Images

With so much quality TV now online from the likes of Netflix and Disney, I’ve taken a look into whether paying for the BBC represents good value for money.

It’s been announced that in April 2025, the TV Licence is increasing by £5 a year, with the annual cost set to be £174.50.

This is the first inflation linked increase in three years, and that’ll continue until 2027. However, it won’t reverse years of underfunding thanks to zero or below inflation hikes, which led to budget cuts – and many would argue a lowering of quality in BBC output.

For some, this latest increase means they’ll advocate for people to cancel their TV Licence now rather than pay more. I’ve shared in this article who needs to have one and who doesn’t.

However for me, the big question isn’t how to ditch the licence fee, but should you?

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Who needs a TV Licence

Here’s when you need a TV Licence:

• If you watch any live TV
• If you record any TV
• If you watch BBC TV on iPlayer, no matter the device (eg on your phone, games console, TV etc)

Despite more and more of us using streaming services, this is still pretty much most TV viewing.

So realistically the only way you’re eligible to avoid the licence fee is if you only watch online streaming or catch up services (not including iPlayer), and if you never watch or record broadcast TV.

Now if that’s the case, then you don’t have to pay, and I’ve shared further down how you can cancel your TV Licence.

Over 75s

A rule change a few years ago meant not all over 75s get a free TV Licence. However, many will still be able to claim one as long as they already receive pension credit. Here’s more information on the TV Licensing website.

Before we start

Everyone has an opinion about the BBC, especially the news output which those on the right say is too left wing and those on the left say is too right wing. We’re going to put that aside for this analysis and focus just on what you get for the money you pay.

I also want to put my cards on the table here at the start. When I was five or six, I declared that I wanted to work for the BBC when I was older. And I did. From 22 to 33 years old I worked all over the Beeb, before leaving to start up Be Clever With Your Cash. So it’s important to me.

Though it’s certainly not perfect (what large organisation is?). I do believe we’re better off as a country with the BBC than without. And that will obviously inform on my analysis below.

But it’s more than a decade since I left the broadcaster, and so much has changed in that time – not just at the BBC, but also how we consume our media – which goes for me too.

And the cost of living crisis has made every penny we spend so much more important, making value for money as a licence fee payer something that really does need interrogating.

What I watch

So do I get value from BBC TV? Over the last few years my TV viewing has changed drastically. Many of my favourite dramas and comedies can be found on Netflix, Sky Atlantic and Disney+.

Yet I do still watch plenty of excellent normal TV, mainly BBC and Channel 4 (you need a TV Licence to watch or record any live TV). In fact some of the best shows I’ve watched over the last year have been on these channels.

Happy Valley, Ghosts, Traitors, Race Across the World, Match of the Day, Wimbledon, Ludwig and Outlaws (all BBC), through to It’s a Sin, The Great British Bake Off and The Handmaid’s Tale (all C4). And there are plenty of great older shows available on-demand too, such as classic Attenborough, Motherland, His Dark Materials, Peaky Blinders, The IT Crowd and The Bridge.

And I’m not alone. Most TV viewing is of a free to watch channel, whether that’s via Freeview or Sky. And the most-watched shows every year are on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Even big import TV shows like Game of Thrones or Stranger Things haven’t come close.

Still, £175 every year is a lot of money. And there are some cheaper alternatives with very good programmes.

How the TV Licence cost compares to other media services

If you pay for the TV Licence monthly at the new price it’ll work out as £14.54 a month.

It’s far cheaper than paying for TV via Sky or Virgin, where you’re looking at at least double that amount every month, and potentially as much as £100.

Elsewhere we’ve seen a number of streaming services hike prices, closing the gap to the licence fee.

Sky’s “on-demand” service NOW is £9.99 a month for the Entertainment channels (not movies or sport), or £119.88 a year – though there are deals to get this even cheaper, often half the price. But if you want HD and to ditch adverts you’ll pay another £6 to £9 each month.

Amazon Prime now comes in at £95 for the year, which is £7.92 a month (and streaming only is available at £5.99 a month) – though you’ll need to pay extra if you don’t want adverts.

After clamping down on sharing, Netflix starts at £5.99 a month (with adverts), but the most popular package is £12.99 a month, working out at £15588 a year. You can pay more, at £18.99 a month for the top tier

Disney revamped prices in October 2024, so you’ll pay either £4.99, £8.99 or £12.99 a month, while Apple TV+ also increased monthly costs (again) to £8.99 a month.

And there are others like Paramount+ (£4.99 with ads, £7.99 or £10.99 a month without adverts), while you can pay for extra content and no adverts via ITVx (£5.99 a month).

So on the whole, though there are more and more of these streaming services, and they all keep getting more expensive, they can be cheaper alternatives (if you get them on their own, or cut the price you pay via offers or go for the basic versions with adverts).

That’s a persuasive argument for ditching the Licence Fee as far as cost goes. However, I believe that as long as you can afford it, you get more for your money from the BBC than the premium services.

Featured investing offer

eToro Free £50 in fractional shares

Customer rating 3.8/5

• Offer

  free £50 in fractional shares*
• Annual fee

  £0
• Investment styles

  Shares, funds or ready-made portfolios
• Minimum deposit

  $50

Invest in a general investment account or stocks and shares ISA (additional fees apply)

• FSCS Protected? Yes
• Interest on uninvested cash 3% on balances up to $50,000, 3.8% on balances over this
• Fractional shares Yes
• Foreign exchange fee 0.7%
• Fund fees If you invest in funds, you'll have to pay fund fees, which cost on average ~0.16% per year, with additional market-spread effects up to 0.05%
• Offer You need to sign up, verify your account and deposit at least £200 to get the free assets. ISA deposits aren't included in the £200 requirement to get the offer.
• Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Yes, FRN 583263
• Risk warning The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. ISA powered by Moneyfarm. ISA rules apply. UK residents only.
• Accounts available General investment account, stocks and shares ISA (additional fees apply)

View Deal

What the Licence Fee pays for

The thing people ranting against the TV Licence tend to forget is the money doesn’t just pay for BBC TV drama, documentaries and comedy. It also funds BBC news, sport, CBBC, radio and online.

And it’s these areas which I think make that £14.54 suddenly feel like really good value. So I’ve broken down this price between all the things it pays for and calculated below what I think is a fair representative value for each BBC service.

These figures are just for me – you will have your own views on what you use and don’t use.

BBC TV & iPlayer

My price: £7 a month / £84 a year

So imagine the drama, comedy, entertainment and factual part of the fee was the same price as the other streaming services at £10. Oh and iPlayer.

No matter what you might instinctively think if you just turn the TV on and watch something live, I think if you really looked at what’s on, you’d find plenty of quality new and old content to keep you going throughout the year. We’ve actually got a long list of shows we want to watch and not got around to, and add at least a couple every month.

But let’s say it’s £7, representing half of the money you pay. That’s even cheaper than most of the other options (and no adverts). I think many people would think that’s pretty fair for what you get.

And don’t forget this includes funding the production of BBC programmes you might actually end up watching on a service like Netflix! Without the licence fee they wouldn’t be made in the first place.

BBC Radio & BBC Sounds

My price: £3.50 a month / £42 a year

I’ve got a cool digital radio for the shower. There are four presets, and we’ve got BBC 5Live, BBC 6 Music, Heart 80s and Absolute 90s saved. My god, I hate the adverts on the latter two, making BBC radio essential.

And during the first lockdown in particular I was mainlining 5Live – a fantastic example of national broadcasting when we needed it most.

BBC podcasts are no longer just radio shows put online. Many are commissioned just for BBC Sounds, including the excellent documentary Vishal (produced by my friend Satiyesh) and music shows. Plus it’s a great way to catch up on radio you might have missed.

I do listen to a lot of Spotify, and there are some great podcasts out there (have you listened to our Cash Chats show yet?). So it is possible to get good quality music and speech content (though you need to pay to avoid constant adverts).

However, given the choice between paying for Spotify (at £11.99 a month) and paying for BBC Radio, I’d pick BBC Radio. And at an equivalent price of £3.50 a month I think that’s a bargain.

Get the best of our money saving content every week, straight to your inbox

Plus, new Quidco customers get a high paying £18 welcome offer

Email Address

I agree to receive email updates and promotions.

BBC Sport

My price: £2 a month / £24 a year

If you had to pay £2 a month, that’s just £24 a year, to get Wimbledon, Match of the Day, 6 Nations and smaller sports like snooker, athletics and so on, plus every few years the World Cup, the Olympics and Commonwealth games, I think most people would think it’s fantastic value – especially when compared to the £14.99 cost to watch Sky Sports for one day on NOW TV.

BBC News

My price £1 a month / £12 a year

This is certainly an area where my view on value for money has changed (though a lot of that is down to budget cuts enforced by the government through frozen or below inflation increases to the licence fee).

I’ll now go to the Guardian first for my news updates, rather than the BBC News website, and even listen to podcasts like the News Agents over Newscast.

However, BBC News is the first place I’ll go for breaking news. And if you’ve ever watched news in the USA, you’ll appreciate not only just how good BBC News is, but how it makes sure the other news networks raise their standards.

I’d say it’s well worth paying £1 a month for this – that’s just 3.3p a day.

CBeebies and CBBC

My price: 75p a month / £9 a year

Let’s say it costs 75p a month (£9 a year) to have these channels – and I don’t even have kids! If you do you probably would say it’s worth paying more to get this essential content.

I grew up watching shows like Going Live, Blue Peter and so on. And more recently my niece and nephew loved programmes like Justin’s House and Operation Ouch.

And during the pandemic the BBC really raised the bar in shows to help with homeschooling.

Yes, you can get other kids shows via Sky but these are largely cheap overseas imports and I don’t think they have the same education and quality you get from the BBC.

BBC Online

My price: 0p a month

In previous years, I’d allocate 50p a month for this, as it was the place I’d go to check the weather, the news, the football scores and more? Now I hardly visit it other than to play Sounds or iPlayer, which I’ve covered in other sections. So lets treat it as something you get as part of your ‘contribution’ to news, sports etc.

Other stuff

My price: 29p a month / £3.50 a year

Then there’s plenty of stuff we don’t see, but do benefit from.

There are technology developments which make a big difference to how we watch TV (such as iPlayer) and how other programmes are made by other people (like the cameras built for Blue Planet).

We might not listen to the World Service, but it does a fab job of promoting the UK around the world and supporting nations that really need it – while also building ‘soft power’ across the globe.

Oh, and the licence fee is also used to make sure everyone in the UK gets broadband, especially rural areas. It did the same for digital TV.

Right, I’ll shut up now. But let’s say we pay 29p a month towards all this (a total of £3.50 a year).

Money well spent or a waste of cash?

So just to quickly summarise, for me the £14.54 monthly TV licence cost could be broken down like this.

• £7 a month for all the drama, comedy and documentaries (£84 a year)
• £3.50 a month for all the radio (£42 a year)
• £2 a month for sport (£24 a year)
• £1 a month for news coverage (£12 a year)
• 75p a month for children’s TV (£9 a year)
• 29p a month for the innovations (£3.50 a year)
• plus all the BBC websites

I still think the licence fee is a really good investment. In fact I think these values I’ve assigned are too probably too low for what you get, especially in the cases of sport and radio. 

Yes I have made up the values above (in reality the split is different), and there will certainly be parts you don’t use at all. But it’d be easy to justify assigning higher values to the ones you use and less to those you don’t – for example if you’ve got kids you’d probably think £2 a month for CBBC is great value.

And if you consider what you might pay for all the separate parts at commercial rates, even if you only chose one or two, you’d likely pay just as much. 

Should the Licence Fee be scrapped?

Andy’s analysis

I do recognise there’s growing resentment in some parts of the public, particularly by people who simply don’t watch any BBC (or live) TV at all. I’ll often see posts in money saving Facebook groups about scrapping it, with the majority of the hundreds of comments in favour of ditching it.

However, much of what I see in these conversations is misinformed, and fuelled by media like the Mail and Murdoch’s News UK (The Times and The Sun), and the previous Conservative government, who all have vested interest in getting rid of the BBC.

So I hope this article can help balance some of the arguments (I find it frustrating that the BBC’s own impartiality policies prevent it from delivering any decent defence).

Like the NHS, we’d really miss the BBC if it was gone. No matter how many amazing US imports are available to watch, there’s still fantastic TV made in the UK, and a big part of it is down to the BBC. Even if you still think it’s too much money, I do think that it’s important we fight to keep the BBC independent and strong.

Alternatives

If people genuinely don’t use any BBC service then I do think it’s unfair that they should be forced to pay for it. It seems something really does need to change. But what?

It’s really tough to find a solution that could protect what the BBC stands for and enable it to produce the services it does to the standard it does without the full fee.

Lots of people talk about a subscription method, as you have with Netflix. It’s certainly an option, but people don’t realise that Netflix makes very little profit, and hardly pays any tax in the UK.

I also think there is a chance that for lots of people the cost will go up in order to get all the services. A report from the BBC said it’d likely cost £37 a month to get all the services.

That doesn’t sound too far off. The pick and mix approach to Sky via NOW TV can save you cash versus a normal Sky subscription, but if you want Entertainment, Cinema, Kids and Sport you’re still looking at paying £60 a month. 

An advert funded model is another option, but ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 aren’t swimming in cash, and adding the BBC into the market will mean there’s less money to go around. So we’ll see all the free-to-air channels suffer.

And we could see the BBC outbid for some of the important big events and programmes by the likes of Amazon – forcing people to shell out more.

I imagine it’d have to be some kind of blended model. Perhaps some services funded by a reduced licence fee with others subscription only.

How to stop paying the Licence Fee

If you genuinely don’t watch any BBC TV, reckon you could do without, or don’t feel you should pay for the other BBC services then you can cancel your licence.

You can tell TV Licensing that you don’t require a licence here. Just make sure you don’t watch any live TV or use iPlayer.

How to pay less for Netflix

All my ways to save on this dedicated Netflix article