11 Plus Exams Forum

Quick heads up - anyone who watches BBC programmes on demand (iPlayer) will need a licence from September.

Argument is that rules haven't kept up with technology. Hopefully then they will also be updating the system for purchasing a licence so it's possible to get one for less than a year or at least to get a refund without producing mountains of official paperwork.

KB wrote:Quick heads up - anyone who watches BBC programmes on demand (iPlayer) will need a licence from September.

Argument is that rules haven't kept up with technology. Hopefully then they will also be updating the system for purchasing a licence so it's possible to get one for less than a year or at least to get a refund without producing mountains of official paperwork.

We've been paying for ours by monthly direct debit for years. Every so often the licensing people run an advertising campaign re the need to have a licence and the different ways of paying for it.

DS1 moved into a privately rented house with friends last month, one of whom is the 'organised' one. I shall check that this is one of the things he organised .

So if you didn't need it for a few months you could just stop the direct debit and then restart when you needed it again?

Sounds like the solution in that case.

KB wrote:So if you didn't need it for a few months you could just stop the direct debit and then restart when you needed it again?

Sounds like the solution in that case.

I don't know, because we have ours for home so need it all the time. There is something on the website about students going home for the summer, though.

Thanks Toadmum

Sadly they can only apply for a refund if there are at least 3 months left although the evidence is just an official university document showing term dates.

Re the monthly direct debit issue - you pay the first 6 months before the new licence is due and the last 6 months during the first 6 months of the licence so cancelling the direct debit wouldn't work.

Oh, don't get me started on this issue. The rules for TV licences in Uni accommodation really make me mad. At home, we have one licence. It covers everyone in our HOUSEHOLD. So everyone who lives behind our own front door. Doesn't matter if we are not all related by blood. Doesn't matter if some of us have a lock on our bedroom door. Doesn't matter how many TV's we have and in which rooms they are situated. One licence covers it all. Totally different rule for students in Uni accommodation. Most are arranged in groups of 4-10 bedrooms around a shared kitchen / lounge, maybe shared bathrooms too. So a front door they all use, but then locks on each individual bedroom. TV licence rules say they each need a separate licence if they watch BBC in their own room. Its a rip-off. A bedroom is NOT A HOUSEHOLD. Rant over

Actually, technically a bedsit (or rather its occupant(s)) could be a household, but I agree that as university accommodation normally has shared booking facilities, it is unfair (but of course lucrative) not to class the flat as the household unit. Slightly muddier waters with the traditional 'halls' type accommodation, though and I wonder whether the licensing authority has chosen not to catch up with the move away from that model?

Meantime, DS1 assures me that they have acquired a TV licence for their new abode, fortunately.

The website suggests that if you have a separate tenancy agreement then you need a separate licence, which I guess would cover anyone in university halls and many others in private rented accommodation at university.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-y ... tv-licence" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is usually a coomon room in halls where they can watch TV - no need to watch in their room anyway.

In my very limited experience of first year university students, traditional televisions now don't really seem to cross the radar... Pretty much everything is watched on a computer, tablet or phone and the line between live TV and 'on demand' has become very blurred!