“From 1 September 2016 you will need to be covered by a TV licence to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer”, the broadcaster said.
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An advisory notice of the changes will be made on the iPlayer site, with TV Licensing also set to send letters to unlicensed addresses informing them of the change in the law.
The spokesman added: “You will not need a TV licence to download or watch programmes on demand from other providers, such as YouTube, Netflix, ITV Hub, All 4 or Demand 5”.
But what happens if you’re paid up, and take your tablet to watch a BBC show at someone else’s house who hasn’t stumped for the fee?
This means that you’ll need a licence for anything TV-related by the BBC no matter what device you watch it on, be it a laptop, tablet, Xbox or Roku player.
Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on. The fine for unpaid fees tops out at £1,000.
“Students can check at our dedicated TV Licence for students (tvlicensing.co.uk/studentinfo) page whether they are correctly licensed before the big move”. Find out more about applying for a free over 75 licence when you’re over 74 or blind concessionary licence.
Its research found that two thirds of students watch catch-up TV, with only 22% taking a television to university.
A licence is not needed if you only plan to watch the Welsh language S4C TV channel, or to listen to BBC radio stations, on the iPlayer.
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However, while a TV licence is now required to watch live broadcasts from other terrestrial providers such as ITV and Channel 4, the new rules so not apply to non-BBC on-demand services such as ITV Hub or Channel 4’s All4. Although iPlayer programmes can not be streamed overseas, downloaded content still works. They will also need for one watching or recording programmes shown live on TV or live on and online TV service.
