The UK government is considering extending the television licence fee to households that use subscription streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, in a move that could redraw how the is funded. The discussion is part of a wider review of the broadcaster’s future financing, with ministers also wary of pushing it toward either a subscription or advertising-backed model.
The has argued that the current system no longer matches the way people watch television. In its response to the government’s charter review green paper earlier in 2026, the broadcaster said that only 80% of the population now pays the licence fee, despite 94% accessing services each month. That mismatch has become more pressing now that the annual fee rose to £180 in April 2026.
Under current rules, households need a licence to watch live television on any platform or to use iPlayer, and viewers already technically need one to watch live events streamed on services such as Netflix or Prime Video, including sports rights carried live online. What is being examined now goes further: whether the system should be broadened to reflect changing viewing habits and bring more streaming households into the existing framework.
The has made clear why it wants the debate to move in that direction. It has suggested that widening the licence requirement more broadly to streaming households could help stabilise funding and might also reduce the overall cost per household. That argument lands at a difficult moment for the corporation, which has faced declining revenues in recent years and is carrying out a £500 million savings programme expected to lead to around 2,000 job losses.
The government’s caution matters. Ministers have shown no appetite for a clean break from the licence fee, but they are equally reluctant to let the drift toward a model that depends on subscriptions or adverts. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said it would publish a white paper on the future of the later in 2026, setting up the next stage of a fight that will shape how the broadcaster is paid for in the years ahead.
For the, the stakes are immediate. Its current funding base is shrinking relative to the audience it serves, and the pressure on its budget is already forcing cuts. For the government, the question now is whether the tv licence can be expanded enough to keep the broadly public without turning it into something that looks like a paywall.
