I’m from the states and just heard of the concept for the first time. Curious where this came from and how it’s enforced.
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“License” is a bit of a silly term for it, as we usually associate it with someone being certified to do something dangerous or complex (drive a car, practice medicine, etc.) So it creates a funny image where someone watching TV without a license is somehow endangering themselves or others.
Really it’s more like a tax or fee, like you would pay for trash pickup. It’s on behalf of the BBC, which is a government entity, and they use the proceeds to produce their shows. It has historically been difficult to enforce because broadcast television just kind of goes anywhere. All you need is a TV with an antenna, and they can’t stop you from getting a signal. So you can lie about not having a TV (or not using that TV to watch the BBC) in order to not pay the license while secretly still getting the signals. It probably would have been better to just tax everyone rather than charging a conditional fee, at least once nearly every home had a television in it.
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