License Evasion Catch Up ...TV

[dave walsh]

The "semi-mythical" TV License Vans appeared again a minute ago [at the end of News Night] Chasing Columbo Watchers apparently in some vintage footage

Like UFO's, Psychic Phenomena, the Loch Ness Monster, TV Presenters [the One Show] and many other disputed phenomena, we were never quite sure if they were real and viable. The legendary Vans were discussed re several threads on here a few years ago and for the very first time, one or two people actually came forward to say they had been involved with the detection service and weren't imaginary! It was a bit like the Bletchley Park experience.

The NN story tonight was about needing a license for your I-Player and offered absolutely no ideas on how this was meant to be enforced? The Beeb aren't doing themselves any favours on this one. Is it going to be an on-line virtual van Pokemon style For what it's worth it's I've thought for years that it's our unique Broadcaster TV service and should be financed from general taxation for everyone [we pay for it already anyway] and this would take away all the tedious political arguments that prevent things progressing efficiently. Do the numbers and see how much it costs to chase non-payers!

Overall, it's the spirit of the Sylvia Peters era really-misguided and not really "in the space" but accidentally doing well...in the end. Any suggestions on how I Player TV watching can be identified are very welcome. It probaly could be done technically but George Orwell's Room 101 was in Broadcasting House as I recall

Dave W

[Refugee]

Those vans had a TV receiver and monitor in them.
They used to visit the offending house and park outside and look at the reflections on the curtains and compare them with the monitor in the van. They could indeed tell what channel the offender was watching.
Those bits on the roof were scary dummies.
Modern stuff on the web will be done by tracing URLs and blocking content from being streamed to proxy servers.

[SiriusHardware]

I imagine you'll have to state your address before being granted access, which will be cross checked against the TV license database. Just how they will verify the stated address against the actual address, I'm not sure.

With regard to divining exactly which channel people were watching back in the analogue days, I've always imagined you could do this by sniffing the frequency of the tuner's local oscillator, which would presumably be running at an expected offset from a known standard I.F. frequency.

[Radio Wrangler]

I always wondered if the 2 or three channels had a deliberate bit of phase shift between line scans so the much that TVs radiated every 10 or 15kHz could be easily identified with a programme.

[pastyboy]

The word from the "trade" is the simplest (if the vans ever existed to serious technical level) is that they picked up the local oscillator radiated up the aerial, simples the channel being viewed could easily be determined, although it didn't really matter as you had to have a licence to view any channel.

They played the same trick as now back in the late 80's when you suddenly had to have a licence to watch satellite.

Can't understand why with all this modern technology the BBC don't do a pay per view to watch their programmes and the commercial stuff is free ?

[HamishBoxer]

I believe to find out whether or not the set was colour,the reference oscillator was picked up.4.443619 or close.

[Lloyd 1985]

Originally Posted by SiriusHardware

I imagine you'll have to state your address before being granted access, which will be cross checked against the TV license database. Just how they will verify the stated address against the actual address, I'm not sure.

That won't work because their database is rubbish! When I was renting my flat earlier this year I kept getting threatening letters from them, one was going on about it being a business address, even though I had a license! They even wanted me to pay to return their forms to prove I had a valid license.

I can imagine all sorts of complaints flying in from people when they try to put their address in to access the online stuff only to be told 'sorry, you don't have a valid license for this address, please pay now or we will send an inspector round with a fine to pay'

Regards,
Lloyd

[Dave Moll]

In the real world the licensing authority takes the simple approach of sending letters to every address that doesn't have a TV licence on the assumption that every address (whether residential or otherwise) has a television. My experience is that they pester you until you tell them that there's no television in use at the address - then start pestering you again next time round.

It happens every two or three years with the part of my property that used to be a shop, which I currently use as a store room for various vintage bits - including several old television sets in various states of disrepair - so it's probably just as well that they don't bother to pay an inspection visit for me to have to convince them that they're not used in the storeroom (nor even usable).

[D Cassidy]

Hello.
I've heard of the bully boy tactics before. If you have a license then let the inspectors come round and waste money from the fee, why should anyone worry if they are doing the right thing.
Catch up can be watched on phones, laptops and Youview boxes, all of this is going to very hard to police with differing IP addresses and viewing TV sitting in the shopping precinct or even in the car when stationary.

[AC/HL]

The funding model for the BBC is set by the Government, and is via a licence fee for the moment, so that's the end of it. Cheating the revenue is a national sport in most Countries, and we're no exception. Technology made catchup a target for this, and once the politicians get their act together technology will close the loophole, however difficult or intrusive it proves to be.