Law set to close licence fee loophole over iPlayer

THE ‘iPlayer loophole’ that lets viewers watch catch-up TV without paying the licence fee will be closed at the end of this month.

From September 1 anyone using the iPlayer service on a tablet, laptop, mobile phone or computer will need to be covered by a TV licence, which costs £1 5.50 a year.

The crackdown will affect almost 1.5million people in 700,000 households and businesses.

Households without licences are being informed of the change in the law. Several methods could be used to police the new system, which will not apply to those watching Netflix and non-BBC shows on demand on sites such as All and ITV Hub. A password could be linked to each TV licence. Users would have to enter it to watch shows on iPlayer.

An alternative would be to ask viewers to enter their personal details to use the service and crosscheck with addresses for where a licence is held.

TV Licensing said: ‘As of September 1, 2016, a change in the law means you need to be covered by a TV licence to download or watch BBC programmes on demand – including catch-up TV – on BBC iPlayer. This applies to all devices.’