I guess this a good moneysaving tip for anybody who never watches any BBC output but I can't imagine not ever watching Strictly Come Dancing, Call the Midwife, Silent Witness, Dr Who, David Attenborough and all those history and music programmes on BBC4 and would have hated to have missed out on Les Miserables. So I guess that I'm just going to have to keep paying for my licence :-)

Always surprises me that people moan about the TV licence fee then they sign up for subscription services costing hundreds more.

It's hardly hundreds more Nick.
Most packages include broadband these days.
I'm with Virgin and pay £60 per month.
£40 Broadband
£20 TV
Virgin broadband is expensive due to the fact they are the best in the market. No one can touch their speeds.

Moving house soon so I'm contacting Virgin and getting rid of the TV and keeping broadband.
Going to get one of those stick things. Fire stick?

VIrgin - Line Rental paid annually £196 against £228 if paid monthly.
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TV size M - Free - Basically freeserve plus catch up TV and BBC iPlayer. ITV Hub More Five and a couple of others.

Broadband on the 30/20 package. = 30 Gb data per month @ 20 Mb Per Second.

Telephone calls free and caller display.

Cost £23.00 per month. I was paying £40 per month before I switched over to this.

I have Freesat TV -

What TV do you get in your package Inca is it just the free to air channels? i was in about the people who have full HD , All Sports and Movie channels and also may have Netflix and Prime as well.

Inca, my son has broadband only, (inluding line rental which he doesn't use), & pays £27pm.

The BBC are reported to be threatening to do away with the free license for the over 75's.

Nick: I have all channels apart from Sky sports/Movies etc.. So no premium channels.
I do tend to watch the "mainstream" channels mostly. I really can't abide all these American sitcoms, cop shows. Reality channels. Crap like that.
We do like movies and sports but I'm not prepared to pay the high cost for Sky Movies/Sports.
If there are people who do actually pay £ hundreds for their package, then they want their bumps feeling!

Glynis: I called Virgin some months ago now and was told if I take away my TV channels I would be paying £40 for broadband only.

Seems your viewing is similar to mine Inca I too have Virgin mainly for broad band but also a landline which they also charge for. I had originally gone for the Virgin TV package because of the Tivo box for multiple recording to try and solve theonly time there is anything good on its usually 9pm on all chanells. Alsobit was for the HD but now a lot of HD chanels are on Freeview so perhaps its time to leave unless they can offer me a better deal.

To get back to the original premise that you don't need a licence when watching on catchup, then presumably watching TV Catchup will not require a licence since its not live, it is delayed by at least 1 minute and you are effectively watching on catchup.

That could well be true for all the commercial channels, Frank, but if you watch any BBC output, whether live or on any catch-up service, then you need a licence and if you wade through the T&Cs on the link you gave above then it makes it clear that it is still your responsibility to ensure that you hold any required licence for the channels they provide access too.

Well I was referring g to the facts given on the moneysaving expert site in the first link.

However you do not need a TV licence if you only watch content after it's been shown on television – UNLESS it's on iPlayer. TV programmes downloaded or streamed after broadcast on other catch-up services are fine without one though.

For this condition , it makes no exclusion of BBC channels, so appears safe to use for all channels.

I would suggest TV catchup is a carefully chosen name, to emphasise that it’s ( technically) not live and therefore falls into the exempt category. Of course they will publish a disclaimer, to cover all bases, it’s the easy way out legally for them.

its interpretation of the phrase “after broadcast” which people will disagree on, I think.

If you read the history of the licence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom_(historical)

Then it suggests YOU DO need a licence even if you do not watch the BBC. The wording of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1904. which was superceded by the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1924. refers tobroadcast receiving licences. Television licences always included a licence to receive radio broadcasts.
From 1971, only the reception of television transmissions required a licence, and radio-only licences ceased to be issued. If you note it does not say reception of BBC television transmissions only.
I have said elsewhere even if the government was to cut the BBC free turning it into a commercial station it is highly unlikely that they would willingly give up the £3.5 billion that it raises every year. It is also worth noting that the money also finances programming for S4C and the BBC World Service as well as to run BBC Monitoring at Caversham.

But that's the point , Frank, TV Catchup's only way of accessing the BBC output is via the BBC iPlayer downloads or live streaming which is sightly behind the 'live' broadcast. How else are they accessing the BBC content? That's why Moneysaving Expert explicitly states, as you point out, that iPlayer content is excluded. By excluding iPlayer it is excluding BBC channels from what you can watch for free without a licence. Anything you watch that has been produced by the BBC is either being broadcast live or accessed via the iPlayer downloads or live streaming and all 3 options require you to have a TV licence. If TV Catchup is accessing BBC ouput in any other way then they are pirating it and are in breach of copyright law and as a result so are any of their viewers. Cheaper to buy the licence than run the risk of being prosecuted!

iPlayer = BBC = no can do.

Catchup ie ITV hub etc is fine.

Basically, you can't watch any BBC unless you cough up for a TV license. Yet... I've watched BBC programmes abroad via their cable TV. I wonder how that works

Slightly off topic ,but I think worth knowing.
Some of the earlier posters have mentioned the eye watering prices for Sky ,particularly for Sports.
However I haven't paid anything like full price for Sky for at least 5 years.
Every time the minimum contracted period approaches ,I phone Sky to cancel - it takes persistence but you can haggle a substantial discount to renew - currently I'm on the equivalent of 57% discount to full price. I have everything bar Cinema for £33 pm vs the standard price of £76.50pm.
I have had up to 75% discount in previous years.

Glynis, I haven't done much TV watching when abroad other than during a total washed out week in Seville for Feria and we were surprised to see that some of the BBC channels were available on the cable TV service in the SC apartment. Out of curiosity we asked the owner (she lived in the downstairs apartment) about it and she said that because she had a lot of British visitors she thought it worth paying extra to have some UK channels. So I assume that the price the BBC sells it's programming to non-UK cable providers for, probably includes a cost element to compensate for the fact that the people watching it will not be contributing via paying the UK licence fee?

However, I don't know what the situation is re watching via the iPlayer from outside of the UK. I assume that it can be accessed via the Net both for downloads and live streaming but that the BBC would have no way of policing that? We have some members, eg Judith, who lives outside of the UK and whom I think does watch some BBC programmes via the iPlayer from outside of the UK so perhaps she'll see this and comment?

SMa, apparently you can't access iplayer from abroad unless you use a VPN. I suppose it makes sense if the BBC want everyone accessing their service to pay the license fee, otherwise folks here could use a, for example, Spanish VPN & receive it without a TV license.

Everytime to access iplayer you have to confirm you have a TV license.

I can't watch I player SM. Even though we would be willing to pay a fee to the BBC as we enjoy many of their programs it is just not available abroad.
We are able to watch the programs that are broadcast over the Sky satellites as where we live falls within their footprint. Legally these programs aren't available abroad. Many expats living in Central/Northern Europe receive the programs and we pay the normal monthly fee to Sky, using an address in the UK. I'm sure that Sky know that this occurs but are not willing to forfeit the income received so turn a blind eye. We have had Sky for many years and were really pleased when a few years ago they started broadcasting the five old terrestrial channels. We just pay the basic Sky package as we aren't interested in sports or films.

Yes, Glynis, I use iPlayer a lot, either for catch-up on my main TV via Virgin cable or dowloading programmes onto my iPad for long train or plane journeys and a box always appears asking for confirmation that I hold a licence. I think it's money well spent because I watch BBC stuff far more than any if the other channels. For me and my viewing habits it's far better value than eg paying for sports channels!