Do I Need A TV Licence? What You Can Legally Watch Without Paying The Fee – And The Rules For Netflix And Amazon Prime Video

CultureTV The cost of the TV licence will rise from £154.50 to £157.50 this year, more than double the price of basic Netflix and Amazon Prime options

Wednesday, 5th February 2020, 5:28 pm

Updated Wednesday, 5th February 2020, 5:33 pm

In an age of Netflix, iPlayer, smartphones and streaming, the situation with TV content has never been more complicated (Photo: Shutterstock)

The annual cost of the BBC licence fee is rising by £3 this year to £157.50, as part of the Government's increases in line with inflation.

By comparison, a year of Netflix costs £71.88 per year for a basic plan or £143.88 for 4K UHD, while Amazon Prime Video membership also costs £71.88 annually.

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In an age of Netflix, iPlayer, smartphones and streaming, the situation with TV content has never been more complicated. For several years, the TV licence only applied to live TV - meaning iPlayer was exempt - but this loophole has since been closed.

When do you need a TV licence?

So when do you need a TV licence? Well, the answer is you pretty much always do if you watch TV, unless you can watch only Netflix and Prime for a year and never even sneak a look at TV channels or iPlayer for the entire year.

If you watch any live TV - including ITV, Channel 4, or Sky channels, you need a licence. If you use BBC iPlayer, on a TV, phone, laptop or any other device, you need a licence.

What TV services do not require a TV licence?

Without a licence, you can legally watch:

Netflix

YouTube

Amazon Prime

DVDs/Blurays

Non-BBC catch-up including ITV Player, Channel 4 on-demand, as long as it's NOT live

But if it was suspected that you were watching live TV or BBC iPlayer, you would need to prove that you are not accessing live TV.

If you cancel your TV licence, you may get a visit from TV Licensing, and if they decide you actually do need a licence, you'll need to pay the full annual licence fee, plus a possible fine of up to £1,000 on top.

What you cannot watch or record if you don't have a TV licence

Any live TV on any Channel including Sky channels

Any BBC iPlayer, live or streamed later

Any +1 Channels

What the law says on the need for a TV licence - according to TVLicensing.Co.Uk

A TV Licence is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, and to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer.

This could be on any device, including TVs, desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, games consoles, digital boxes, DVD, Blu-ray and VHS recorders. This applies regardless of which television channels a person receives or how those channels are received.

You don’t need a TV licence just to own or possess a television set (Photo: Shutterstock)

The licence fee is not a payment for BBC services (or any other television service), although licence fee revenue is used to fund the BBC.

The requirement to hold a TV licence and to pay a fee for it is mandated by law under the Communications Act 2003 and Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 (as amended).

It is an offence to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on any channel and on any broadcast platform (terrestrial, satellite, cable and the internet) or download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer without a valid TV Licence.

Is it legal to watch TV programmes on a laptop or phone without a TV licence?

If you use a laptop (or any other device) to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, or to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer, then, by law, you need to be covered by a TV Licence. So yes, it would be illegal.

Do I need a TV licence if I don't watch BBC?

A TV licence is a legal permission to install or use television equipment to receive (i.E. Watch or record) TV programmes, as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, and to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer.

This applies regardless of which channel you're watching, which device you are using (TV, desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone, tablet or any other), and how you receive them (terrestrial, satellite, cable, via the internet or in any other way).

The licence fee is not a subscription to watch BBC programmes but mandated by law. Under the Communications Act 2003, the BBC in its role as the licensing authority has a duty to issue TV licences and collect the licence fee.

Do +1 channels count as live TV?

Yes. So you still have to have a TV Licence.

Do you need a TV licence to own a TV?

You don’t need a TV licence to own or possess a television set. However, if you use it to watch or record programmes as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service, or to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer, then you need a TV licence in order to do so.

Do you need a TV licence to watch BBC iPlayer?

Yes, you need to be covered by a TV licence to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer.

This applies to all devices, including a smart TV, desktop computer or laptop, mobile phone, tablet, digital box or games console. Even if you access BBC iPlayer through another provider, such as Sky, Virgin, Freeview or BT, you must have a licence.

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10 Parody Anime That Are Actually Better Than What They Were Satirizing

Anime is often relegated to be a significant innovator in animation, action, and romance. However, a sect of it that doesn't get too much love from the casual viewing world is its capacity for comedy. To be specific, in a world full of Western comedies like Space Balls, The Naked Gun, and even Scary Movie, anime hasn't been given enough credit for its own parodies. This is a shame considering that a lot of them are quite a hoot.

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Parody anime have a strong tendency to not only mock their base material but also celebrate them with an organic sincerity. And while those tendencies are to mock, that doesn't mean the product itself can't be good at what it's satirizing, sometimes to an improved degree. This list will be running down a few of the best parody anime that were way better than what they were satirizing.

10 Cromartie High School

Hoodlums and gangs within anime often get a bad rap. Within a society that often values compromise, intelligence, and hard work beyond anything else, those with a more aggressive demeanor or even those who can't conform to the society's high standard of performance are often segregated to sects of their own, even in high school.

Cromartie High School, however, removes all that dingy paint and reveals a much sillier side to the bad apples of Japan. The comedy lets even the rowdiest of folks (including Freddie Mercury) take a step back and just be stupid, high school kids.

9 Hetalia Axis Powers

For readers still taking history classes, feel free to throw away any textbooks or notes concerned with world history and just watch Hetalia. This adorable, little comedy is about the world's nations personified as cute anime boys that just like to mess around and have fun.

By doing so, Hetalia personifies even some of the more controversial and brutal parts of history with some lighthearted yet accurate humor. Now, if only the real world powers could just settle their differences by calling each other "Baka!"

8 Carnival Phantasm

Type-Moon is a game studio that has become quite famous for the harrowing and religiously strident adventures of its Fate characters, among other series. However, all that gloom, doom, and religious commentary are stripped away in this fun crossover with Type-Moon's other series, Tsukihime, and various other characters of Fate.

Carnival Phantasm to an extent is meant to be a parody, a comedic extension of all the harsh, alternate worlds that Type-Moon has created. However, as a charming Comedy/Slice of Life series on its own, Carnival Phantasm has managed to break the zeitgeist as one of the most distinct and beloved installments of the company.

7 Osomatsu-san

One of the most influential series in Japanese media, Osomatsu-san is a comedy legend that has persisted across anime for several decades, having found rejuvenated incarnations across different eras. Being the comedy legend that it is, Osomatsu-san is famous for a variety of comedic gags that still resonate within Japan today.

RELATED: The 10 Best Comedy Anime Of The Decade, Ranked According To IMDb

However, what puts it on this list is the eccentric group's tendency to take a few jabs at other media, letting film, society, and even its anime contemporaries know that no one is safe from a good chuckle or two.

6 Ouran High School Host Club

Ouran High School Host Club is one of the most famous, shoujo anime out there, often acting as a nostalgic favorite and introduction to romance anime for a lot of fans. This is incredibly interesting considering that the series itself is a wide parody of all the eccentric tropes known among the shoujo genre.

As a host club within a high school, this series literally focuses on cute boys (and one girl) putting on a clinic of hysterical seduction to grab their girls and the audience. In doing so, the series not only provides one of the most accessible avenues to shoujo anime but also manages to bring some sincere attention to its own romances.

5 Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun

Within the same vein as Ouran, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun is a parody of shoujo tropes. However, this series is not only immensely more direct about being a parody, it outright tries to educate the audience on the matter.

This series focuses on a girl trying to confess her love to one of the cutest boys in school, only to find herself accidentally volunteering to be his assistant for his secret life as a famous Shoujo mangaka. As the duo make a shoujo manga, they and the world around them immediately subvert their ideals and make cute, original romances of their own.

4 SKET Dance

Shonen Jump isn't exactly known for creating slice of life/romance series. Luckily, the publication doesn't always have to when comedy and shounen tropes are some of their best angles. SKET Dance is a high school, romance anime that doesn't exactly work like its lovelorn contemporaries.

RELATED: The 10 Best Anime About Student Life, Ranked

This one focuses on a trio of high schoolers as they aim to solve cases and help their fellow students across a variety of hilarious high school anime tropes, all while cultivating some shounen build and drama of its own.

3 One-Punch Man

Despite how awesome of a media giant it has become, let's not forget that One-Punch Man is kind of a parody of superhero and shounen action. If anything, major kudos to the series for turning what could've been a one-gag comedy into one of the most introspective and exciting action series out there.

Saitama's deadpan demeanor to his own abilities only serves to make him that much more of an OP character that is still incredibly likable.

2 KonoSuba

No matter how young and new, if something gets made enough and is popular enough, it is prone to parody. Isekai anime is no different. Once the success of these otherworldly anime really took off, it was about time that a series parodying all of the genre's tropes and ideals was released.

In comes KonoSuba, a wonderful isekai whose brave adventurers are not very brave or even that good at adventuring. Even with its potential to be a harem anime, KonoSuba subverts expectations by having its female characters be incredibly, incredibly flawed, making them more memorable and lovable in the process.

1 Gintama

Nothing else could really stand at the top of this list than the king of all comedy anime. The largest sliver of Gintama's parodies is dedicated to mocking shounen anime, addressing various tropes and characters that it not only outright references but also incorporates into some amazing action-packed stories of its own.

However, that's only scratching the surface. Gintama is responsible for an entire tsunami's worth of pop culture references across a variety of influences. The anime/manga often overwhelms its audience so much that a Google search might be required to grasp all the jokes. In some cases, Gintama might inspire fans to watch a few of the series it just practically promoted.

On top of that, Gintama does harems better than harem anime, hard-boiled stoicism just as well as any samurai flick, and galactic battles comparable to Star Wars. The series is also pretty funny, too.

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'Castlevania' animation returning to Netflix in March

Season 3 of vampire saga "Castlevania," based on the video game franchise of the same name, will debut March 5, 2020.

After a four-episode miniseries debut in 2017 and a fuller eight-episode second season in 2018, "Castlevania" will be unfurling another ten episodes this March.

Set in 15th century Romania, seasons one and two had followed the intertwining fates of castle-dwelling vampire lord Vlad Dracula Tepes, his half-vampire son Adrian (who sides with humanity) and monster hunter Trevor Belmont.

Political, religious, social and personal limitations came into play as the three leads and their companions struggle for the future of their country and, implicitly, the world.

Though not wholly perfect, the potential of "Castlevania"'s half-length first season was more gratifyingly explored in its second outing a year later, retaining its flair for stylish and dynamic battle sequences.

Both seasons were inspired by 1989 video game "Castlevania III," a prequel to the long-lasting franchise's first two core games, which featured Trevor's descendant Simon in a similar vampire-hunting role.

Predominantly taking the form of a two dimensional, side-scrolling action franchise, 1997 series entry "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" had an outsized influence on video gaming, especially in conjunction with 1994's "Super Metroid," thanks in part to the twin concepts of player freedom and creator direction. Both built on the open world adventuring of the original "Legend of Zelda" and its sequels.

Though the "Castlevania" games adopted a 3D format for the 2010-14 "Lords of Shadow" subseries, the franchise's 2D approach was a potent inspiration for a tranche of more recent releases such as "Shovel Knight" (2014), "Hollow Knight" (2017), "Dead Cells" (2018) and, from "Castlevania" series producer Koji Igarashi, "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" (2019).

The franchise as a whole was itself, of course, inspired by Bram Stoker's classic of gothic horror literature, "Dracula."

Story continues

Netflix distributed a 2020 interpretation of the story, a live action three-parter developed by "Doctor Who" and "Sherlock" pairing Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, at the turn of the year.

Its "Castlevania" announcement came the same day that Disney+ outlined an October debut for its second season of "Star Wars" spin-off "The Mandalorian."