From September 1st, viewers will have to purchase a TV licence in order to watch content on BBC iPlayer.
Until now, paying the £145 licence fee only applied to watching live broadcasts. However, a recent law change means that watching the BBC’s online catch-up service will also require a licence.
As such, watching BBC programming via the catch-up service on phones, laptops and other devices will no longer be available to those without a licence. However, radio content on the service will still be available for free.
Believing that: ‘All who watch pay for it’, the BBC claims the change will prevent those watching catch-up TV from getting: “a free ride”.
The BBC claim that ‘the change will not affect the huge majority of households which are already licensed’. However, university students are among the group they are targeting with their awareness campaign.
The law will come into effect in September. Watch the recently released trailer for Sherlock, one of the most popular programmes produced by the BBC currently:
