Petition to scrap the licence fee charge reaches over 11,000 signatures

The licence fee increases from April

The licence fee has often been a fierce source of debate. By law, if you watch any live TV, including on other channels such as ITV and Channel 4, you have to pay up.

Additionally, if you watch or stream live programming on any online TV streaming service, such as BBC iPlayer or Sky Go, you should be paying for your license.

For the last two years the fee has been frozen at £159 a year, but from April this year it will rise to £169.50.

If you don’t pay the fee, you could potentially land yourself in court and being forced to pay a £1,000 fine, on top of court costs.

Now, more than 11,000 people have signed a petition calling for the fee to be replaced with a BBC subscription service.

The e-petition, created by Marie Davis, has passed the 10,000 signature threshold which entitles it to a written response from the UK Government.

The ‘Abolish the TV licence and make the BBC a subscription channel’ petition has been posted on the petitions-parliament website and argues that the TV licence is “more expensive than a lot of subscriptions” and suggests that people “should have the choice as to whether we pay to watch it”.

If it reaches 100,000 signatures, it would be considered by the Petitions Committee for debate in Parliament. 

In December, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Lucy Frazer announced the licence fee will be going up by £10.50.

She also revealed that the number of households holding TV licences fell by 400,000 last year, and has declined by around 1.7 million since 2017-18, which is increasing the pressure on the BBC’s licence fee income.

From Autumn 2024, a review into the current funding model of the BBC will start. This will look at “alternative funding” for the TV licence fee.

A TV licence will cost £169.50 from April 2024. You can pay it all in one go, or:

• Pay by monthly Direct Debit
• Pay less for your licence if you’re over 75, registered blind, or live in a care home
• Pay by quarterly Direct Debit
• Pay weekly, fortnightly or monthly with a TV Licensing payment card - once the card is set up you can pay online, through the TV Licensing app, by phone, text message or at any PayPoint

You can check if you need a TV licence on the TV Licensing website here.

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