Sky is AFAIK also owned by intercontinental greedy fat shitbag, freedom-and-democracy-hater Rupert Murdoch. You don't want to give him any more money, that's for sure.
I had visit form licensing guy back in London and even though I had TV in a diner he didn't complain we were not paying fees at a time.
I simply explained that TV is broken and serves as a modern art sculpture. :smile: (it was broken)
And it has changed because you can use your TV for commercial purpose (many estate agents use them for window displays) and not pay any TV license.
Anyway my advise is - if you watch and like what UK TV has to offer, PAY!
When buying TV in UK your details are automatically passed to TV licensing people and they already know where to find you.