Reply With QuoteI'd think he will be plenty safe using your licence on phone/ipad/laptop, yes. Although I doubt he will have much time for this anyway if he is doing university properly :)
As of today the TV licensing rules have changed so you now need a TV licence to watch any BBC programmes on iPlayer on any device (live or catch up etc) and any streaming or smart TV service, website or app that lets you watch live TV over the internet. Popular services include BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, Channel 4 Watch Live, All 4, Sky Go, Virgin Media, Now TV, BT TV, Apple TV, YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube and Roku.
The TV licensing website is very clear about that.
However, If you’re using a mobile device powered solely by its own internal batteries – like a smartphone, tablet or laptop – you will be covered by your home’s TV Licence, wherever you’re using it in the UK and Channel Islands.
However, if you’re away from home and plug one of these devices into the mains and use it to watch or record live TV programmes on any channel or device, or to download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer, you need to be covered by a separate TV Licence at that address (unless you’re in a vehicle or vessel like a train, car or boat).
My son is off to university later this month and the further information they give is
Are students covered by a halls’ or parents’ licence?
A halls’ licence doesn’t cover students in their rooms. They won’t be covered by their parents’ licence either, unless they only ever use devices that are powered solely by their own internal batteries, and aren’t plugged into an aerial or the mains.
Irrespective of how they would police it, would I be right to think that he'd not need a licence to watch TV on his phone or laptop as long as the device was not plugged into the mains whilst he was watching it?
Last edited by Gyp; 1st September 2016 at 15:30. Reason: Making the title clearer
I'd think he will be plenty safe using your licence on phone/ipad/laptop, yes. Although I doubt he will have much time for this anyway if he is doing university properly :)
It's always been the case that students aren't covered by their parents license, so if son has a tv in his room, or a shared living room if a house share, then they need a license.Originally Posted by Gyp
Think it's also always been that you need a license to stream live BBC on a laptop or phone?
With this new rule, i read that as, he can watch on demand/downloaded bbc stuff on his laptop or phone, so long at they are not plugged in while he does it. But if you regularly watch tv on a laptop in your digs, it's gonna spend half it's time on charge isn't it, you're not gonna turn it off when the battery gets low, you'll just plug it in and keep watching, so strictly speaking, he needs a license
Brighty
Last edited by Brighty; 1st September 2016 at 15:39.
That's the sort of stupid, bad law that deserves to have every possible loophole identified and exploited. Or come to that, the sort of stupid, bad law that deserves to be ignored.
Completely agree that if he has a tv in his room, or a shared living room if a house share, then he needs a license (as it is only the licensed property that is covered).
Completely agree that you've always needed a license to stream live BBC on a laptop or phone.
Completely agree that if he plugs it in to keep watching it when the battery is low then he needs a license.
However, if he does restrict himself to battery only (and a couple of spare laptop batteries are a lot cheaper than a TV license) then I don't think he needs one.
I note youporn isn't on the list of streaming sites
That's how i read it, yep, crazy but true. In practice though, i doubt they will kick his door down the second he plugs his laptop in
Brighty
That's not what www.tvlicensing.co.uk says, see link:
If you think this is the case (that they are covered by your licence), please check that all the following are true...:
- They never watch or record programmes as they're being shown on TV or live on an online TV service
- AND never download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer – live, catch up or on demand
- OR they only do the above using a device that’s never connected to an aerial or plugged into the mains.
As I read that, it is not what's happening while he's watching iPlayer catch up or on demand, it's whether it's ever plugged into the mains. NB, it doesn't say "they only do the above using a device that is not connected to the mains. Note also that he'll need his own licence if he ever downloads or watches live...mains connected or not.
I wish them the best of luck enforcing that, cretins ! How would they begin to prove what you were watching on your tablet
It's the "never" that's the kicker.
So, if he always charges his phone with his Anker portable battery pack or a stand alone diesel generator, and has that disconnected when he's watching on-demand he's OK, but if he charges it from the mains, he's not.
Hmmm, i see what your saying, could take that either way. If that was the case, can you get an external charger to charge laptop batteries? Laptop need never then be plugged in. It only says 'never connected' not 'can never be connected', i.e something with disposable batteries
That's my reading...I tried to make it so that the never only applied to being connected to an aerial, but the sentence just doesn't work like that, however much I try.
Have you read about getting a 3 months refund for the long holiday?
Is he staying in university accommodation ? If so he will find certain websites are blocked on the network,perhaps even catchup TV channels now.
I found the Hola! VPN proved very useful for me when I was studying out of country this year where iPlayer and other websites were blocked. There is a free extension for Chrome browser. I'd recommend using a VPN regardless,there are loads.
Last edited by -Ally-; 1st September 2016 at 16:13.
Yes; I'm waiting until he gets into the accommodation at the start of October to discover quite what there is in terms of communal TV etc before dipping my hand in my pocket again. The uni accommodation has a licensed TV in the 6-person flat, but they're not covered in their rooms. I suggest he makes friends and they agree what to watch communally (or watches on his laptop in the same room as he often does at home now)
- - - Updated - - -
we have privateinternetaccess
He'll be fine :-)
Indeed.
I no longer have my 2 portable (analogue) TVs powered by AA batteries :-(
I know it's getting silly, but there would be nothing to stop you charging a battery from the mains and then using that battery to charge the laptop (perhaps using a mains inverter and the normal laptop PSU.
Or maybe a solar panel and a Tesla Powerwall...
I do (well, mine used 6 or 8 as I recall), but there's no signal anyway
M
This is completely unworkable in my opinion, what a ludicrous set of criteria to try to close a loophole in a business model that's no longer fit for purpose. I saw a tweet which was along the lines of, 'The BBC failed to detect a culture of sexual abuse within it's own organisation for decades; how in the hell are they going to detect me watching The Great British Bake Off on my iPad?'
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The TV licensing authorities do not have authority to seize PCs etc, so unless they come with a police officer and a warrant they're not going to get very far
How would they know if your phone was plugged in or not?
Total guff
Licence if in a shared house yes
If in halls would need one too how I see it if got a tv in room
If not - then wouldn't bother
Impossible to enforce
Just waiting on the normal British stance of doing what we are told
From what i have heard from friends, uni halls all get a letter stating they have no license and they need to pay, regardless of whether they do actually have one or not.
Does remind me that we'll have to have the conversation about getting ours in my shared uni digs in a few weeks.
it is a bit confusing, and we get a lot of questions from students about it (not that we have any idea!), though for the last few years the students I have met have had to buy their own (most have bloody Sky TV or Virgin Media!!)..but I wanted to add one minor thing, a tip halls and at uni...
"before I dip into my pocket". He's lucky you have him helping (I'd do the same) but just be aware, both the halls and the University will act and communicate - rightfully because it is law - directly with your son, without any consultation or information given to you. So, if something is not paid, or you son does something wrong (or, right!) you will not be contacted; letters, be they about finance, or results, will be specifically addressed to your son.
The single greatest tip I would ever give a student - from TV license and council tax to writing essays - is to read information given to them and make sure they take control of things themselves,because ultimately they themselves will be held accountable for it. It's boring amongst of the fun of 'freshers', but students should read carefully TnC's of stuff, especially their degree programme 'regulations'. Every degree has such a document and it should be freely available (it's HEFCE rules).
In a couple of years I expect most mobile devices won't have any plug in connectors on them and will be inductively (wireless) charged. Will the BBC have to re write the rules again?
Scrap the frikkin license and we'll make do with adverts then this load of nonsense becomes irrelevant.
One big fat hole in the new legislation....... You only need a license if watching TV live and "catch up" on the i-player.
If you watch itv, channel 4 or 5 on "watch again" you still do not require a license.
It's the sort of thing that our (less placid) Southern European cousins don't bother with, or have but just mass-ignore, and our (more enlightened) Northern European cousins either don't need or willingly accept - we're somewhere in between.
Quite.
This all seems unnecessarily complicated. Perhaps that's the idea. To create confusion.
If you don't use iPlayer, but you use YouTube to watch some uploaded BBC programmes via chromecast to a TV, would you need a licence?
Good idea, advertisers have never had any influence over the content of media.
I guess if you're feeling influenced by the content, you could always........switch it off ?
But then how would you know what to buy and what to think?
Just rock on down to Aldi with a blindfold on and lash whatever comes to hand, in the trolley.
Bit of a lucky dip type thing when you open your peepers.
TV licensing leaves a lot to be desired...particularly the enforcement side...from fake 'detector' equipment to the never ending stream of 'last chance' mail shots. I read an article that the only people they ever successfully prosecute are generally the people that buckle, a much higher proportion of women than men.
Then there is the ridiculous rules. In the military, a lot of guys are forced to work away from home, so they own a house somewhere else in the country and live in service accommodation Monday to Thursday nights. Under the ludicrous licensing rules, you can't use the licence for the TV you can't watch at home for a TV in your Mon-Thu service room. Daylight robbery!
Just ask here in the G&D of course.
F.T.F.A.
Where is Seamaster73 when we need him?
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Since iplayer etc... involves an app or programme running on the computer it's perfectly possible for said programme to interrogate the OS to see if it's mains or battery powered - other programmes already do this for different running modes.
Also note the rules don't restrict to just saying iplayer so the inference is ANY IPTV service whether the BBC or not!
I expect what will happen eventually is you'll have to type in your licence code and register the device with the service with so many devices per licence.
The rules don't specifically say iplayer or the bbc... could be any IPTV service!
On the document we downloaded for our works it didn't say iplayer or BBC it said IPTV so potentially this is for any channel or service. A bit like you need a licence at home even if you only watch ITV all the time.
Going back to post one...
"However, if you’re away from home and plug one of these devices into the mains and use it to watch or record live TV programmes on ANY channel or device"
Note 'ANY'
Last edited by solwisesteve; 2nd September 2016 at 07:29.
So if you watch any BBC content, no matter how old, no matter what the transmission mechanism, you now need a licence.
That's quite a step from just needing a licence to watch live BBC programming on iPlayer.
Specifically (link):
(a) any television programme service, or
(b) an on-demand programme service which is provided by the BBC
So those in our office that were watching cricket on the SKY IPTV service have been told to stop!
Yep. It's what bureaucrats are best at.
Funny how they can rush in a new law that fills their trough very quickly indeed. Can't fix a pothole, mind.
;-)
Watching it now , miles away from UK , have a licence.
That sums up what i posted previously in this thread...
For live/realtime tv and bbc iplayer you need a licence. For any other "on demand-catch up" tv not provided by the bbc you DO NOT NEED a license.
So is watching the bake-off a couple of days later streaming it off god-knows-where on Kodi from the costa del sol needing a licence then?
The form we downloaded yesterday from the TV Licensing web site makes no distinction between the bbc or any other provider. Nor does it distinguish upon how that service is supplied i.e. terrestrial, satellite or internet. In fact it says "watch or record television programmes as they are shown on TV - on any device including TV set, computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, games console, digital box....". The word BBC or iplayer isn't anywhere on the form.
Which is why this new approach and the Student Halls element is total nonsense because they can't actually monitor it. In fact a lot of what they claim they do, they neither do, nor could physically attempt.
Perhaps the form would have been better had it been worded "while they are being shown on TV".
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