TV Licensing
Our roles and responsibilities
TV Licensing has a number of roles and responsibilities. We process payments and respond to customer queries. We inform people when they need to buy a TV Licence and give information on the many ways they can pay. We're also responsible for identifying people who aren't correctly licensed and prosecuting people who evade paying their TV Licence. It's our aim to maximise licence fee revenue by collecting the fee in the most cost efficient way possible.
How we use our database
We maintain a database of licensed and unlicensed addresses in the UK. We use this database to identify and contact people that we believe are using a TV receiver without a valid TV Licence.
Checking properties are correctly licensed
Typically we'll send a number of letters to remind occupants of the importance of being properly licensed. Then we’ll try to contact them by phone. If there’s still no response, we may send an enforcement officer to see if there's a TV receiver on the premises. Visits can result in evaders being caught. On average around 1,000 evaders are caught daily.
Detection equipment will only be used if other less intrusive and more cost effective routes have been exhausted.
About us
Latest press releases
- TV Licensing publishes 2011 evader statistics
- 31/1/2012
- Almost 390,000 people across the UK were caught watching a TV without a valid licence in 2011, according to figures published today by TV Licensing.
- TV Licence reminder for businesses this Christmas
- 15/12/2011
- TV Licensing urges businesses to make sure they are correctly licensed over the festive season.
- TV Licensing's guide to stress-free Christmas TV
- 13/12/2011
- One in five UK households expect to argue about what to watch on television over the festive period according to a TV Licensing study.
