TV Licensing – Community Relations Team

The TV Licensing Community Relations team was set up to better interact with organisations that play a big part in their local communities. We are committed to making our information accessible to everyone in the community, and we work with a range of organisations such as housing, caring, money advice and multilingual groups to achieve this. As well as the services that I previously mentioned we also have a monthly newsletter for stakeholders called In Brief, which succinctly provides up-to date important info for stakeholders.

Over the last year we have been trialling a new payment plan for people who have previously struggled to pay for their tv licence. This is called The Simple Payment Plan and it offers a discounted initial payment, as well as not doubling up arrears if a payment is missed (as the current TV Licensing payment plans do). This means that the tv licence should no longer be a financial burden for people with money problems and thus far we’ve had great feedback from stakeholder’s that were involved with the trial.

The trial has now ended but over the next few months TV Licensing will be reviewing it with the hope of implementing it as a permanent payment method. A big part of the community relations team’s job with regards to this was engaging with stakeholders and people using the Simple Payment Plan to get as much feedback as possible. Ultimately, we are the means of communication between the community and BBC TV Licensing.

TV Licensing Community Relations can provide support in the following areas:
Support for local and national community organisation’s, including a telephone and email service to:

  1. -Order free literature in over 100 languages (including braille)
    -Updates from TV Licensing as required for your newsletter, website, social media or advisers’ internal briefing publications. For example, info on concessions, price changes and updates on the progress of the Simple Payment Plan.
  2. Helping stakeholders to understand the different ways people can pay.
  3. Equally, if there’s anything relating to tv licensing that stakeholders are unsure about or any specific issues please contact Wainwright@finncomms.com, or alternatively call the dedicated stakeholder helpline: 0300 790 6144