Freeview, Freesat and Now Freely - None of Which Are Free.

I'm seeing a lot of televisions now including the freely service where you don't need an aerial or satellite connection to watch live TV just a internet connection. As ever none of these 'free' services are free you must have a £170 TV licence to use them.

However I wonder how this effects your chances of being prosecuted for TV Licence evasion. There is now a 2 way connection when accessing live TV broadcasts. It feels like this could be a huge aid in prosecuting people. It is still a criminal offence to not pay the TV licence and one third of women in prison are there for non-payment of the TV licence in that they were fined for not buying a TV licence and then didn't pay that fine. Remember TV licence evasion is a criminal offence so you get a criminal record etc it is not like not paying your credit card bill or tab at your local pub which are civil offences. You can seriously damage your job prospects, chance of a mortgage and have sky high car insurance etc by not paying your TV licence and being prosecuted despite being a unfair tax for a service you have no interest in which is the crime itself in my opinion.

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It would have been a great opportunity with freely to have a simple option where you state you don't have a TV Licence and you would still have access to live channels funded by advertising like ITV but as it stand its still illegal to watch any live TV without a TV licence. This massively damages the income of many channels funded by advertising. It is now over 3 million homes that don't have a TV licence possibly more. The amount of homes giving up their TV licence is accelerating. Freely could be a greater risk of prosecution for many families. You may disconnect the aerial and satellite connection but if someone in your house accesses Freely services like a child you could be liable for a huge expense and even a criminal record. You need a internet connection for all the streaming services so you can't just disable the internet. If you are buying a TV with Freely perhaps choose a TV with the android operating system so you can disable the freely app possibly like many have disabled the iplayer app.