The BBC's deal with YouTube has one possibly interesting side-effect. Back in 2006 the TV licensing authority responded to claims that people watching TV over the Internet didn't need a TV license by pointing to regulation nine of the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 which apparently (ZDNet) "covers any apparatus used for the purpose of receiving — by wireless telegraphy or otherwise — any TV programme service".
I understand you can't avoid the license fee by simply claiming never to watch BBC programming on your TV - if a UK TV can pick up TV programming you need the license. Is the BBC therefore simply future-proofing the license fee by making its programming available on the most popular online video-content platform that anyone with an Internet-ready PC can easily access? It looks more than a little like the precursor to a claim that anyone with an Internet-ready PC must pay the license fee because they could use YouTube to watch the BBC, neatly pre-empting the mass abandonment of television sets by a growing segment of the population comfortable taking all of their programming online.
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