TV licence · gov.uk

TV licence

One price for everybody, set by a government minister, and three concessions that go unclaimed.

Standard colour TV licence, 2026/27
£180/yr

In force from 1 April 2026. Up £5.50 from £174.50, an increase of 3.14%.

Change
+£5.50 (+3.14%)

Source: gov.uk

Black and white
£60.50
Still a legal option
Blind or severely sight impaired
£90
Half price
Residential care, under 75
£7.50
The ARC scheme
Over 75 on Pension Credit
£0
Free

Is yours normal?

Put in what you pay for your TV licence. It is worked out in your browser and sent nowhere.

a year for what you pay for TV licence

Everyone pays the same. If you are paying more than £180 a year you are on a payment plan with charges, or paying for something that is not a TV licence.

What you pay here depends on where you live. Put your postcode in and we will show your area's figure rather than the national one.

Below: what is changing, what you could be paying, and what you might be owed. The longer detail stays folded until you want it.

What you might be owedHelp that routinely goes unclaimed

What you might be owed

Routinely unclaimed. We do not administer any of these and take nothing for pointing at them.

Free licence at 75

The whole fee, £180 a year

You are 75 or over and you or a partner at the same address receives Pension Credit. Apply from 74 and payments are adjusted to cover you until your birthday. Call 0300 790 6117.

Blind concession

Half price, saving £90 a year

Certified blind or severely sight impaired. Evidence can be a CVI, a BD8, a local authority certificate, an ophthalmologist's letter or an HMRC coding notice showing Blind Person's Allowance.

Simple Payment Plan

Spreads the fee fortnightly or monthly, and missed payments are spread across the remainder rather than doubled

Anyone in financial difficulty. Routes in include referral by a not for profit money advice organisation, or having had a licence cancelled for missed payments in the last six months.

What you need to knowThe things that stop the figure being misread

What you need to know

The things that stop the headline figure being misread.

  • The fee is set by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, not by the BBC.
  • Under the 2022 licence fee settlement it rises with CPI each April until the end of the current Charter period.
  • The next scheduled rise is 1 April 2027. No figure has been announced.
  • The BBC's current Royal Charter expires on 31 December 2027 and the Charter Review consultation closed in March 2026. The Green Paper says the review will consider how the BBC is funded but proposes no replacement. Anybody telling you the licence fee is being abolished on a set date is going beyond the published evidence.
  • gov.uk states the 2026 uplift was 3.14%. TV Licensing's own page says 3.15%. We use the government figure and note the discrepancy rather than quietly picking one.
What is changing, and whenDated, not forecast

What is changing, and when

Already dated. Nothing here is a forecast.

218days 1 April 2027 · TV licence

TV licence rises with CPI under the 2022 settlement. The amount has not been announced.

492days 31 December 2027 · TV licence

The BBC Royal Charter expires. The Charter Review will consider how the BBC is funded but has proposed no replacement model.

The full published figuresCheck our working

The full published figures, for anyone who wants to check our working or find their own line.

Every rate, and who pays it

The licence covers everyone living at the address, whatever their age. Concessions must be in the name of the person who qualifies, which is the most common reason people miss out.

Scroll sideways to see every column

WhoPriceConditions
Standard household£180 a yearColour television. The default.
Black and white only£60.50 a yearA genuine option and still legal.
Blind or severely sight impaired£90 a yearHalf price. The licence must be in the blind person's name, so transfer it if it is not. Partially sighted does not qualify.
Residential or sheltered care, under 75£7.50 a yearApply through your warden or care home administrator, not directly. Do not cancel your existing licence until enrolment is confirmed.
Aged 75 or over on Pension CreditFreeAge alone is not enough. You or a partner at the same address must receive Pension Credit. You can apply at 74.

When you actually need one

The rule catches more people than they expect, and lets others off who are paying without needing to.

Scroll sideways to see every column

ActivityLicence needed
Watching or recording live TV on any channelYes
Watching live streams on any streaming serviceYes
Using BBC iPlayer at all, live, catch up or downloadYes
Netflix, Prime Video, ITVX, Channel 4 on demand only, never iPlayerNo
S4C programmes on demandNo
Recent changesWhat moved, and when

Recent changes

The whole log →
1 Apr 26Increase
TV licenceDCMS Link

TV licence rises £5.50 to £180

The standard colour licence rose from £174.50 to £180 on 1 April 2026, an uplift of 3.14% under the CPI indexation in the 2022 licence fee settlement. Black and white stays available at £60.50. The blind concession is half price at £90, residential care is £7.50, and over 75s on Pension Credit pay nothing.

gov.uk states the uplift was 3.14% while TV Licensing's own page says 3.15%. We publish the government figure and flag the disagreement.

Source: gov.uk

Where this comes from, and where it could be wrongEvery source, and the limits

Known limits of this page

We could not verify the previous black and white fee from a primary source, so no 'was £X' figure is shown for it.

gov.uk and TV Licensing disagree on whether the 2026 uplift was 3.14% or 3.15%. Both are shown above rather than blended.

Sources

30 price changes logged. Every one had a date you could have known in advance.

Tell us which bills you care about and we will email you when one of them changes, with the figure, the date it starts and a link to the regulator that set it. Free, no account, one click to stop.

Email alerts are not running yet. We would rather say that than take your address and send you nothing. Until they are, the change log carries every dated change the day we find it, and you can bookmark it or follow it in a reader.

Everything, freeAll ten trackers, no account
Ranked on costNever on what a link pays us
SourcedEvery figure links to the body that set it