TV licence UK: What are the exemptions for the BBC licence fee? And how to avoid paying

• BBC licence fee has a few concessions you may not be aware of.
• TV fans who only watch Netflix may wonder if they need to pay.
• The price rose in April and is expected to increase again in coming years.

The price of the TV licence fee has gone up in 2024 after being frozen for two years. However not everyone needs to pay it - and you could be missing out on exemptions without realising.

It comes as Labour is set to enforce a major shake-up with criminal prosecutions of licence fee evasion set to be scrapped, according to reports. Currently women are disproportionately prosecuted, with 75% of cases involving female defendants - and figures show that nearly 1,000 prosecutions take place each week.

If you are having to renew your licence soon, you need to be aware of the fact that the price rose by over £10 to £169.50 in April of this year. And according to the agreement signed by the previous government with the Beeb, the fee will rise every year through to 2028 as well.

Who is eligible for licence fee exemptions?

You may not be aware but thousands of people across the country could be eligible for a licence fee concessions and they may not even realise it. If you watch live or recorded TV, use BBC’s catch-up service iPlayer or watch live content on streaming services (like ITVX and Prime Video) then you need to pay the fee.

However a few concessions exist and are as follows:

• People who are aged 75 or over and receive Pension Credit.
• People who are blind (severely sight impaired).
• People who live in qualifying residential care and are disabled or over 60 and retired.
• For businesses that provide units of overnight accommodation, for example, hotels and mobile units.

There are no other concessions available, theTV licence’s website adds.

Can you avoid paying the licence fee?

If you use your TV/ computer/ tablet/ phone for any of the purposes listed above - particularly watching live TV or using iPlayer - then you need to pay the licence fee. Or else you risk being prosecuted for evading the licence fee.

However if you have a smart TV and don’t have it connected to an antenna/ satellite dish and only use it to watch shows/ films via streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime then you don’t need to buy a licence fee and can get by without paying for it.

You can watch shows on ITVX and Channel 4 (the on-demand streaming service with the same name as the terrestrial channel) without the licence fee. But if you want to watch live content on those services, make sure you do have the licence to avoid risking trouble.

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