£14:95 pay-per-view.

jof · Nov 7, 2020

davidm said:
Assuming that you don't need a monstrous screen - a computer monitor and internet access will avoid the licence issue

This is correct, as long as you don't watch any live broadcasts.
I think you are OK (or you were at one point) if you only watched catch-up TV via online & not when it was being broadcast.
To be honest, the BBC iPlayer could require you to enter your license number as a way to ensure you have paid for its programs, but you can often get repeats of its older (but good) programs on other freeview channels.

Also has anyone else noticed that we have 80+ freeview channels, but they are full of crap & repeats.
The reality being that there isn't much more choice than when we used to have only 4 terrestrial channels

davidm · Nov 7, 2020

iPlayer just asks for a postcode and an email address. So if you're that way inclined very easy to get access w/o needing a licence.

Here in NZ I use a computer screen a Freeview box for local news, Netflix and a VPN for any overseas content

Binkei Huckaback · Nov 12, 2020

Yes, access to iPlayer without a license is easy. But then so is driving a vehicle without paying road fund license. Doesn't mean you should though.

Binkei Huckaback · Nov 12, 2020

Cwrw666 said:
The letter you get from the licensing people every couple of years specifically has a category of owning a TV but only using it for DVDs or as a computer monitor as a specific exemption.

I could wallpaper the entire house with all these letters we've had over the years.

I wish the BBC would stop using Crapita to collect the license. This is one of the reasons TV licensing gets a bad name.

davidm · Nov 12, 2020

Binkei Huckaback said:
Yes, access to iPlayer without a license is easy. But then so is driving a vehicle without paying road fund license. Doesn't mean you should though.

Well, if the BBC doesn't offer some kind of subscription service for Brits overseas...

My previous license payments and taxes will have already paid for BBC content produced before I left the UK

Binkei Huckaback · Nov 12, 2020

davidm said:
Well, if the BBC doesn't offer some kind of subscription service for Brits overseas...

My previous license payments and taxes will have already paid for BBC content produced before I left the UK

The fact you think you have the right to archive material merely because you have at some point paid for a TV licence is laughable. That's like saying you have a right to cheaper beer because you've drunk beer, p**ed it out and the resulting liquid is now beer again. You can't just magic up material from archives. It has to be researched, picked, possibly transferred to a playable format, maybe repaired, delivered, transferred to a server, played out to a device on which you can watch. Do you realise the manpower that involves? That's without studying contracts to work out who needs to be paid and how much. And paying them. And whether or not you hold the rights to distribute it in another part of the world or on the internet.

The only part of the BBC any taxes you may have paid in the UK will have paid for is when the government has contributed towards the World Service (so arguably propoganda) which you can access virtually anywhere in the world. World Service radio has some great content. Try it out. You might like it.

The BBC doesn't provide a subscription service for Brits overseas (and why should it?). It does however, offer a subscription service to anyone willing to pay in certain territories. Britbox isn't available in New Zealand, but some BBC content is available on Sky. The reason it doesn't offer content everywhere? Licensing. Television programmes and formats are sold by territory. Buying the rights to screen a television programme in one country does not give a broadcaster the right to broadcast it to another territory, as another broadcaster has paid good money for the rights.

So there you go. If you miss the BBC that much, maybe you should return to the UK and buy a TV licence.