You Now Need A TV Licence To Watch BBC iPlayer Without Breaking The Law

All BBC iPlayer users are now required by law to have a TV licence, even if they don’t watch any live broadcasts.

The new rules come into effect today (1 September) and will see all viewers required to pay the annual £145.50 licence fee.

Previously, only users watching programmes that were being broadcast live required a TV licence.

The rule changes are expected to affect young viewers the most and will apply to all devices used to access iPlayer, including laptops, smartphones, tablets, games consoles and other TV streaming gadgets such as the Google Chomecast.

A pop-up window appears asking viewers to confirm that they’ve got a TV licence when they click on an iPlayer programme.

Previously this only referred to live content, but has now been updated to include all on-demand programmes on iPlayer.

Those aged 75 and over will still be entitled to a free TV licence while care home residents and people registered as blind will continue to be offered price reductions on the full licence fee.

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