I have no TV and, therefore, do not pay for a TV licence. However, the BBC is planning to allow people to download and view their programmes on their computers. Does this mean that I will require a TV licence for my laptop? Victoria Richardson
It seems this is still under discussion. The BBC's interactive media player iMP lets you download and view programmes up to a week after they have been transmitted. It does not obviously fall under the law that says, to quote the BBC: "A licence is required to receive programmes broadcast 'live' or 'virtually live'."
The BBC's iMP help file says: "Advances in technology mean that in some instances the ability to download programmes via iMP might bring them within the television licensing regime. iMP is currently a technical trial with around 4,000 participants, and we are currently reviewing the specific legal and policy implications of the service."
However, since you don't need a TV licence to watch a BBC series on DVD, I don't see why you should need one to watch it from a memory card or a hard drive.
