Need a TV licence to watch BBC1 online

What annoys me is that after moving into my flat two weeks ago and straight away buying a licence to watch colour TV so that I can watch BBC online and perhaps buy a television set I now receive a red-lined threatening letter from TVLicensing.co.uk telling me that (1) I do not have a licence (although they have confirmed that I have by email and on their website, (2) I have received many letters from them (this is the first), (3) that I have not replied to any of these letters. The flat has in fact been empty for many months, so there was no need for a licence. I bought a licence online before evening watching TV. Now they are threatening to come into my flat, i.e. my home/castle, to inspect it and to interview me "under caution", as though I am a common criminal. They then threaten to fine me £1,000.
OK, mister, just try it.
Make may day...

I concur with the above comments,Britans Biggest Con is totalitarian.Whats more i've just found out that,they're also exempt from the freedom of information act .which is outrageous as well! There should be large demonstrations every time some harrased person is prosecuted by this extort,but such happenings seem to be of low key.The bbc are truly legalistic thieves.

The BBC should send out coded data like Sky only watchable by people with a specific decoder,then you would not be able to watch it for free,which I doubt would worry many people of course the BBC would soon go broke which would also not be a problem as far as I'm concerned'.

dont forget twots, that BBC is funded by the TV license.
so if no one pays for it, the programme will be forced into liquidation, and then online viewing will also not be operating.
bellens.

yup I don't pay t.v license and just watch catch up online. They should just pull there finger out and sell some advertising instead leeching off us

The bbc licence extortion really winds me up.This jobs for the boys corruption should be scrapped,the brazen way they threaten the people of u.k.just shows what this government backed organisation think of the british public.Then there is the so called t.v.licence officers[thugs] ,who have no real authority,bluff is the name of their game.For more information see www.bbc resistance.com.

Julie, the other channels don't fund themselves, the advertisers do!

We need to get the TV licence stopped for good. Why was freeview invented??? to view for free!!! It is only the BBC that get the licence fee, and quite frankly there are better channels to watch.
Why arnt the BBC funding them sleves the same as all the other channels.
Its daylight robbery and needs to be stopped!!

you can use a pc to watch pre recorded tv but not live thats when you pay for a tv licence

I don't have license free - Modern broadcasting is (in my opion) simply not work the £142.50p or so that they demand (and yet, they demand it - In threatening letters through my door, once a month). What I have in stead is something far more valuable - A life.

here's some stuff you may not know. Not only do you need a TV licence for a TV you also need one if you own any of the following:-

a) A Video recorder
b) A DVD recorder
c) A computer with broadband internet access
d) A MOBILE PHONE

the first 2 because you can record TV programs, the third and fourth I found when I looked on the TV licensing site to check what happens after 2012 when they turn of the analog signal, since I don't have satellite,cable or freeview and my TV, video, DVD and gamecube don't have built in decoders, I thought I wont need a licence (fat chance, I've got a computer with broadband and a mobile phone).

I can only assume it's because you can watch TV programs on-line (wherever you do or not is irreverent, you got a computer with broadband you need a licence)

As for the fourth one it may have something to do with the modern mobiles having TVs in them or something, all I know is I would love to watch some official try and watch a TV program on my mobile (Motorola c350, as used by Noah on the arc)

TV Licensing tend to talk a load of sloblock most of the time. They have difficulty accepting the idea that some people don't have a TV. Unsurprisingly, they also have problems with the ideas of "innocent until proven guilty" and "beyond reasonable doubt".