For those that have missed the previous debate, we’ve touched on it twice before – namely here:

http://outwithabang.rickwaghorn.co.uk/?p=43

And again, here…

http://outwithabang.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/if-i-watch-bbc-news24-on-an-apple-iphone-do-i-need-a-tv-licence-discuss/

Because now, of course, BBC News24 and BBC Parliament are not going to be the only ‘live’ channels you can access through everything from your Apple iPhone – soon of course to be the Mark II, 3G version and ergo, even more capable of ‘broadcasting’ Match Of The Day on the late bus home – to your Wii console.

Cos here comes BBC1 itself…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/04/bbc.television2

And here comes The Guardian’s interpretation of when we all need a TV Licence; or rather, the BBC’s version of said question culled from Auntie’s own website…

“Despite the move meaning viewers will not need a television to access BBC1, they will still have to pay the licence fee.

“According to the corporation’s licence fee website: “You need a TV licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top box, video or DVD recorder, computer or mobile phone to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV.”

I expect we will have to defer to Sao Paulo on this, but to my mind one of the key phrases comes at the end there… as they are being shown on TV… ie being ’simulcast’.

Which is exactly what the BBC have in mind for their flagship channel…

So, access that on your Apple iPhone and you need a TV licence – don’t you?

Sao Paulo has already thrown one fly into an already murky ointment by suggesting that, by the letter of the law, you don’t need a TV licence for ‘battery operated’ receiving equipment which – on that interpretation – rules out mobile phones. But rules ‘in’ Wii consoles?

And rules ‘out’ lap-tops if they are on you lap on the bus home, but rules them ‘in’ if, when I get home, I plug same lap-top in..?

And will the onus now fall on the good people of Apple and Sony to inform their customers that if they are to access BBC1 via their respective phone and game platforms, you’ll need a TV licence you know…

Of late, there’s been a fascinating catty fight over the two, opposing revenue structures heading to a local lawn near you – the bloated BBC with all that licence fee cash; the 300lb gorilla of TrinityMirror’s nightmares as opposed, of course, to all those poor, suffering regional newspapers with just a cover price and some disappearing advertisers for company…

But given the minefield of all the above – and I still suspect there is a whole generation out there in student bed-sit land who will look at their mobile phone, lap-top and Wii and not say: ‘Oooh, that reminds me… must get a TV licence…’ – it must be a moot point as to whose funding foundations are actually resting on the softer sand.

From where I sit at my plugged-in lap-top awaiting the arrival of EastEnders, MotD and Co, there ain’t much in it…

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