Here at BW headquarters, erudite reporter Paul Smith told us last week, how the BBC’s so-far brilliant iPlayer can be used to watch telly without a TV License.

All good. But as the saying goes, all good things eventually crack you in the shins with rods made of sell-out. The Beeb’s chief techno-illogicist Erik Huggers has called for a license requirement on all iPlayer usage, blathering: “My view is that if you are using the iPlayer you have to be a television licence fee payer. I don’t believe in a free ride. If you are consuming BBC services then you have to be a licence holder…”

Of course, his plan on how to witch-hunt iPlayer users out of all internet-enabled households (and presumably offices?) in the UK remains in his little head of dreams. But in his money-grubbing kerfuffle to cock hop onto a free ride, by taxing people he thinks are getting a free ride, did he fail to notice March’s ‘Review of TV License Fee Collection’? Were his eyes too misted with outrage to read points 38 – 42, which state “98% of households still own television sets” and that it’s “not clear yet whether households are likely to switch to internet streaming”?

Maybe there’s been a new report since March, explaining how a sizeable chunk of the UK’s populous have smugly smashed in their TV sets in favour of iPlayer. Or maybe – just maybe – the BBC have spent our fees on commissioning reports along with special printers that launch all their output into a giant fucking incinerator.

[The Telegraph]

BBC One and BBC Two are coming ‘live’ online to view, from Thursday 27 November 2008.

The move, initially scheduled to launch next year, has been brought forward as part of a 12 month trial.  You will be able to view the channels via the BBC website and on the BBC’s iPlayer service.

But according to BBC Vision director Jana Bennett, you will need a TV license.  How they plan to enforce this is another question.  The BBC iPlayer is available for all without the need for a TV license unless you are watching or recording programmes live as they broadcast.  Major ISPs including Tiscali and BT have already refused to cooperate with the BBC and the TV licensing organisation without a court order or new legislation. We hope it stays this way.