TV Licence warning over £173.49 charge for everyone watching Olympics

Everyone watching the Olympics this weekend is being warned over £173.49 TV Licence and subscription charges.

The official Olympics opening ceremony kicks off on Friday, July 26 and a month long celebration of international sport and athletics will follow.

But people wanting to watch the entire Olympics games, with all the events live, will this year have to spread their viewing between the BBC and the Discovery Plus app.

This year, the rights to the Olympics have been split between the BBC and Warner Bros Discovery, the latter via its Discovery Plus app.

The BBC will have 500 live hours of the Paris Olympics on two streams, with highlights of other events available as well, while Discovery will show 3,800 hours across 55 channels.

It means that to watch the Olympics this year, you’ll need a £169.50 TV Licence and a £3.99 Discovery Plus subscription as well.

It means the total charge for watching the Games is £173.49, if you only watch the Olympics live this year and nothing else.

And if you plan on watching any of it live, you will still need a TV Licence to watch live coverage on Discovery Plus, because it comes under ‘live TV’.

The TV Licence rules state: “Live TV means any programme you watch or record as it’s being shown on any channel, TV service or streaming service. It’s not just live events like football, cricket, news and music. It also covers soaps, series, documentaries and even movies.”

And the Licence applies even if you’re watching on a phone or laptop, rather than a TV.

It adds: “A TV Licence covers you for all TV channels, pay TV services like Sky, and live TV on streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Netflix and Freely. As well as everything on BBC iPlayer.

“This applies to any device. Some of these devices can be powered solely by their own internal batteries. Your home TV Licence will usually cover you to use these away from home.”

If you flout the law, you could be fined £1,000.

TV Licence adds: “You could be prosecuted if we find that you have been watching, recording or downloading programmes illegally. The maximum penalty is a £1,000 fine plus any legal costs and/or compensation you may be ordered to pay.”