[Three of Seven]

It has been announced that from the 1st of September, you will need a TV licence in order to watch recorded programmes on iPlayer, as oppose to previously where it only applied to live TV - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36942458

The move makes some sense as people were getting ad-free content without having to pay a fee of any sort, however I think adding a subscription model to iPlayer would work far more effectively and modernise the system a lot more. A basic subscription gives you recorded content and a premium subscription gives you live TV coverage.

[aceman67]

My Girlfriend lives in Liverpool, and when she explained how the TV licence works in the UK, I was literally left dumbfounded.

I find the idea of the government requiring a licence for an entertainment product to be just ludicrous.

Yes, I know it goes to help pay for the BBC and other things, but that still doesn't justify the audacity of a government having a say in what you should and should not have in your home, especially something has innocous as a television.

The government, in my opinion, has no right or say in if I want to have a television in my home.

This kind of thing wouldn't fly in Canada. If it did, every MP in country who supported it would have their constituencies calling for their heads.

[Three of Seven]

There is legislation in place that is supposed to keep the government out of the affairs of the BBC, the thing is, the content is nice because it's ad free. I don't want to sit through ads and I won't, if there's a programme on full of ads, I'll get bored and stop watching. I'll watch the BBC News channel over Sky News because the content is uninterrupted by ads, the news is pretty much the same anyway, most mainstream media is the same.

But the UK isn't alone in having a fee for a TV licence, other countries have them too (wiki page), just that in the UK, it's the BBC who are the ones in charge of collecting it.

Just a tax really.

[Minnow Raydor]

Have never agreed with the TV licence that is forced onto people over just two or three channels and to a company that supplys unrelated content that peeks my interests or that of our local interests.

That being said the loop hole I used years ago and have to restate every few years is that I dont watch,record or listen to any UK Media be it from the TV,Radio or the internet. I have simply stated that I have a Xbox and use Netflix or Amazon for my media needs while that is part true most is illegal and am not proud of that but none of it is from the UK so that part is true.

So if you only use on demand content from another country then you dont have to pay.

[Infinity]

There is legislation in place that is supposed to keep the government out of the affairs of the BBC, the thing is, the content is nice because it's ad free. I don't want to sit through ads and I won't, if there's a programme on full of ads, I'll get bored and stop watching. I'll watch the BBC News channel over Sky News because the content is uninterrupted by ads, the news is pretty much the same anyway, most mainstream media is the same.

But the UK isn't alone in having a fee for a TV licence, other countries have them too (wiki page), just that in the UK, it's the BBC who are the ones in charge of collecting it.

Just a tax really.

While we're on the topic of Ads, I can barely watch Channel 4 content online now since they stuck ads on their content. It's quite annoying :/

It's definitely a shame that BBC iPlayer is changing though. It was good while it lasted.

[Intrepid]

In all seriousness this is going to become very difficult to enforce.

As it stands if you decide to let them in your home (which you shouldn't) they can look to see if you have a tuned tv / aerial / sky box etc which can provide them with enough evidence to take you into court.

Problem now becomes if you let them in your home (no, really... don't let them in) and they say "aha you have a laptop and the internet.." there is no way they can tell if you have been on iPlayer without having some sort of remote tracking - so unique network traffic, or asking your ISP or some sort of username / password system linked to a TV licence.

Either way it looks like potentially more invasive enforcement both online and offline for content which is frankly... terrible.