As streaming services steam ahead of traditional visual media, the concept of a TV Licence is quickly becoming irrelevant. Between 2021 and 2022, 1.96 million households declared that they do not watch live television which had gone up from 270,000 in the previous period. In 1977 the Central Office of Information brought out this PIF, featuring the infamous TV detector van creeping down the street to catch those illegally watching Columbo. In July of that year, the TV Licence went up overnight, without warning. The Times suggested at the time that the sudden and unannounced increase was due to ‘the difficulty experienced’ when the public was forewarned about the previous increase in 1975, suggesting some unrest. In December the same year, The Times ran an article reporting that the TV licence was predicted to increase another 30% by July 1978. This was due to an estimated 850,000 TV licence evaders, costing the BBC 12 million a year. The release of this PIF is no surprise, the slightly ominous “it won’t take us long to find you” and comically large control panel won’t do much for viewers today, and appears not to have done much for viewers then either, as The Times reported an increased figure of 1 million evaders in November 1978.