The £174.50 licence fee is now the third most expensive in Europe. The BBC cost is rising as other nations cut or axe their TV tax altogether 

Britons are paying more for the licence fee at a time when other nations are cutting back or abolishing a compulsory TV tax altogether, analysis has found.

The UK charge, which rose to £174.50 in April, is now the third-highest compared to other countries across Europe, The i Paper has discovered.

But while the BBC was given an inflation-linked increase, other nations have pledged to cut the amount viewers pay, or moved to abolish the charge altogether, in the face of rising household costs and changes in TV viewing habits.

Austria, previously the second most expensive in Europe, last year replaced its €322 (£274) licence fee with a household tax, paid by all households regardless of whether they own a TV.

Set at lower rate of €15.30 per month, the change means the UK (£14.50/ €17 a month) now moves above Austria in the expense rankings.

France abolished its annual €138 (£118) fee in 2022 as part of a package of measures promised by President Emmanuel Macron to tackle the country’s cost of living crisis.

Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus and Bulgaria have also abolished direct charges to fund national broadcasters, as have Hungary, Finland and Iceland.

In Germany, leaders of its 16 federal states rejected a planned increase in its TV tax this year and voted to freeze the national broadcasting licence fee at €18.36 (£16) a month until 2027.

The most expensive TV charge in Europe is in Switzerland, where every household is obliged to pay an annual licence fee of 335 francs (£304).

But with the Social Democratic Party pushing to scrap the fee, the country’s Federal Council said that to “relieve the financial burden on households”, they would move to cut it to 312 francs a year from 2027 and to 300 francs from 2029.

Ireland meanwhile has frozen its licence fee at €160 (£136) licence for the last 16 years, with the government awarding public service broadcaster RTÉ €225m in public funding for 2025.

The figures show the BBC’s ability to charge a compulsory rising fee, enforced by prosecutions for evasion, is increasingly an outlier in comparable European nations.

Ministers will look at the experience of other countries during negotiations over the future of the licence fee, due to begin this year as part of the BBC’s Charter Renewal.

With 68 per cent of the UK population (20 million households) now subscribing to at least one streaming platform, the case for the BBC to retain a compulsory charge has increasingly come under challenge.

Ministers are also concerned over the disproportionate number of women facing prosecution for non-payment, with elderly pensioners complaining of harassing letters from TV Licensing.

Defenders of the licence fee, which delivers £3.6bn in revenue to the BBC, argue that it remains good value for money.

The charge funds a range of BBC radio stations and online content as well as sport, drama, entertainment TV shows and news and current affairs coverage.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC is used by over eight in 10 adults every week and offers excellent value at 48p per day.

“The estimated cost for a subscription bundle which includes everything the BBC offers is significantly higher than that of a TV Licence.

“We want to continue to reform and evolve and look forward to engaging with government on the next Charter and securing the long term future of the BBC.”

The BBC said it did not consider other European broadcasters comparable by breadth or reach.

The broadcaster is “proactively researching how we might reform the licence fee,” sources indicated.

The example of the US, where President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order seeking to cut public funding for the news outlets NPR and PBS, accusing them of being biased, illustrated the importance of a publicly-funded BBC which is independent of the whims of government.

Where other nations have axed licence fees, funds for public service broadcasters have often simply been switched to come out of general taxation.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has rejected funding the BBC in this way, which would mean people who do not use any of its services still pay for the broadcaster through their tax take.

The BBC, which reports high levels of public support to maintain the licence fee from internal research, could put that consensus to the test by replicating Switzerland, which held a referendum on whether to get rid of its expensive licence fee.

More than 71 per cent voted against the proposal to repeal the fee in 2018, although politicians have since responded to public pressure to reduce the level of the charge.

The TV licence across Europe

Switzerland

Every household is obliged to pay an annual licence fee of 335 francs (£304), regardless of which TV or radio stations they listen to.

The fee is designed to support TV and radio broadcasts by the national broadcaster SRF SSR. The Social Democratic Party has submitted a proposal that would completely scrap the TV licence fee.

Germany

Every household must pay the monthly fee, regardless of whether they watch TV, listen to the radio or read public broadcast news online. An increase in the fee, which funds 17 TV channels, to 18.94 euros per month between 2025 and 2028 has been delayed.

France

The Senate approved scrapping the annual €138 (£118) TV fee in 2022. Some of the country’s most popular TV presenters argued that the funding loss could undermine state broadcasters and prevent the French enjoying such events as the Tour de France.

Ministers proposed to divert a “fraction of VAT” to public broadcasting instead to maintain funding at around €3.7bn.

Austria

In 2024, Austria’s TV licensing fee was replaced by a household tax paid by all households regardless of whether they own a TV. The new tax is set at a cheaper €15.30 (£13) per month, with additional state taxes in some regions.

Denmark

Denmark joined the growing number of European countries to scrap their licence fee for public broadcasting in 2019. The change meant a cut in the budget of public broadcaster DR, famed for hit dramas including The Killing, of 20 per cent.

There is no licence fee in Spain, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Russia and Ukraine.