2.84 million viewers are refusing to pay the BBC licence fee – a 360,000 increase from last year. It looks increasingly as if the BBC cannot survive on its current funding model and should become a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime. The Mail has more.
The BBC is facing a revolt from millions of television viewers who are no longer willing to pay the television licence fee.
A record 2.84 million people now insist they are no longer obliged to fork out £159 for the annual charge because they don’t watch BBC channels or any kind of live TV.
This figure is an increase of more than 360,000 on the previous twelve months.
This abandonment of the BBC will exacerbate the debate about the future of both the broadcaster and the licence fee.
Toby Young, the Founder and Director of the Free Speech Union said: “These figures show that the TV licence fee is not a viable funding model for the BBC going forward.”
He added: “The obvious alternative is to become a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Given the BBC’s global brand recognition and its reputation for producing premium content, it could become the largest and most profitable streaming service in the world.”
The increase in the number of people claiming they are not liable to pay the charge is one of the factors driving a fall in the number of licences sold.
Last year TV Licensing (TVL) which collects the licence fee on behalf of the BBC sold 23.50 million licences.
That was a drop of around 420,000 on the previous year’s figure.
Of course, any reduction in the number of licenses sold has implications for the BBC’s finances.
The Corporation is already having to cut services following the Government’s decision in 2022 to freeze the licence fee for two years.
Last year the BBC earned £3,741 million from the licence fee compared with £3,800 million the previous year.
That is a fall of £59 million.
At the same time the public service broadcaster is also having to deal with an increase in licence fee evasion from people who are eligible to pay but don’t.
The estimated evasion rate, which in part is being driven by the cost of living crisis, has increased to over 10% for the first time since 1995.
It is believed the current rate of licence fee evasion is costing the BBC £430 a million a year.
Worth reading in full.
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It could accelerate quite a bit. Those of us (like me) that have granted direct debit usually forget about it and let them grab the cash. No doubt it’s well understood that DD helps to maintain revenue. I was the treasurer of a an organisation for several years that manifested that effect. Very few new members that granted DD dropped out annually.
You can cancel your DD and apply for the return of any over payment.
I don’t even bother to self declare anymore. They send (obvious by the envelope) BBC threatening letters every couple of months which I take great joy in throwing away unopened these days.
I’ve not paid the BBC extortion for at least 15 years and before that it was only because my house mate wanted to watch TV and had an annoying habit of opening the door to randoms.
I responded to a “thank you for donating” email from Toby Young back in May with a quip about the BBC sending monthly threats for not using their service.
6 days later, and after years of no-one visiting in-person, an “officer” put a note through my door and sat in his car outside my house. In a remote location on a dead end road, this sort of activity stands out. I went out to take some pictures and a shabby bloke with an Eastern European accent confirmed he was from TV licensing. Rather than quizzing me about a TV, he got back in his car and drove away. No more letters so far.
Nor should you self declare. You don’t have to let Tescos know that you won’t be shopping with them.
You only need a TV licence for watching or recording live TV (broadcast, satellite or live streamed) and using iPlayer. You don’t need one for catch-up of ITV, etc.
Propaganda by coercion or propaganda by subscription? I prefer the latter because it’s easier to ignore. We only need to look at the criticism of the content to see that the brand recognition and reputation are a facade.
“BBC: Brainwashing Britain?” by David Sedgwick is quite a good read.
“… costing the BBC £430 a million a year.”
Cost is an outlay, what is happening to the BBC is a loss in revenue. There is a difference.
Apologies for repeating myself, but earlier this year I made a civil claim against the BBC for harrassment for continuing to send threatening letters after a visit from an “enforcement officer”. It was amazing that every letter or email they sent contained a lie. The culture of lies and disinformation obviously permeated all the way down to poor old Donna in Customer Relations. She couldn’t seem to help it! Any way they paid me £450…
Well done
Cheers
Brilliant!
Good.
The People´s Revolt has begun.
BBC is headed the way of Coutt´s bank and Costa coffee.
And good riddance.
Didn’t stop them giving Huw Edward’s a big old pay rise though just days before the shite hit the fan..
This is a good news story, but we need to be careful what we wish for. I believe in Aus, the licence fee was removed and instead the Gov now centrally funds it through normal taxation!
Then it will be no longer able to claim impartiality and people will see it as nothing more than a medium of government propaganda.
If it cannot control its bias then we must take its scalp.
I already pay somebody to put garbage out( the council) – I ain’t paying the BBC for the same.
The reason I cancelled my licence fee direct debit this year is due to the outright lies that are being presented as facts on the news (eg climate change related issues) and also the introduction of stress inducing beats throughout news programs on TV and radio. This is something that began just a couple of years ago. So even though the BBC does produce some excellent programs, I would not subscribe due to these issues.
The BBC is the mouthpiece of Satan.
I remember celebrating John Majors election victory outside Conservative HQ in Smith square. Whenever a BBC reporter tried to interview anyone a chant went up of “privatise the BBC”. Every time I read or hear the latest tosh from the BBC I think back to that moment. It really is time now.
Not paying the TV propaganda tax and not voting for any establishment party is surely the duty of everyone who believes in free speech, the nation state, liberty and freedom. They have gone rogue and thus no longer can enjoy our support and consent.