In the UK from about 1919 to 1965 the BBC had a monopoly on radio broadcasts from the UK . They didn ' t have any advertising so in order to possess a radio you needed to pay a radio License . You don ' t need a radio license any more . However from about 1938 in order to possess a TV which isn ' t solely used for console gaming you need a TV license . Since September 1 st in order to watch any TV from around the world LIVE via computer , TV , mobile etc . or the BBC iPlayer you need a TV license , which is currently about 149 . 50 for colour and about 40 for black and white apparently there is still about 20 , 00030 , 000 BW TVs about . Every house is expected to have a TV and TV inspectors can write to you and randomly knock on your house if you don ' t have one and ask to look around your house . You don ' t have to let them in but if you have a TV in your front room and they look through the window you ' re bollocksed . The fine is up to about 1 , 000 . I ' m not sure if you can still go to jail for it or not but it used to be the second most common reason for women to go to jail after shoplifting .