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As with any criminal offence the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the offece occurred. I believe that most TV licence convictions are achieved by confession.
The TV licence has been debated for many years in the UK. It's not a good way to fund public service broadcasting but it's hard to come up with anything better. A bit like democracy, where Churchill said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
The BBC has been through good times and bad. It's made horrible mistakes (look at today's news about J***y S****e) and had huge triumphs. It's survived attacks from politicians of all colours. See comments about licence fee and democracy above.
The "monochrome only" TV licence is down to about 9000. I'm sure it will be phased out soon. I've appeared on radio and TV occasionally to talk about it. I wrote part of the last TV licensing press release on the subject. I believe that most of the B&W licence holders actually have colour sets but it's politically too sensitive to pursue them. Yes, you'd catch some offenders but you'd generate some bad publicity when you also hassle some poor old ladies and vocal enthusiasts. For the of sake about $1.5 million per year it's not worth it. Even when I had a quiet chat with the TV Licence peoople they won't directly admit this but it's pretty obvious.
For about $4.50 per week I think it represents pretty good value.
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