Advice for Students

The latest press release from Fishburn Hedges (using the trademark TV Licensing™) offers advice to new students going up to university and perhaps needing a licence for the first time. It contains the following:

A TV Licence is needed for watching or recording any programmes at the same time as they are shown on TV ... TV Licensing is reminding students - and their parents - about when a licence is needed, so that they have all of the information they need to ensure they are on the right side of the law from day one.

Watchkeeper would also urge students to keep on the right side of the law. It's very easy to do and here's what you need to know:

If you watch "live" television programmes from any source (i.e. at the same time as published in the press and listing magazines) you must have the state's permission to do so - you need a licence.

That's it. As the meerkat says, "Simples!"

Of course, the corollary to that is

If you watch TV programmes that ended some time in the past, whether it be 1 minute ago, 1 hour ago, 1 day ago, 1 year ago or whatever, you DO NOT need a licence.

So you can save yourself an outlay of nearly £150 by watching your favourite programmes on the catch-up services like 4oD, BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, STV Player, TVCatchup etc.

The press release also helpfully mentions "laptops, smartphones and next-generation games consoles". You can use any one of these, and anything else you can think of, to watch catch-up programmes without needing a licence. Don't let anyone tell you you need a licence for e.g. your laptop. You don't, as long as you don't watch live programmes. Watchkeeper has even seen mentioned on student forums that if a device is capable of receiving live TV you need a licence. This is nonsense, of course.

Again, no press release like this would be complete without trundling out a "TV Licensing™ spokesperson" and this time it's Stavros Flatley fan and pyrotechnics ace Pauline Gillingham, who takes PR so seriously she has a Master's degree in the subject. You can read what she has to say about herself on the Fishburn Hedges Website. Remember, "TV Licensing" is a publicity stunt, a fiction maintained by the BBC's hired PR agents, and "TV Licensing Officers" are Capita salesmen with as much authority as double-glazing salesmen.

So happy licence-free viewing, students one and all - catch-up only, of course.