Under UK law, anyone watching “live TV” has to pay the TV licence…
Would it be possible to add an option in the settings of our accounts where we can disable ALL live TV channels, where it cannot be overridden by the individual apps?
This would make any UK user’s life much easier since TV licencing couldn’t then accuse you of watching live TV, even if you only ever use the Plex service for the on-demand side?
Thanks guys,
The Live TV function is not dependent on, or controlled by, an app’s connection to your server, or any server. Anyone can download a Plex app and have the Live TV function without ever connecting to or creating a Plex server. So you have no control over the Live TV function of another user.
That wasn’t what I was asking for. I was asking for an option in our account settings which the app would detect and not give the user an option to even see the live TV streams.
Otherwise, TV licensing can claim, if you use the app (eg on the firestick) that you’re watching live TV (even if you’re not) and successfully prosecute the user, possibly including fines.
If we could select a box in the account that said "Please don’t show me any live TV channels when you load the app, but instead go straight to the “on demand” section and don’t give me any options to change to Live.
Obviously, if someone is using a plex server, that’s another issue, but for general use, it would help to remove any risk of ending up with being landed with a fine and a criminal record that would affect any CRB checks they need to have done in the future.
I just checked and there already exists such an option, which I managed to miss three times… so thread isn’t needed.
You mean like this?
https://app.plex.tv/desktop/#!/settings/online-media-sources
But I very much doubt that this option will allow you to avoid the Beeb tax. Particularly because it’s so easy to change.
Yeah, like I said, I managed to miss it several times.
All you need is plausible balance of evidence that you’ve not been watching Autie Beeb’s stuff on iPlayer or youtube (easier with the first, since they require a login now) and it’s up to them to prove the latter, apparently… I suspect your viewing history would be pretty solid evidence there.
If you have an app that has “TV” as part of its name and which has live TV as a part of its service, an option to disable that side of it that, when set to disable it, I think might be sufficient in its own right. Of course, it’s a magistrate, not a jury, so they’ll likely believe the Beeb, but still…
But yeah… definite facepalm 
when I realised it was already there… 
2023 clean-up: feature already available (see above; considering as „implemented“)
