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BBC licence fee will go up by over £10 next year – as half a million Brits stop paying
PM Rishi Sunak told MPs yesterday the BBC must be 'realistic' to help hard-up households
THE TV licence fee will rise by just over a tenner next year in a blow to the BBC.
Bosses hoped to hike the £159 levy by nearly £15 — but ministers pressed them to settle in line with September’s 6.7 per cent inflation rate.
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PM Rishi Sunak told MPs yesterday the BBC must be “realistic” to help hard-up households.
And earlier, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer insisted: “It’s really important that when things are difficult everyone is doing what they can to ease the cost of living on families.”
The BBC’s funding dropped from £3.8billion to £3.74billion in the last year with the number of viewers paying for the licence fee plummeting by 500,000 to 24.3 million.
Bosses blamed competition from streaming giants such as Netflix.
READ MORE ON THE LICENCE FEE
A BBC source last night said: “We know many households are hard-pressed, which is why the licence fee has been frozen for a couple of years.
"But we would argue we offer great value for money with shows and content loved by millions.”
Meanwhile, 71-year-old production company executive Dr Samir Shah has been picked as the BBC’s new chairman, succeeding Richard Sharp who quit after becoming embroiled in a cronyism row.
He is expected to be paid £160,000 for three to four days a week.
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