When The BBC Comes For You
My front-line experience of the licence fee crisis
The core funding mechanism for one of the world’s biggest and most respected broadcasters is now under threat. The BBC has acknowledged that income from its licence fee is dropping because of serious structural societal and economic headwinds.
Writing to the National Audit Office (link) in March, Director-General Tim Davie flagged several factors to the spending watchdog, including the slowing rate of household growth in the UK, the growing evasion rate and changes in media consumption.
As data from media regulator OfCom has shown (link), YouTube and the Meta platforms are now prolific across all age ranges and the mass adoption of smartphones and digital TVs means consumers go straight to non-BBC content.
The licence fee, which was then set at £159 per household and generated £3.6bn of income for the BBC in the 2023/24 financial year (link), is starting to look outdated and, worse, its political legitimacy is fraying.
That is because the fee is effectively a pseudo-tax, where non-payers can face prosecution and a hefty fine of at least £1,000. There are endless tales in the British media of vulnerable people running foul of the licence fee regime and ending up in court. Here’s just one example (link).
As part of an agreement in place until 2027, the BBC has outsourced the collection of the licence fee to the tune of £145m per year. But owing to the aforementioned issues outlined by Davie to the NAO, the collection rate dropped by £80m last year as the number of licences fell from 24.4m to 23.9m.
Beyond the BBC, Westminster also has a substantial role to play in the licence fee saga. Thanks to the Corporation’s Charter, the licence fee price is set by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (currently Lisa Nandy) and if MPs wanted to they could decriminalise licence fee evasion.
For all their tough talk about the BBC, successive Conservative governments never took this action despite more than a decade in power and it’s very unlikely that the new Labour administration will move against the Corporation in this way.
This leaves the BBC in a tough spot. The evasion rate is only going up. It rose to 11.30% in 2023/24, up from 10.58% the year before. The expectation is that it could get worse. The BBC event admits to its own demographic troubles in the letter to NAO:
“While the majority of UK viewing time is still spent with broadcast TV, the share of time spent with video-on-demand and video sharing continues to increase. For under 35s, video sharing takes the largest share of their video time (c.45%), and within this, YouTube in particular.”
Perhaps that’s why the Corporation is in the business of adopting strong-arms tactics, some of which I’ve been on the receiving end of — despite dutifully paying my licence fee.
The BBC’s non-fee paying letters have become infamous on internet forums. When I received one, I noted a few curious and worrying aspects to them:
There is no email to reply to their accusations.
The letter includes at least one illogical/bad faith statement: “We have not had a response. So this address still does not have a TV licence”.
The letters claim to have ‘scheduled’ an appointment, but the ‘scheduling’ is actually the enforcement team setting their own data and time for a visit.
The letters are signed by a ‘Scott Robson’, who is described as a regional manager, but no online profile of Mr Robson exists and its unclear which region he manages.
Overall, the tone and language of the letter puts the onus on the receiver to prove the allegations wrong rather than the BBC proving them to be true.
When I outlined these issues to the BBC, no apology was forthcoming. They did, however, acknowledge that there was a ‘duplicate address’ which led to their error.
The BBC also provided the below ‘guidance’ points, some of which raise more questions than answers:
We would urge any customers who have questions about their TV Licence, or any correspondence they have received from TV Licensing, to contact our customer service team.
TV Licensing offers customers a number of contact options. Online, customers can use the "contact us" form. Licence holders can also view, renew or change the details on your TV Licence by signing in using their TV Licence or customer number. By phone, our customer service line (0300 790 6058) offers a quick and direct way of dealing with customer queries. People can use the interactive voice recognition service, or speak to an advisor. Customer can also contact TV Licensing by post, and via X (formerly Twitter). Further details can be found here - https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ11
Calls to our 0300 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to a 01 or 02 number, whether from a mobile or landline. If you get inclusive minutes, calls to an 0300 number are included free of charge.
Scott Robson is a TV Licensing regional enforcement manager. We do not provide details of where individual employees are based.
We conduct visits to properties which we don’t have a record of a licence for. These visits are carried out Monday-Sunday, throughout the day and evening, across the country. TV Licensing conducted more than 1.3m visits in 2023/24.
Imagine if I didn’t have a newsletter focused on the media and technology; imagine if I was going through a tough time; or imagine if I was a vulnerable person. Despite the fundamental pressures it’s facing, some of which are outside of its control, the BBC should do better than this.
Other media and tech things I’ve found interesting
Top BBC lobbyist. Sticking with the Corporation for a moment, the BBC has poached a policy and public affairs director from YouTube. Iain Bundred has strong Labour links, having worked for the party and having advised former PM Gordon Brown in Downing Street.
Sex and the media. There have been some great pieces of late covering this topic.
has looked at OnlyFans here (link), the BBC has broadcast a documentary on Loaded magazine here (link) and YouTuber Josh Pieters has produced a Louis Theroux-style documentary on adult actress Lily Phillips here (link). Warning: The last one isn’t exactly safe for work.Reddit on the rise. There’s more evidence that freshly listed Reddit has become a big beneficiary of Google’s search changes. Digiday looks here (link) at how the platform is becoming a hub for sports fans.
Polling predictions. For those who love a survey or two, it’s worth checking out
’s review of the year here (link).Elon X Reform. UK hacks are lapping up claims that Elon Musk could donate to the Nigel Farage-led Reform Party. A more interesting question I would pose: Will Elon share America PAC’s ground-game strategies and tactics, especially ahead of the May elections in the UK next year? Further thoughts on Elon and America PAC here (link).
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