Students will need to buy TV licence to use BBC iPlayer as of next month

From September 1, a change in law means that a licence will be needed to download or watch programmes on demand, including catch-up TV, on the BBC’s platform.

The new regulations apply to watching on all devices, including smart TVs, computers mobile phones and tablets.

A spokesperson for TV Licensing London and The South East said: ‘Watching catch-up TV is really popular among students and we want to make sure students are aware of the change in law.’

Two out of three students use catch-up TV platforms, with iPlayer beating Netflix and YouTube as the most popular.