BBC Faces Funding Crunch as Licence Payers Fall Ahead of Charter Talks
The BBC’s annual report shows a sharp drop in license-fee payers (about 539,000 fewer to roughly 23.3 million) even as licence income rose to £3.9B due to inflation. The broadcaster is pressing for a revamped funding model in its charter renewal negotiations, including options to charge streaming viewers, while implementing £500M in cost cuts and around 2,000 layoffs as it trims TV, radio and content spend in response to declining licenced usage.