Buying a television licence in the UK

Did you know that despite paying for an annual licence, the first year you get one you probably won’t get it for the full year?  Apparently due to the cost of actually billing you on your anniversary, they actually end the licence on the last day of the month prior to you buying it.

So if you buy a twelve month licence on the 30th of May, it will actually expire on the 3oth of April – meaning you’ve paid for a year and only been given a licence for 11 months.  Apparently everyone (certainly the licencing people) think this is acceptable.  I suspect it’s because people don’t actually realise that they were short changed on their first twelve months. Certainly the licence advertising explicitly says that if you buy a 12 month licence you’ll be able to watch it for a year – which is patently wrong.  If they were anyone else, there’d be allegations of misrepresentation.

So, if you’re going to buy a licence for the first time then try to buy it on the first of the month, otherwise be prepared to be short changed when it comes time to renew.