How the BBC can stop iplayer licence cheats

I read your ‘Question of the Fortnight’ in Issue 483 (‘Is the BBC spying on your WI-FI?’) and was, frankly, incredulous. If the likes of Netflix can stop non-payers from streaming or downloading content, surely a similar approach is open to the BBC? All they have to do is make potential (and existing) iplayer viewers open accounts in order to gain access. TV licence numbers and main addresses could be checked as part of the initial identification process. From that point on, the viewer would only need to enter their username and password to set up the iplayer app on mobile devices and their smart TV (just like Channel 4’s All 4 and similar apps).

The licence holder would need to share the username and password with other members of the household so they can also take advantage.

Of course, this method would be far from perfect – you could not, for example, stop a TV licence holder giving out username and password details to any freeloader who asks. But using methods that have been tried and tested by other successful media providers has got to be better than inventing and deploying a whole new technology based on wishful thinking. But then, the BBC seems to no longer have the technical savvy that once made it great. John Lawrence

I do love your magazine even though some articles have me fr frothing at the mouth (almost). The ar article in question this time was the one ab about the BBC iplayer. Back in the 1950s th there were three things you could do wi with a TV. You could use it as an expensive paperweight; as a door stop; or even, as many did, as a television. This is not the case today. A TV now can be used for a host of other things apart from watching shows. Also back in the

1950s and even in the 60s, 70s, and 80s it may have been acceptable to have a BBC bureaucrat knocking on your door demanding to search your home because you were suspected of watching TV without a licence. This is no longer acceptable – or at least it shouldn’t be.

The BBC should be funded through subscription. If you want it then you pay the subscription and get it. If you don’t want it then you don’t pay the subscription and you won’t be able to get it - but you would be allowed to use your TV for all the other things it is capable of. Maurice Belshaw