The BBC licence fee may be set to soar towards £200

The BBC licence fee is set to soar towards £200 while the number of paying households plunges by nearly 5%. Official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility show the annual charge – currently £174.50 – could climb to just under £197 by the end of the decade if it continues tracking inflation.

At the same time, the number of fee-payers is projected to fall by more than one million, dropping to around 21 million, as viewers turn to streaming giants such as Netflix , Amazon Prime and Disney+. The crisis has been fuelled by mounting evasion and cancellations. The BBC lost over £1 billion last year through households ditching the levy or refusing to pay. Some 300,000 more stopped paying in 2024 alone.

A report by the Pub

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