Do I've to pay TV License fee?

mikemac

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, seems the best place to me

I’ve a 14” portable at home.
I use it playing the Nintendo 64 and watching DVD’s

I cannot watch terrestrial TV on it for three reasons:
•Cannot get a signal due to living beside Croke Park. When I tried to wireless broadband the technician said the same thing.
•TV can only be tuned through the remote. Unfortunately this had partially melted when I left it on the radiator so I have no way of tuning in channels on the TV.
•There is no NTL socket or satellite dish in the apartment

Around 6:30 every Wednesday, the TV licence inspector has been calling around.
I’ve been ignoring him so far but if I invited him in and told the truth, would he accept I didn’t need to pay a license fee?

Thanks for any help

arybvtcw0eolkf

Yes, you still need to pay a licence fee.

county

you have a TV,therefore you need a TV licence plan and simple

Rabies

You have a TV, you need a license.
Get a multi functional all in one remote at your local hardware/electronic store.

biko

boards.ie > Arts > Television > Television is the TV forum

muckwarrior

Invite him in, dismember him and dump him in the canal.

Seriously though, if it's a 14" TV surely you can throw it in the wardrobe and then bring him in and show him you don't have a TV.

Archeron

muckwarrior wrote:

Invite him in, dismember him and dump him in the canal.

Seriously though, if it's a 14" TV surely you can throw it in the wardrobe and then bring him in and show him you don't have a TV.

Just make sure you connect your Nintendo to a friends bellybutton and have them stand in the corner making "click-beep" noises to avoid any suspicion of having a games console with no screen.

cournioni

What if you have one of those wrist tv's that you can get in Gadgetshop?

robinph

If your confident that the TV cannot be tuned into a terrestrial signal then invite him in and show him as it's the ability to receive signals that your paying the license for, not the TV screen.

Mossy Monk

if you have a tv tuner you need a license

muckwarrior

robinph wrote:

If your confident that the TV cannot be tuned into a terrestrial signal then invite him in and show him as it's the ability to receive signals that your paying the license for, not the TV screen.

I'm pretty sure you're wrong there. I recall ads a few years ago that stated that even if you had a tv in your office that you only used for showing training videos or whatever, you still needed a licence for it.

robinph

muckwarrior wrote:

I'm pretty sure you're wrong there. I recall ads a few years ago that stated that even if you had a tv in your office that you only used for showing training videos or whatever, you still needed a licence for it.

Yep, it's the tuner that your paying for and if that does not exist in the TV then you don't have to pay, if it does then you do. The OP's TV seem to be faulty though so might be able to get around it.

Tom Dunne

robinph wrote:

If your confident that the TV cannot be tuned into a terrestrial signal then invite him in and show him as it's the ability to receive signals that your paying the license for, not the TV screen.

Wrong, so wrong.

The law is quite clear - any device capable of receiving a signal. It is irrelevant that he can't actually receive a signal, it's down to the fact that the device was built to receive one.

Mitch Connor

you still have to pay for a broken tv, unless it really can't be fixed, at all.

Haven't a Clue

micmclo wrote:

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, seems the best place to me

I’ve a 14” portable at home.
I use it playing the Nintendo 64 and watching DVD’s

I cannot watch terrestrial TV on it for three reasons:
•Cannot get a signal due to living beside Croke Park. When I tried to wireless broadband the technician said the same thing.
•TV can only be tuned through the remote. Unfortunately this had partially melted when I left it on the radiator so I have no way of tuning in channels on the TV.
•There is no NTL socket or satellite dish in the apartment

Around 6:30 every Wednesday, the TV licence inspector has been calling around.
I’ve been ignoring him so far but if I invited him in and told the truth, would he accept I didn’t need to pay a license fee?

Thanks for any help

More importantly, how many tickets did you get for the match on Saturday?

Archeron

Do you need a license if you have a pet Teletubbie with Tummy-vision?

brianthebard

Maybe its just someone pretending to be the TV License inspector...does he look like the guy off the ad?

robinph

tom dunne wrote:

Wrong, so wrong.

The law is quite clear - any device capable of receiving a signal. It is irrelevant that he can't actually receive a signal, it's down to the fact that the device was built to receive one.

Sorry, I should have made it clearer when I said about not being able to tune into a signal. I didn't mean just because of where the TV happened to be positioned was enough to get around it, the OP said that the TV is faulty and cannot receive a signal for that reason and not just because there is a big stadium outside their window.

leeroybrown

As was pointed out above if you have a TV with a broken tuner you still need a license.

humanji

Archeron wrote:

Do you need a license if you have a pet Teletubbie with Tummy-vision?

I'd imagine you'd need a pet license and a tv license and presumably a shotgun too.

robinph

leeroybrown wrote:

As was pointed out above if you have a TV with a broken tuner you still need a license.

If the hardware cannot pick up TV channels then why would you need a license?

brianthebard

robinph wrote:

If the hardware cannot pick up TV channels then why would you need a license?

Cause it's a TV license, not an RTE license?

robinph

brianthebard wrote:

Cause it's a TV license, not an RTE license?

Well it is actually an RTE license, but they couldn't care less as to if you watch their programs or not.

If the TV hardware cannot be tuned into a signal other than the AV channel though then you don't need a license. But if you happen to have a video recorder though that does tune in OK then you will still need a license.

Overheal

Then surely we should have to pay a radio license? What complete bull****

And how does a radio station make its money? The same way a terrestrial TV station makes money in any other country: ADVERTISEMENT.

And just what is RTE doing with the money? Its total sh*te anyway.

layke

This is going back a few years but when I was 17 I used to work in a video shop and when the inspector came round all he did was check to see if our TV's could receive terrestrial channels. Once he found out that we had removed the antennas there was no problem.

Then again things could have changed since then. TBh your best bet is to call up whoever is in the know and ask.

robinph

Overheal wrote:

Then surely we should have to pay a radio license? What complete bull****

And how does a radio station make its money? The same way a terrestrial TV station makes money in any other country: ADVERTISEMENT.

And just what is RTE doing with the money? Its total sh*te anyway.

The TV license used to be called a radio license, then someone invented a way of adding pictures to the radio signal and they changed what they called it. Some of the RTE radio stations get funding from the TV license in addition to the advertising revenue I think. TV3 don't get money from the TV license, only the RTE channels do.

Tar.Aldarion

Open up the tv and break the reciever.

leeroybrown

robinph wrote:

If the hardware cannot pick up TV channels then why would you need a license?

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Open up the tv and break the reciever.

Any broken TV is legally deemed to be repairable for TV licensing purposes and a therefore a TV license is required. That's the way the law is written and enforced.

robinph

leeroybrown wrote:

Any broken TV is legally deemed to be repairable for TV licensing purposes and a therefore a TV license is required. That's the way the law is written and enforced.

The cheeky feckers do have that written into it after all. Although I'm sure that some lawyer with too much time on their hands could argue their way round that clause as being unfair in some European Court of Nonsense or other though.

dr.bollocko

I'd say leggit clean to another country with yer tv in one arm and the N64 in the other. If u leave on a thursday morning you will have a week headstart on the f***ers. You could maintain a video diary for us of your adventures around the world, being chased by one Irish licence inspector.

monkeyfudge

robinph wrote:

TV3 don't get money from the TV license, only the RTE channels do.

Actually 5% of the license fee goes into the Sound and Vision fund which any broadcaster can apply for.... And my radio station gets money out of the license fee this way.... So everyone please pay your license fee so that I can continue to afford feed my monkey.