[jambutty]

Originally Posted by garinda

Or watching it illegally in other European countries.

Where a woman will come round with a little black box, charge you a fiver a month, and there you go, wall to wall Ross, Brand and Norton.

The fiver stays in the woman's pocket, and to the best of my knowledge doesn't go in Jonathan Ross's.

It isn’t illegal to watch TV programmes. It is illegal to watch them without an appropriate license, if one is applicable. In fact it is worse than that. You need a TV license if you have working equipment capable of receiving TV programmes. Whether you watch any or not is irrelevant.

If you are in international waters you can watch UK TV without a license quite legally, as you can in nearby countries, although if that country has a similar licensing scheme you will need one.

However if your ship enters UK waters it immediately becomes liable for a TV license, even a foreign ship.

The Dutch regularly watch our TV for free. I don’t know if The Netherlands has a TV licensing system.