Licence fee cash at risk as viewers desert BBC

DECLINING audience shares pose a risk to the BBC licence fee income, the Government’s spending watchdog has said.

Amid a shift in viewing habits that has seen younger audiences flock to online rivals such as Netflix and YouTube, people are ‘less likely’ to pay for a TV licence, the National Audit Office is expected to say in a report today.

Last night the broadcaster was accused of being ‘much too complacent’ about the threat from streaming giants by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

The report said there was ‘still no central strategy’ for tackling the fall in younger audiences and the need for the BBC to ‘pick up the pace of change’ was pressing.

Annual cash raised from the levy fell £310million between 2017-18 and 2019-20 to £3.52billion, the NAO said, out of a total income last year of £4.9billion.

While still the UK’s ‘most-used’ media brand, the time adults spent watching broadcast BBC TV dropped by 30 per cent, from 80 minutes a day on average in 2010 to 56 minutes in 2019. Radio audience time fell by 15 per cent between 2013-14 and 2019-20.

The report revealed there was a 450,000 drop in the number of households paying for TV licences – with the cost of free licences for qualifying over-75s set to cost the BBC £250million a year since funding rules changed in 2020.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘Each year people are spending less time watching the BBC, fewer households are paying the licence fee and it’s been stuck with the bill for giving the poorest pensioners a free TV licence.

‘Competing with its new online rivals and their deeper pockets won’t be cheap or easy. And it is much too complacent about risks that could materialise as soon as next year.’ Head of the NAO Gareth Davies said the BBC ‘needs to develop a clear financial plan for the future’.

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We have made significant savings and increased efficiencies while maintaining our spending on content.

‘We have set out plans for urgent reforms focused on providing great value for all audiences and we will set out further detail on this in the coming months.’