BBC faces ‘real jeopardy’ as licence fee payments fall faster than expected

Matt Brittin: ‘We have to ask ourselves, honestly: if we were inventing the BBC today, what would we do?’ Photograph: Andrew Matthews/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Matt Brittin: ‘We have to ask ourselves, honestly: if we were inventing the BBC today, what would we do?’ Photograph: Andrew Matthews/AFP/Getty Images BBC faces ‘real jeopardy’ as licence fee payments fall faster than expected Director general Matt Brittin says funding model ties corporation to the past as number of licences falls by 539,000 The number of people paying the BBC’s licence fee has fallen faster than expected in the last year, with half a million more households opting out of the payment. Matt Brittin, the BBC’s director general, said the broadcaster faced a “moment of real jeopardy”, as the licence fee funding model “ties us to the past”. There are now 23.3m TV licences in force, a fall of 539,000 from a year earlier, according to the corporation’s annual report. It is significantly more than the 300,000 fall in licence fee payers recorded a year earlier. The pace at which households are opting not to pay the licence fee has been alarming BBC executives for months, with the annual report conceding a “steeper projected decline in licence fee sales”. The report also revealed that the BBC’s top on-air earner in 2025-26 was Scott Mills, on £750,000, though he has since been sacked by the BBC after allegations about his personal conduct . It means the top earner is now the radio presenter Greg James, who earns up to £445,000 a year. He is followed by fellow radio presenters Stephen Nolan, on £430,000, and Vernon Kay, on £410,000, and the television presenter Laura Kuenssberg, also on £410,000. It comes amid huge change in the media that has seen the rise of streaming services and digital platforms such as YouTube. While 94% of people in the UK continued to use the BBC each month, fewer than 80% of households contributed to the licence fee. The broadcaster said changing audience behaviours was having a “significant adverse impact on licence fee income”. It also said a “light sports year” meant it had not been able to use big sports events to drive licence fee sales. The BBC is scrambling to make cuts that will result in as many as 2,000 job losses and about £500m in savings over three years. Major changes to the licence fee are being lined up to arrest its decline. The current licence fee only covers those watching live television or iPlayer, but BBC executives and government figures accept the definition is now outdated. There are signs that the fee will be expanded to include anyone who watches streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime, with the fee potentially added to subscriptions for those services. While it is only one option being discussed, it appears to be the one with the broadest support. Brittin has said replacing the licence fee with a household levy would be simpler and easier to collect, but ministers have ruled this out, deeming it