Brits are bracing for another hit to household finances as the BBC’s TV Licence fee is on course to rise again this spring.

Inflation linked increases mean it is edging ever closer to £200 a year amid plummeting pay‑ups and spiralling evasion.

Under the Government’s current funding settlement, the licence fee is automatically linked to last September’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation, meaning it goes up each April in line with the previous year’s inflation figures.

With CPI confirmed at around 3.8% in September 2025, the annual cost of the standard colour TV licence – currently £174.50 – would climb to just over £181 in April 2026.

This uplift has not yet been officially confirmed but would be consistent with the existing settlement. That would mean families paying an extra £7 or so out of their pockets every year just to keep watching live TV or BBC iPlayer.

Ahead of that, independent economic forecasts have warned the levy could theoretically approach £197 by the end of the decade if inflation stays stubbornly high and the current model remains in place.

The BBC finds itself in a perfect storm with the broadcaster’s funding model – once seen as untouchable – now looks increasingly creaky.

Its latest “modernisation” plan has sparked outrage, with executives looking at ways to crack down on licence fee evasion using the very technology that helped make it obsolete.

Under proposals reported this week, the BBC could start linking up to 40 million BBC iPlayer accounts to household TV licence records.

The idea is to identify households using BBC’s streaming service without paying up – a practice that currently costs the corporation an estimated £550 million a year in lost revenue.

Anyone who watches live TV on any channel or uses BBC iPlayer is legally obliged to hold a licence, and evaders can face fines of up to £1,000.

Sources say the new system would use details provided when people sign up to iPlayer – such as email addresses, postcodes and dates of birth – to match viewers with licence status at their address.

While insiders argue this is a logical use of available data, critics say it feels like “digital Big Brother” and could stir huge backlash from licence‑weary households.

Whitehall insiders are also reportedly debating something even more radical: charging households who only watch on‑demand streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video a TV Licence fee too.

Under the current law, you only need a licence if you watch live TV or use BBC iPlayer, so those who exclusively consume on‑demand content are exempt.

But with the BBC’s traditional audience shrinking and revenue under pressure, ministers are said to be considering extending the licence to cover “streaming‑only” households as part of a broader funding review ahead of the BBC’s Royal Charter expiring in 2027.

That could see millions more households legally obliged to stump up roughly £174.50 a year even if they never watch the BBC. The BBC itself is wary of a move toward Netflix‑style subscription models and is said to have internally ruled out replacing the licence fee with an optional subscription service – insisting this would jeopardise its universal public‑service remit.

The number of households holding a TV licence has been slipping, with recent figures showing a drop in licence holders of around 300,000 in a year – a trend experts say reflects changing viewing habits rather than sudden mass lawlessness.

The BBC brought in about £3.8 billion from licence fees in 2024–25, but with evasion and “no licence needed” declarations on the rise, that revenue is under siege. Licensing officers made nearly two million visits to unlicensed homes last year, yet prosecutions have declined and fewer licences are being sold.

With licence fee increases looming in just two months, and potential changes that could dramatically widen who must pay, Britain’s TV financing system is entering its most turbulent period in decades.

The end result could be a near‑£200 annual levy for many – or a completely reworked funding model that reshapes public broadcasting forever.