"Altho a license to watch TV is very bizzaro.." Better that than having your viewing interrupted by adverts every five minutes. The link PJF gave merely states that watching live TV on your puter/phone or whatever is covered by the standard licence. The licence pays for BBC radio as well as TV, also advert-free and very good (you can listen online if you want -- check it out). There are pros and cons with this licence thing, but looking at ALL the alternatives to the BBC (Sky, ITV, Channel 4, Cable etc), the choice comes to either watching populist shit designed to harvest eyeballs for adverts, or watching the BBC. All the subscription services cost way more annualy than the TV licence.