TV Licensing - Equipment

What TV equipment can be used?

The TV equipment that a person can have installed at their home will differ depending on whether or not that person has a TV licence.

A person does not require a TV licence simply to own a television.

However, many people do not realise that it is an offence to merely “install” a television receiver for use in viewing or recording live broadcast TV.

What makes a television installed?

A television is considered to be “installed” for viewing or recording live broadcast TV if it is connected to cables that are linked to either a TV aerial or a satellite dish at the other end of the same cables.

What should be done with TV equipment?

The following are the bare minimum, required steps that can be taken to “deinstall” all televisions in a household that does not have a TV licence.

1. Remove all TV Aerial and Satellite cables between the wall sockets and the television and place them well beyond practical use.

2. Remove all equipment such as satellite boxes that are designed solely to receive live TV signals from the TV unit and place them well beyond practical use.

3. Detune the television by issuing a reset after the cables have been removed so that any existing channel listing is wiped clean.

The following are additional steps that can be taken in order to help in avoiding any accusations of viewing live TV in a household that does not have a TV licence.

4. Replace any TV aerial or satellite wall socket plug plates with gang blanking plates to prevent live TV cables being being plugged in and connected to the TV aerial or satellite dish.

5. Sometimes there are no TV wall sockets in place. Instead there is a loose TV aerial or satellite cable terminating in a female connector socket. These female sockets can be removed and any spare cable rolled up and placed away from or underneath the TV unit.

Steps 4 and 5 are optional and can be carried out at the discretion of the householder if they so wish.

How to detune a TV of live channels

To detune your TV set of live TV channels, use one of the following two methods:-

• Go into the TV menu system and perform a “Factory Reset”.
• Remove the aerial cable then go into the TV menu system and run the channel finding function. No channels will be found which should effectively clear your TV or any tuned live channels.

Be sure to test your TV after detuning it to ensure that no live TV channels can be viewed.

What is the ideal TV setup?

The ideal TV setup for a household that does not have a TV licence is any one of the below examples:-

1. A Smart TV and a Broadband Internet Connection.

2. A Standard TV, an On-Demand TV Stick or Box and a Broadband Internet Connection.

3. A large PC Monitor, an On-Demand TV Stick or Box and a Broadband Internet Connection.

Ideally, there would be no other equipment on the TV stand other than that mentioned above. This helps to avoid any suggestion that you are illegally viewing live TV through a TV receiver.

What about DVD players and games machines?

You are allowed to watch DVDs and play video games without a TV licence so DVD players and games machines are fine and legally safe to have installed. Be sure that games machines are not set up to view or record live TV or BBC iPlayer.

Where to purchase on-demand TV viewing equipment?

You can purchase On-Demand TV Sticks and On Demand Android Boxes on retail websites such as Amazon.

Smart TVs and PC Monitors can be purchased from online retailers such as Currys PC World and Argos.

Some helpful web inks:-

• Amazon.co.uk - Fire TV Sticks
• Amazon.co.uk - NowTV Sticks
• Amazon.co.uk - Android TV Boxes
• Currys PC World - Smart TVs
• Currys PC World - PC Monitors
• Argos - Smart TVs
• Argos - PC Montors

What about BBC iPlayer?

It is against the law to access, view or download from BBC iPlayer without a TV licence.

Some Smart TVs and On-Demand TV Sticks and Boxes come with the BBC iPlayer app pre-installed and on some models the app cannot be removed.

Be sure to delete any existing BBC iPlayer accounts on the BBC website. Any BBC iPlayer apps that cannot be deleted can then simply be ignored and never used. The BBC iPlayer app cannot be used without an online BBC account so not having an account at all prevents accidental access.

Further reading

Thank you, TV Licence Bible, for making my life a lot easier. I was fairly sure I didn’t need a TV Licence but wasn’t confident as to my legal position after cancelling. Thank you so much for all the great information.

Mina Hammond

North London