A Brief Guide to the TV Licence

Television viewers in the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and Channel Islands fund the national broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), via the TV licence fee.

In today's article I shall delve into the finer details of TV licence legislation.

This is a very contentious subject with strong opinions both in favour and against the TV licence. I am going to try to write this piece in as factual and balanced a manner as I can.

There are two important pieces of legislation that I will refer to throughout this piece:

• Communications Act 2003 ("the Act");
• Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 (as amended to date)("the Regulations").

For the purposes of the legislation the definitions of "television receiver", "using a television receiver" and "installing a television receiver" are very important, so I shall address those points further.

Unfortunately there is a fair bit of jargon in the legislation. In an effort to overcome that, I shall conclude the article with a jargon busting summary in the simplest possible terms. Some readers might find it easier to skip straight to that summary.

Setting the scene:

By way of scene setting, I should begin by saying that the BBC is the statutory Licensing Authority by virtue of the powers transferred to it by the Broadcasting Act 1990. This means that the BBC has full legal responsibility for the collection, administration and enforcement of the TV licence.

The BBC performs this statutory function under the name of TV Licensing. The BBC contracts several companies to fulfill its TV licence duties. Capita holds the BBC TV Licensing operations contract, which encompasses the majority of customer-facing TV Licensing administration and enforcement work.

Capita, acting on the BBC's authority, is responsible for the investigation, apprehension and prosecution of alleged TV licence evaders.

Despite its many TV Licensing contracted companies, the BBC retains full legal responsibility for every act or omission made in the name of TV Licensing.

The BBC has determined that all TV Licensing prosecutions in England and Wales proceed via the Single Justice Procedure.

In a lot of cases those accused of TV licence evasion fail to respond to the SJP Notice, which means the case is determined entirely on TV Licensing's evidence. Very few cases are contested, which invariably means there is a high conviction rate.

That might be a focus of discussion in a future article.

Definition of a television receiver:

For reasons that will become apparent, the definition of a television receiver is very important.

Regulation 9 of the Regulations defines a television receiver as any apparatus installed or used for the purpose of receiving (whether by means of wireless telegraphy or otherwise):

(a) any television programme service, or

(b) an on-demand programme service which is provided by the BBC,

whether or not the apparatus is installed or used for any other purpose.

Definition of using a television receiver:

Section 368(3) of the Act states that using a television receiver means references to using it for:

(a) receiving all or part of any television programme, or

(b) receiving all or any part of a programme included in an on-demand programme service which is provided by the BBC,

and that reference to the provision of an on-demand programme service by the BBC is to be read in accordance with section 368R(5) and (6).

Definition of installing a television receiver:

The terms install, installing and installation of a television receiver are not specifically defined within the legislation, so can be taken at their literal (dictionary definition) meaning of: setting up ready for use.

Licence required for use of a television receiver:

Section 363(1) and (2) of the Act makes it an offence for a person to install or use a television receiver unless the installation or use is covered by a TV licence.

Subsection (3) is a bit unusual in that it makes it an offence for a person in possession or control of a television receiver to intend to install or use it without being covered by a TV licence. It also makes it an offence for them to know, or have reasonable grounds to believe, that another person intends to install or use the television receiver without it being covered by a valid TV licence. Quite how either of those offences can be proved is beyond me.

Subsection (4) states that a person guilty of an offence under subsections (2) or (3) is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1,000).

Subsection (5) states that subsection (1) is not contravened by a television dealer (e.g. someone who sells or lets television receivers) installing a television receiver on delivery, or demonstrating, testing or repairing a television receiver.

TV licences:

Section 364, which I shall not be going into any detail about, gives further details about the format, validity and conditions of a TV licence.

TV licence fees:

Sections 365 and 365A which I shall not be going into any detail about, gives further details about fees payable for a TV licence.

Enforcement powers:

Section 366, which I shall not be going into any detail about, gives further details about enforcement of the TV licence.

Jargon busting summary:

In short, if you do any of these things:

• Install any device, so it is ready to watch or download "live" broadcast TV programmes on any channel; or
• Use any device to watch or download "live" broadcast TV programmes on any channel; or
• Install any device, so it is ready to watch or download on-demand programmes which are provided by the BBC; or
• Use any device to watch or download on-demand TV programmes which are provided by the BBC,

then legally it should be covered by a valid TV licence.

In practice, it is properties that are covered by a TV licence and not individuals. A TV licence covers anyone within the property to do any of the things listed above.

"Live" broadcast, in this sense, means at the same time as it is broadcast to the wider public, or virtually the same time (e.g. receiving the programme with a time lag of a few seconds).

This includes TV channels that are "live" streamed on the web (e.g. Sky News Live on YouTube) and scheduled "live" streamed programmes on subscription services like Amazon Prime (e.g. football matches).

Time-shifted channels (e.g. Channel 4+1, Channel 5+1 etc) are still considered "live", as they are broadcasting their content "live", albeit at a different time to the regular channel.

A TV licence is not required for:

• Watching or downloading on-demand content provided by someone other than the BBC (e.g. YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix etc);
• Installing or using a soundbox (e.g. a device that only allows reception of television audio and not images);
• Using a device, including a television set, solely for the purposes of receiving or downloading radio stations or programmes (e.g. digital radio stations received via Freeview or Freesat).

Another slightly unusual quirk of the legislation is that no TV licence is needed to watch S4C on-demand programmes via the BBC iPlayer.