the rule that TV shops have to notify TV licensing was removed in June this year, and detector vans (rarely used anyway even when the Post OFfice/BT did the job as they were more valuable for tracking down illegal transmissions) aren’t that much use in the digital age as they increasingly will only pick up all sorts else from mains wiring (swamping any local oscillator output leaking from a receiver)
TV licensing (now part of the BBC but with support from Arqiva and Ofcom) do pay people to look in windows for TV sets (I suspect it is freelance work carried out by retired folk over 60 who aren’t seen as out of place wandering the streets, these oldsters are also contracted to warn Arqiva if the TX has packed up at a relay site as there isn’t any other human QC monitoring).
One letter was sent to my work (post digital switchover) about a mid 1990s vintage analogue TV / VHS unit, then used in a training room for playing a particular video tape (I had converted the tape to a digital format and put it on a multimedia PC (with a much better monitor!) but folk still sometimes used it.
This industrial unit is in an obscure place at the bottom of a dip where even Band II (FM) reception is and UHF mobile signals are near non existent. Also the girders and metal roof are all earth bonded, turning the whole thing into a Faraday cage. They also kept phoning the office, until in the end I rang them up, pointed out that not only was this an ancient analogue TV that I’d gladly be rid of were it not used for the training videos (as it becomes another thing I would have to keep working and/or PAT test) even if put an antenna on this site I wouldn’t pick up either Sudbury or Tacleston without a 20m mast as both are still on reduced power, and “you lot have just sent 30 free digiboxes to one of our group companies just up the road for our elderly patients, using the details from the same database” (older people qualify for various discounts and in residential homes its usually a bulk license which covers everyone + communal areas where TV may be watched).
They apologised and never bothered me after that.
TBH I’ve not recently seen any news reports of folk being brought before the beak for not having TV licenses which was a weekly column in the local papers of the 1990s and they need a magistrates or sherrif’s warrant to actually enter a bulding if refused owners consent.
They do accept that since the 1980s TV receivers have been purchased to use as monitors for computers, CCTV cameras and other such equipment simply because they are cheaper than specialist monitors.
Given the effort involved in a prosecution I suspect the only folk who do get any serious hassle off them are those who are regularly watching live TV, can afford to pay for a license but refusing to do so as a “protest” against poor quality programmes (which of course begs the question of why they are still viewing TV in the first place!)
My house is licensed as the TV is often watched when my mum visits, I occasionally do monitor the BBC News Channel and Al-Jazeera and am aware that a proportion of it does actually go towards some useful stuff like BBC radio services, the tech info they now share online, and assistance to community radio stations. Going by watched TV programmes alone it works out as about £3 per cat using “The Secret Life of the Cat” documentary as a benchmark, which is an expensive cat video compared to youtube but better quality (at least from the HD cams) and cheaper than feeding a real one for a week, it did have some decent science content and a good few funny bits (especially when they showed the plain vehicle that contained the HD camera operators for covert filming (same type used by news crews in hostile operating situations where they don’t have military backup), every cat in the neighbourhood sussed it out and glared at it..
A lot of other countries have (sensibly) abolished the TV license and funded public service broadcasting through normal taxation (VAT or the national equivalent is charged on the sale of new TV equipment) even if it means downsizing some content and/or openly admitting that certain channels are state controlled rather than pretending they are independent.
