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Government To Bring Forward Law To Close BBC 'iPlayer Loophole' (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader notes an effort in the UK, as reported by the Guardian, to clamp down on the so-called "iPlayer loophole" which allows BBC programs to be time shifted in a way that avoids paying the television tax. From the article: In a speech on Wednesday, culture secretary John Whittingdale also asked whether popular BBC1 programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing were "distinctive" enough and launched a new initiative on the devastating impact of adblockers on the newspaper industry. After the speech at the Oxford Media Convention, Whittingdale said closing the loophole could not wait for legislation was passed to renew the BBC's royal charter by the end of the year. Instead, it would be done "as soon as practicable" through secondary legislation that could be put before parliament as early as this summer.
iPlayer is the BBC's online catch-up/live TV service. It's integrated into set-top boxes and smart TVs as well as being available from computers (either with Flash or HTML5 (in beta)).
The loophole is that the wording of the TV licencing laws mean you only need a TV licence if you're watching live broadcasts/streams. If you're happy to wait an hour or two for the whatever was just on TV to become available on the on-demand service (which it will be for 30 days or so), no licence is needed.
Not everything that is broadcast makes it to the on-demand service - films, foreign imports, some sports, etc.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
As you could have picked up from the comments, the license is not actually for owning a television. It's a levy, per household, used to fund the BBC. Commercial TV broadcasts adverts to gain funding but BBC broadcasts don't include adverts. Kind of like an annual fee for a "no-ads" version of an online service I suppose, except more expensive. And as near mandatory as you can get; claiming you don't use a TV gets you constant hassle from the TV licensing board.