UK Culture Secretary says TV licence fee could extend to streaming services beyond BBC

The UK’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has floated the idea of expanding the BBC licence fee to include subscribers to streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video.

The development comes as the BBC’s current royal charter is set to expire by the end of 2027, with the government attempting to find a sustainable funding model for the BBC.

Speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Nandy outlined a range of ways in which the £180 annual fee could be reformed to incorporate Subscription Video-on-Demand.

She suggested households that watch both BBC programmes and streaming services could pay the full licence fee, while those only using the streamers could pay a smaller amount.

She added that there could be “targeted concessions” for those that need them and that there is potential to “cut the cost of the licence fee for everybody”.

She also stressed that nothing is set in stone and the ideas suggested are “not a secret plot”.

“We are genuinely having an open conversation with the pubic, parliament and the BBC about this,” she added.

Nandy added that she has had conversations with streamers and that they “can speak for themselves” regarding a response.

She added that the government continues to rule out a streamer levy, a model adopted by several other countries that would require streaming services to contribute a segment of their UK subscription revenge to a cultural fund supporting British content.

“[The streamers] would be reluctant to see additional charges on their consumers – I think they’d be more reluctant to see additional charges on their businesses,” she added.

“There’s something quite magical happening in the UK at the moment. Some of the biggest streaming companies in the world are here investing in very large numbers right across the country, partly because of British creativity, partly because of the BBC, but also because everybody is on the hunt at the moment for locally rooted stories with universal appeal and the UK is brilliant at it.”

Read more:

• Simon Schama: “Someone should be shouting out loud about how great the BBC is”
• Emily Maitlis: “I don’t see what protection a charter really gives the BBC”
• I used to be BBC One controller and these are 10 things the BBC must now do to survive

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