Television Licence - Detection of Evasion of Television Licences

Detection of Evasion of Television Licences

In many jurisdictions, television licences are enforced. The BBC states 'television detector vans' are employed by TV Licensing in the UK. Besides claims of (usually undisclosed) sophisticated technological methods (such as TEMPEST) for the detection of operating televisions, detection of illegal television sets can be as simple as the observation of the lights and sounds of an illegally used television in a user's home at night. Detection is made much easier because nearly all houses do have a licence, so only those houses that do not have a licence need to be checked. However, in the UK there has been not one single prosecution for TV licence evasion based upon evidence obtained using detection equipment, and there is no technical evidence supporting claims that such detection equipment is capable of carrying out the specific task of locating television sets accurately; indeed, detection equipment used even at the perimeter of a dwelling cannot specifically pinpoint receiving devices based upon the equipments I.F. (intermediate) frequency. This frequency is too low down the frequency spectrum (very low wavelength) to allow such capabilities of any equipment, handheld or otherwise. An effort to compel the BBC to release key information about the television detection vans (and possible handheld equivalents) based on the Freedom of Information Act was rejected.