Well, well, well, I hadn’t expected to write about TV Licensing again so quickly after my TV Licensing are back with a vengeance post from just three weeks ago. But it seems they have started a new tactic at least I haven’t seen before. Two days ago I found this letter in my mail:

From the “The Legal Occupier” I could tell it was from TV Licensing. But what was new was the window on the envelope, revealing a “10-Day Window”, but not more. So I was intrigued. What was the 10 day window for? Was it going to be the window the threatened TV Licensing Inspector would finally visit me?

Turns out, no. They are giving me a 10-day window to get correctly licensed. Which I already am. This is what they say:

They claim they put my “case” on hold for 10 days, during which I won’t have to expect a visit by the dreaded TV Licensing Inspector. How nice. That makes me sleep better (no, sadly not). And without a TV Licence I may be breaking the law. Except I’m not. I don’t do anything from their list as I’ve got better things to do, like writing this blog post.

Apparently I ONLY have until the 4th of September to act. Well, I’m acting now and I’m doing …. nothing.

Let’s see what happens after the 4th of September.

Very long term readers of this blog might remember the fun I had with TV Licensing in the early to mid 2000s. On the previous now archived iteration of this blog there’s a whole collection of The TV Licensing Saga. Towards the end of it the problem kind of got resolved and they left me in peace for a while. When I moved into my current flat I registered my new address as not needing a TV Licence and all was good for a while. Not any more…..

TV Licensing is back with a vengeance. And they haven’t changed one bit, if anything they’ve gotten worse.

But let’s take a step back: When I registered my current address as not needing a TV Licence I did so online, which also required me to give them my email. From then on every once I while I received an unfriendly email suggesting I was lying to them, but at least it had a link to the page where I could tell them I still don’t need one. So far, so moderately good.

Early this year that changed.

Instead of the unfriendly email I received a letter claiming something had changed at my address/household (no, it hadn’t. Nothing had changed). Initially I thought that was just a mistake and the usual accusatory email would arrive soon. Not so. Soon another letter arrived. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another.

And today this one arrived:

OFFICIAL NOTICE

Really? I’m pretty sure there’s nothing “official” about you, you’re a private company working on behalf of the BBC.

You are breaching the Communications Act 2003 if you do not have a TV Licence to cover you for:
– Watching or recording live TV on any channel or device
– Everything on BBC iPlayer
at [address]

Thing is, that only applies if you’re doing any of the two things they list. Which I don’t. So it doesn’t apply.

The rest of the letter continues in a similar tone. It does give a link to declare that no TV Licence is needed, but with the barrage and tone of their letters quite frankly I can’t be bothered. I’m just going to let them continue wasting their money on sending those letters. Their problem, not mine.

More importantly though, I think these letters are bad. They are deliberately designed and written to scare people into getting a TV Licence even if they don’t need one. Prime example the paragraph quoted above. Mentioning a law, implying that the recipient is breaking the law with confusing and threatening language, even if the recipient doesn’t need a TV Licence. I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few people who don’t need one get one because they don’t understand the letters and get scared. That can’t be right.

Anyway, let’s see how this continues, if the threatened inspector ever turns up (past experience says no). I will continue shredding their letters (if I get another interesting one I might share it) and not watching live TV and/or iPlayer.

PS: Just to be clear, I’m not against the TV Licence per se. If I was watching live TV and/or using iPlayer I would happily pay it. But I don’t, so I don’t need to. What I object to are the practices of the TV Licencing contractors, Capita or whoever that is these days.