Students in Sheffield will need a licence for BBC iPlayer

The start of the academic year will bring many changes for students in Sheffield, including, for the first time, the need to buy a TV Licence to download or watch BBC programmes on demand.

A change in the law means as of 1 September 2016, a licence will be needed to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer.

Research by TV Licensing1 has revealed iPlayer is the most popular catch up platform used by students, ahead of sites such as YouTube and services including Netflix2.

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The survey confirms 2 in 3 students view catch up TV, with many watching on-demand programmes. With less than a quarter of students (22 per cent) taking a TV with them to university, online viewing on mobile devices has become by far the favoured way of consuming catch up TV content.

Watching TV remains an integral part of university life with 84 per cent of students finding it gives them the chance to relax on their own and more than half (60 per cent) citing TV viewing as a great opportunity to unwind with friends.