BBC licence fee is set to soar above £200 within five years while millions of households stop paying
A BBC promotional campaign featuring the corporation's highest-paid celebrities, as the OBR projects nearly half a million paying households will be lost every year through to 2031.New BBC chief Matt Brittin has called the compulsory licence fee a "busted flush", with one in eight households now dodging payment despite using BBC services.
OBR forecasts show the BBC licence fee will climb from £180 to £202.60 by 2031 if it continues rising with inflation, hitting millions of households already squeezed by the cost of living. The number of payers is projected to fall by 2.7 million to just 19 million — a sharper drop than the OBR predicted as recently as March.
Half a million households are abandoning the licence fee every year, and the BBC has lost over £1 billion from cancellations and non-payment.
A 'YouTube tax' on streaming platforms — Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ among them — is expected to appear in a white paper on BBC charter renewal before Christmas.
New BBC chief Matt Brittin has called the compulsory charge a 'busted flush', with one in eight households now dodging payment despite using BBC services.
