Want To Watch BBC iPlayer? You’ll Need A TV License Now

So you come in from a long day and decide to catch up on that show everyone’s talking about, it’s been a few hours since it showed on the TV so you know it will be watchable on the many catch-up TV services, all with the added bonus of not having to pay for a TV license. This has all changed now thanks to changes that were announced today, meaning that in order to watch anything on popular catch-up services like BBC iPlayer, you’ll need to buy that TV license after all.

The changes were announced by Culture Secretary John Whittingdale meaning that now if you want to watch anything via catch-up TV services you’ll still need the £145.50 yearly license. The BBC is said to be moving its oversight from an internal trust to the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and will in the new structure be looking at creating more “distinctive content”.

With it looking like you’ll soon need a login and password to access any catch-up TV shows, even those shown weeks in advance, is the new requirement only going to force more people into finding their favorite shows online from the legal sources like Amazon Prime and Netflix or maybe force more into finding their favourite shows online from less than legal sites in order to find the shows they want weeks before they launch on “catch-up” TV services.