TV Licences are a bill that is required for most households but do you really need one if you only ever stream your programmes? TV licencing have explained when you do and don’t need a TV licence
If you’re a big TV lover and you pay the household bills then you will most likely be paying for a TV licence. But over the past couple of years, more and more people have started to question whether they need a TV licence anymore as people tend to stream shows and movies rather than watching live TV.
As many will know your TV licence allows you to access a ‘huge range of TV’ with tons of channels available, as well as TV services you have paid for like Sky and watching live TV on Amazon Prime, Netflix and other streaming apps. This doesn’t just mean watching it live but also any recordings or downloads you want to make will be covered by the licence.
In recent years however, many who watch TV has shared they don’t actually tend to watch live TV channels despite having the option. So if you make the decision to just solely watch programmes on streaming sites like Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and YouTube, do you still need a TV licence?
A huge myth that has circled many times is that if you don’t watch the BBC then you don’t need to pay for a TV licence, as a matter of fact this is completely wrong. If you watch any form of live TV then you need to be covered, and the same can be said for streaming platforms.
Whether you need a TV licence or not comes down to watch exactly you are watching on these platforms. If you are just streaming programmes and movies available on the app, also know as on demand programmes, then you don’t need to worry about a TV licence.
However, if you decide to watch a live show being streamed whether that be a live sports event on Amazon Prime, a live stream video from YouTube or any other event happening at that moment, then you need to be covered by a TV licence.
The only streaming service that requires a TV licence regardless of what you’re watching is BBC iPlayer and that applies to any device.
But what if you don’t have a TV? Well a TV licence will cover other devices such as laptops and tablets or iPads due to them being power by their own internal batteries, as long as they’re not plugged into a mains source.
If you do plug in to charge your device then you won’t be covered by the TV licence at your home address and instead will need to be covered by a separate TV licence for that address.
