BRIEFING PAPER Number CBP-8101, 27 January 2021 By Yago Zayed TV licence fee statistics Contents: 1. Funding and TV Licence fee 2. TV ownership and TV Licence 3. TV Licence fee collection 4. TV Licence fee concessions 5. Public opinion 6. Changing viewing habits 7. International comparisons 8. Appendix tables www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 TV licence fee statistics Contents Summary 3 Key points 3 1. Funding and TV Licence fee 4 1.1 TV Licence fee revenues 4 2. TV ownership and TV Licence 6 2.1 Long-term rise and a recent fall in TV ownership 6 2.2 TV Licence and TV ownership 6 3. TV Licence fee collection 7 3.1 TV Licence fee collection cost 7 3.2 Licence fee evasion 7 4. TV Licence fee concessions 9 4.1 Types of concessions 9 4.2 TV Licence for over 75s 9 5. Public opinion 10 5.1 Attitudes towards TV Licensing 10 6. Changing viewing habits 11 6.1 Fewer live TV viewers 11 6.2 BBC audience share decreasing 11 7. International comparisons 13 8. Appendix tables 14 Contributing author: John Woodhouse Cover page image copyright: TaBaZzz, Israel Broadcasting Authority's HD1 studio, in Romena, Jerusalem. Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license 3 Commons Library Briefing, 10 January 2019 Summary This briefing provides statistics on the TV Licence fee and general television viewing trends. Licence fee concessions and payment amounts are set by Parliament under the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004 (as amended). As stated by TV Licencing: “It is an offence to watch or record television programmes as they are being shown on any channel and on any broadcast platform (terrestrial, satellite, cable and the internet) or download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer without a valid TV Licence.”1 Currently the annual TV Licence fee is £157.50 for colour and £53 for black and white.2 Key points Licence fee revenues reached just over £3.5 billion in 2020 TV Licence fee revenues in 2019/20 were £3.52 billion which was slightly higher than the 2010/11 figure of £3.51 billion (in cash terms). The Licence fee accounted for 71% of BBC funding in 2019/20 Total BBC income in 2019/20 was £4.94 billion, 71% of which came from Licence fee revenues. The remaining 29% or £1.42 billion came from commercial and other activities (such as grants, royalties and rental income). 95% of households own a TV at the beginning of 2020 In Q1 2020, around 27 million or 95% of all households in the UK owned a TV set. The number of households owning a TV increased by 4.8 times over the last 60 years, compared to 1956 when only 5.7 million or 36% of all households had a TV. TV Licence evasion rose from 5.20% in 2010/11 to 7.25% in 2019/20 The BBC’s Licence Fee Unit estimates in March 2016 for evasion showed the highest level in Scotland (10%) and Northern Ireland (9%). The evasion rate in England and Wales was around 6% in March 2016. Audience share of the BBC decreased between 2008 and 2019 The BBC’s share fell from 34% in 2008 to 31% in 2019, ITV’s remained the same at 23% while Channel 4’s fell from 12% to 10%. The TV Licence fee in the UK was the 6th highest compared to other countries in Europe The TV Licence fee in the UK was ranked 6th highest compared to other European countries in January 2019 by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was lower than in other countries with similar national broadcaster funding systems, such as Norway (2nd highest) and Denmark (4th ) who have either scrapped or are in the process of scrapping that model of funding.3 1 TV Licencing, Why do I need a TV Licence 2 TV Licencing, TV Licence types and costs, 3 EBU, Public Version: Licence Fee 2020 , November 2020 4 TV licence fee statistics 1. Funding and TV Licence fee The TV Licence fee is used to fund the BBC and other services including Welsh broadcaster S4C and infrastructure projects such as delivery of superfast broadband.4 Data on BBC funding and TV Licence fee revenues are available in BBC annual reports. Total BBC income in 2019/20 was £4.94 billion compared with £4.89 billion in the previous year. The BBC received around £3.52 billion or 71.2% of its total funding from the TV Licence fee in 2019/20, a decrease of 5% from the £3.69 billion reported in 2018/19. Around 7% of TV Licence fee income was reimbursed by the Department for Work and Pensions to cover the cost for residents aged 75 and over (See section 4 for more details). The decrease in Licence fee revenue was attributed to the phased reduction in Government funding for the over-75s Licences and a slight reduction in the number of paid Licences.5 The remaining 28.8% or £1.42 billion came from commercial and other activities (such as grants, royalties and rental income). 1.1 TV Licence fee revenues The Department of Work and Pensions had been responsible for covering the TV Licence cost for those aged 75 and over. The BBC received this income as a grant. The total value of the DWP annual contribution was calculated based on: “the full cost of the relevant Licence (colour or black and white).”6 From 2018/19, the BBC began to take on part of the responsibility for funding TV Licence fees of those over 75, which had previously been met fully by the government.7 The broadcaster now has to cover the full cost of these Licences from 2020-21.8 (See section 4.2 for more information). The chart on the following page shows TV Licence fee collection revenues and over 75s Licence cost reimbursement value from the DWP. TV Licence fee revenues had grown from £3.51 billion in 2010/11 to £3.69 billion in 2018/19 (in cash terms). It decreased to £3.52 billion in 2019/20. The share of the DWP grant as a proportion of the total Licence income was around 16% to 17% between 2010/11 to 2017/18. In 2019/20, the TV Licence cost for over 75s covered by the DWP was around £0.25 billion (7% of the total Licence income), a decrease from £0.47 billion (13% of the total Licence income) in the previous year. 4 BBC, BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2018/19, p.61 5 BBC, BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20, p.44 6 TV Licensing, Licences facts and figures, accessed 7 January 2019 7 Frontier Economics, Review of Over-75s Funding – A report prepared for the BBC, November 2018, p. 6. 8 BBC news, BBC to fund over-75s' TV Licences, July 2015 5 Commons Library Briefing, 10 January 2019 Gross TV Licence fee revenues, 2010/11 to 2019/20 (£ billions) Over 75s licence fee grant from DWP Licence fee income, excluding over 75s 0.66 0.60 0.61 0.61 0.62 0.63 0.47 0.25 0.58 0.59 3.21 3.25 2.93 3.02 3.06 3.12 3.12 3.12 3.16 3.17 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 Source: BBC Annual Report and Accounts, various years 6 TV licence fee statistics 2. TV ownership and TV Licence 2.1 Long-term rise and a recent fall in TV ownership In Q1 2020, around 27 million or 95% of all households in the UK owned a TV set. The number of households owning a TV increased by 4.7 times over the last 60 years, compared to 1956 when only 5.7 million or 36% of all households had a TV.9 In recent years this proportion has fallen by three percentage points compared to 2005 when 98% of all households owned a TV receiver. Television ownership in private domestic households Millions 30 All households 25 20 Households owning a TV Households owning a TV & 15 number of TV licences Millions 10 28 TV Homes 5 26 0 1960 1966 1972 1978 1984 1990 1996 2002 2008 2014 2020 24 # of TV licences Source: TAM, JICTAR, BARB 22 2000 2010 2020 2.2 TV Licence and TV ownership In 2019/20, there were around 25.9 million TV Licences in force. The number of Graph notes: TV Licences was around 4% lower than the number of homes owning a TV in 1. TV Licence data shows total number of Licences in 2019. This was a 2% point decrease in the difference compared with 2000/01 force, rather than number (caution should be taken when comparing these figures see notes opposite). of households with a Licence. Some households A person does not have to own a TV set to be required to pay an annual TV may require more than one Licence (like student Licence fee. As stated on the TV Licensing website: accommodation) “It is an offence to watch or record television programmes as they are being 2. TV Licence figures are estimates of the number of shown on any channel and on any broadcast platform (terrestrial, satellite, cable Licences in force and do and the internet) or download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including not include concessionary catch up TV, on BBC iPlayer without a valid TV Licence.”10 Licences.