It says You must be covered by a TV Licence to download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer – live, catch up or on demand. This applies to any device and provider you use. So it does not say if you have access, it says if you use it.
Hopefully I can help clear things up! In fact, we have a Help article for exactly this: Click Here.
To clarify, you need a TV licence if:
a) You watchLive TV on any channel.
and/or
b) You watch anything on BBC iPlayer.
If you don't watch anything live and don't use BBC iPlayer, you don't need a licence. Just having potential access to live channels or iPlayer doesn't count. It's based on actually viewing the content.
I will say that if you do have our lovely Smart Box, but don't have a TV licence, do be careful not to view any of the Freeview channels! It could be easy to flick over to them, and then you'll be liable to pay for one.
If you have the regular NOW TV Box, simply avoid the Live channel sections within the various passes.
And on either, you shouldn't use the BBC iPlayer app at all if you don't have a TV licence.
I can't speak for the BBC, but our viewing data is robust, so we can tell exactly what has watched and when. This should ensure that if someone were accused of watching live TV/iPlayer without a licence, the evidence to back up that claim would be very reliable.
