It wil be all change for iPlayer afficionados and BBC Three freaks tomorrow as a new TV licensing regime begins across the county.

As of September 1, a licence will be needed to download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer.

While the majority of households will already be covered, those who do not will need a licence to watch BBC programmes on demand, no matter whether iPlayer is accessed through another provider such as Sky or Virgin.

This applies to all devices, including a smart TV, desktop computer or laptop, mobile phone, tablet, digital box or games console. However a licence will not be needed to watch other on demand services, such as ITV Player or Netflix.

The new licensing laws will particularly hit students, with research by TV Licensing revealing that iPlayer is the most popular catch up platform used by people at university, ahead of sites such as YouTube and services including Netflix.

With less than a quarter of students taking a TV with them to university, online viewing on mobile devices has become by far the favoured way of consuming catch up TV content.

Caroline McCourt, spokesperson for TV Licensing, said: "Watching catch up TV is really popular among students and we want to make sure students are aware of the change in law. From September 1, everyone will need to be covered by a TV Licence to watch BBC TV programmes on demand – including catch up – on iPlayer. Students can check at our dedicated TV Licence for students page whether they are correctly licensed before the big move.

"And, of course, you still need to be covered by a licence for all live viewing and recording, no matter which channel you are watching or what device you are watching on."