Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has confirmed the annual BBC Licence Fee will rise by £10.50 to £169.50 from next year.
Announcing the 6.7% increase in the House of Commons, Ms Frazer also announced plans for a review of the BBC’s funding model.“The review will look at how we can ensure the funding model is fair to the public, sustainable for the long term and supports the BBC’s vital role in growing our creative industries.”
The fee has been frozen for the past two years and under a previous agreement would have been expected to rise with inflation, meaning an increase of 9% or £15 from next April.
Instead Ms Frazer said the increase would be based on September’s consumer prices index (CPI) rate of inflation, which sets the increase at 6.7%.
In a statement, the BBC said: “We note that the Government has restored a link to inflation on the licence fee after two years of no increases during a time of high inflation.
“The BBC is focussed on providing great value, as well as programmes and services that audiences love. However, this outcome will still require further changes on top of the major savings that we are already delivering. Our content budgets are now impacted, which in turn will have a significant impact on the wider creative sector across the UK. We will confirm the consequences of this as we work through our budgets in the coming months.”
