{"id":270738,"date":"2026-02-06T13:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270738\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:42:08","slug":"bbc-tv-licence-fee-will-go-up-in-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/270738\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC TV licence fee will go up in April"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The TV licence fee<\/a> is to rise by \u00a35.50 from \u00a3174.50 to \u00a3180 from 1 April, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.<\/p>\n

The change will add an extra 46p a month onto the licence fee, and is larger than last year\u2019s rise of \u00a35.<\/p>\n

DMCS says the increase has been calculated by using the consumer price index (CPI), the main metric used to measure inflation<\/a>. This method is set to continue at least until the end of the BBC Charter Period in December 2027.<\/p>\n

The TV licence is a legal permit that must be acquired to watch or record live programmes on any device. Anyone who watches or records broadcasted TV programmes must have a TV licence. This can either be through purchase or given free to those receiving pension credit and 75 years or older.<\/p>\n

This includes the BBC<\/a> iPlayer, and all forms of transmission such as smart televisions, laptops and tablets. It is not only BBC services<\/a> that require a fee \u2013 streaming live sports also requires a TV licence.<\/p>\n

The annual fee is the BBC\u2019s primary source of funding, giving the public broadcaster \u00a33.66 billion in 2023\/24.<\/p>\n

A statement from DMCS says: \u201cThe increase in the cost of the TV licence will help keep the BBC on a stable financial footing, enabling it to continue to deliver on its Mission and Public Purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC is the UK\u2019s number one media brand, with 94% of UK adults using the BBC each month last year and it remains the UK\u2019s most widely used and trusted news outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

It adds: \u201cThe government recognises the financial pressures on households and is committed to ensuring the BBC\u2019s funding model is sustainable, fair and affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the government reportedly began looking at options to expand the licence fee<\/a> and secure long term funding for the public broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\"Culture<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has said she is committed to upholding the licence fee until the review of the BBC\u2019s Royal Charter is due (Lucy North\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has said she is committed to upholding the licence fee until the review of the BBC\u2019s Royal Charter is due in 2027. The minister launched a Green Paper on reforms last year which she said will consult \u201con a wide range of options being considered for the future of the BBC\u201d.<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s 2025 annual report found that a further 300,000 households have stopped paying the licence fee, equating to a loss of around \u00a350m in revenue for the corporation. <\/p>\n

The report added: \u201cAs we approach the end of the charter, we will proactively research how we might reform the licence fee to secure the benefits of a well-resourced, universal BBC of scale for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

One industry proposal is to introduce a household levy that could be attached to council tax bands and still exclude certain groups, a model found in Germany. Ms Nandy has ruled out a new tax to fund the public broadcaster, as is seen in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. <\/p>\n

Last month, it was reported that the BBC is working on ways to use iPlayer<\/a> to find households that have not paid for a TV licence. The move would see up to 30 million online BBC accounts linked with home addresses for the first time to help find households that are accessing the streaming service without a licence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-270738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}