
To make life simpler for yourself alongside simply pulling the plug I would advise to cut the connector off as well, that was if they do pop round un announced it is going to be easier to say you really do not watch telly.
 
seashaker said:
To make life simpler for yourself alongside simply pulling the plug I would advise to cut the connector off as well, that was if they do pop round un announced it is going to be easier to say you really do not watch telly.
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You are under absolutely no obligation to let them into your house no matter what they say
 
i love the TV license jobsworths attitude, very similar to the idiots who came round to my house accusing me of not having a license, talked to me like I was filth, so I left them on the doorstep for 20mins before they called 'head office' to find out that I did have a TV license, they didn't even apologise.... hence my complete contempt for them.
 
seashaker said:
To make life simpler for yourself alongside simply pulling the plug I would advise to cut the connector off as well, that was if they do pop round un announced it is going to be easier to say you really do not watch telly.
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ziggy©;3861076 said:
You are under absolutely no obligation to let them into your house no matter what they say
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You don't have to cut plugs off anything. It's pointless. As Ziggy said - you do not have to let them in to your house. Nor are you required to have a licence to own a tv. A licence is required to watch tv broadcasts.
 
Well after initially writing to say "we've disposed of and won't be replacing our TV" we then got about 8 letters/renewal forms over a couple of years, the first few of which I wrote back on but then stopped having felt I'd met my obligations.

Eventually we had a knock on the door from a very scruffy bloke wearing a badge. Because we live in a cul de sac we knew he'd been in the road a few minutes before parking in front of ours.

I dragged him in and invited him to have a look round the house which he immediately declined so I'm convinced that he'd been scanning us electronically and had no authority to carry out a search.

Poor chap then had to stand there whilst my wife, who is usually very mild-mannered gave him a right telling off like a naughty schoolboy for accusing us of lying, losing our letters, looking scruffy and disturbing our evening meal.
 
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At one point I answered the door to a bloke from TV licensing, opening the door with the line "am I correct in thinking that you don't have a warrant?".

His face was priceless.

They send you arsey letters, which really need investigating imo - but there's no regulatory body for the TV licensing people.
In student flats with no TV, they've even gone as far as to send me a glossy leaflet titled 'what to do when we prosecute you for not having a tv license'.
 
you even get a threatening aggressive letter from them when you buy a tv for the house you live in and your name is not the one listed on the tv license, I replied back to that one informing them that there was no requirement for the person buying AV gear to actually hold a tv license, as long as there was a tv license holder at the same dwelling.

I think the TV license thugs are in the same boat as traffic wardens
 
i think tv license should stop. it's crazy!
i once got caught (i opened the door to them) when i was a student. they were polite and just gave me a form to hand in with payment when i promised i would pay.
 
Playing devils advocate for a moment here...

People complain about the quality of TV going downhill. Channels like the BBC used to lead the way in terms of ground-breaking, exciting and interesting television.

These days with so many other networks fighting for your attention, it's all the more important that the BBC continues to be funded. Paying a TV license covers the costs of the BBC as well as the infrastructure.

Boycotting TV and the TV license just results in your argument being right, "TV is crap". Without funding it will just continue to get worse.

Back to the main subject, as I've always understood it, the letter of the law, in terms of the TV license, has always been that if a device is capable of decoding a TV signal you should have a license. Whether you use it for that purpose is irrelevant as far as they are concerned.

My parents have a holiday home in France and had similar issues. They have a TV over there plugged into a DVD player for long evenings in the winter. There is no aerial anywhere - not even one on the roof. No cables to even plug the TV into to get live TV. Yet it took months of arguing with the authorities to get them to accept that we shouldn't pay a TV license as a) the house is only used for a small apart of the year and b) no live TV is ever watched/recorded there.
 
@ Justin

from the link quoted in Post#14

''No TV Licence is needed if you don't use any of these devices to watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV - for example, if you use your TV only to watch DVDs ''
 
JCoquillon said:
These days with so many other networks fighting for your attention, it's all the more important that the BBC continues to be funded. Paying a TV license covers the costs of the BBC as well as the infrastructure.

Boycotting TV and the TV license just results in your argument being right, "TV is crap". Without funding it will just continue to get worse.
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In recent months HMRC put out stories about non-payment of taxes and how schools and hospitals funding would suffer as a result. Here you are saying tv progs will suffer due to tv watchers not paying their licence fees. In both cases the money will feed all the snouts in the troughs, the expenses, the corruption, and the waste first before what is left filters down to where it is intended.

On the subject of arguing with the licencing people and trying to convince them why you don't need one......why bother? It's up to them to prove otherwise. After initially informing them, just ignore them totally and get on with your life.
 
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JCoquillon said:
Back to the main subject, as I've always understood it, the letter of the law, in terms of the TV license, has always been that if a device is capable of decoding a TV signal you should have a license. Whether you use it for that purpose is irrelevant as far as they are concerned.
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That is incorrect. You dont need a tv license if you dont use it to watch television programs. For example, you dont need a tv license to watch DVD movies on your own TV.

Have a look at this site http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/what-if-a-tv-licence-is-not-needed-top12/

The law states that you need to be covered by a TV Licence if you watch or record television programmes, on any device, as they're being shown on TV. This includes TVs, computers, mobile phones, games consoles, digital boxes and DVD/VHS recorders.

No TV Licence is needed if you don't use any of these devices to watch or record television programmes as they're being shown on TV - for example, if you use your TV only to watch DVDs or play video games, or you only watch programmes on your computer after they have been shown on TV. If this is the case, please let us know, as this helps us to keep our database up to date and means you won't receive the standard letters we send to unlicensed addresses.
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It is also possible that you might not need a TV license if you only watch pre-recorded programs - but dont quote me on that :)
 
jambosam said:
Let us know how you get on i will be doing exactly the same and just using iplayer. (y)
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the deed is done

1.....cancelled the licence on-line
they make it hard to find on their web-site IMO

they 'say' they wont send a letter for 2years
the 'state' they 'may visit to confirm'

that'll be a wasted journey.......:razz:
I'll show them the TV lead, coiled and tie-wrapped - then shut the door....:D

2...cancelled Direct Debit

3...applied for a refund

wait and see.............................................................:shrug:
 
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After I moved and politely pointed out that I have no need of a tv licence as I cant receive a signal in my new house, they wrote me an arsey letter , so i wrote an equally arsey one back pointing out that I didnt appreciate unjustfied threats and demanding an apology - they sent another arsey one which was more or less a duplicate of the first , so I send them a reply refering them to my last letter and saying if i did not recive an aplogy within 14 days I would take the matter up with their managers, and if necessary the consumer pages of the national press.

10 days later i received the most insincere apology on record - but they havent bothered me since :clap:
 
Their logo is clearly on every envelope they send. Saves time. Stick them straight into the bin and their attitude problem won't bother you and will provide ample kindling if you have an open fire :)
 
well........................

no threatening letter - so far

no knock on the door at 3am..........:D

AND....a nice rebate into my Bank of £72....................RESULT
 
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