Walton

I know that there are certain criteria to be met so you don’t have to pay the enforced license fee however.......my television only does DVB-T and apparently RAI (amongst others) are now broadcasting on DVB-T2......that must be a case for non payment as I physically cannot receive RAI unless I pay for a decoder....what do you guys/gals think

philat98

I cancelled the licence in November. We are expecting a visit from the police anytime soon.

Listen Very Carefully

When I first moved to Italy(many years ago) I was told not to bother to get a TV licence as no one had one.Subsequently Italy went to the world cup finals in 2006 (and subsequently won it after Zidane head butted Matterassi and got sent off ) Now thinking like a furbo TV licence person off I went to the post office and got one.And the inevitable happened -every time Italy played detector vans were out in force and made a mint.
I think the licence is actually for owning a TV as opposed to what you watch and certainly when I bought a new TV in Italy after the one I brought from the UK packed up I had to supply personal details and a copy of my Carta d'Identita

philat98

I suspect you a right about TV ownership. Its like folks in the UK who tell the licence inspector that they only watch ITV.

modicasa

If you own a piece of equipment which can receive a tv signal then you should pay. That goes for pc's with a tv card, monitors, tvs, etc. Mobile phones and tablets are currently exempt.
You can go through the hoops to cancel your subscription, but you will have to do it every year. From next year the canone rai will not be included in the enel bill.

Geordieborn

Pure and simple, it's a tax. Might as well call it a "media" tax and get everyone to pay... Let's face it, it is not mega bucks. How are they going to collect it next year Modi? Not a trip down to the PO I hope|

philat98

Its not difficult to cancel. We used a letter but you can use a PEC. The AdE said to remove any TV from the house.

philat98

The Italian TV is much poorer than the BBC and it is filled with adverts. The UK gets good value from the BBC licence fee. I dont see why they dont let the BBC place adverts. Daily Mail readers would be happy.

SanNico

They would receive even more money if they let ex-pats buy a subscription to iPlayer. I rarely watch anything other than BBC online.

C.2s

That's a good point. I'd consider paying for it. Although they then might have issues with selling programmes to other countries I guess. They couldn't very easily restrict access only to expats

Plan B

Assuming you have internet access of at least 10Mbps and that the TV channels from the UK are what you're after (I do think they're at least a bit better than most Italian dross) then I suppose you could use a VPN to make it appear that you are connecting from the UK and thereby use the iPlayer, ITV hub et al and stream whatever UK (or other country's) channel you want. This doesn't obviate the Italian requirement for a licence fee, however it's collected, but at least you could have greater viewing choice. For many UK channels, plus a huge array of foreign channels, you can use a small satellite dish and a suitably programmed decoder.

philat98

Here is the wording on the RAI webpage

Special license holders who no longer own equipment suitable or adaptable for the reception of radio and television broadcasts outside the family environment must send the regional RAI office responsible for the territory, communication of cancellation of the special license, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt or by sending a communication by PEC, using the link indicated below, specifying the destination of the device.

...Equipment suitable or adaptable for the reception of radio and television broadcasts...
You have to get rid of any TVs and radios.

tpw21

They’ve really cracked down on VPNs and it’s really difficult to access most of the time. I pay for one of the leading VPNs and they detecting it even from 100 different servers.
I’d happily pay to access BBC, it’s frustrating they don’t do it - I’m sure it would generate decent amounts of revenue from around the world.

SanNico

Which one are you using? I use Nord which blocked me from Netflix and iPlayer last week using SmartDNS directly on the TV but when I use it on the app through a Firestick it works. My subscription ends tomorrow so I'm going to try a few others to figure out the best way to do it.

Geordieborn

Microsoft have built a free VPN to their Edge browser, problem is it's only 1GB per month usage. Not looked into it, but I'm guessing along will come a cost to get greater usage. The point being it might become difficult for the likes of the BBC to block a range of IPs coming from Microsoft servers... Then of course there are the gangsters in the UK hosting every media show going (including Sky) and selling access to it for a few quid per year!