The BBC lost 539,000 licence fee payers in a year
Key Points
- The number of TV licences held fell by 539,000 in the year to 31 March 2026
- The BBC reported total TV Licence fee income of £3,879m for its 2025/26 financial year
- An estimated £2.75bn of licence fee income went to television services in 2025
- The BBC held 18% of all in-home video viewing, with iPlayer growth offsetting linear decline
- The BBC took eight of the ten most-watched titles in Q1 2026
The number of TV licences held in the UK fell by 539,000 in the year to 31 March 2026. The figure appears in Ofcom’s Media Nations UK 2026 report, published on Wednesday (29 July.)
The BBC reported total TV Licence fee income of £3.8 billion across its 2025/26 financial year. Ofcom estimates £2.75 billion of licence fee income went to television services in 2025, sitting outside the £18.4 billion commercial TV and online video market.
The decline in licences held continues a multi-year trend and comes as broadcaster viewing falls across the sector. A weekly average of 70% of people in the UK watched programmes from broadcasters in 2025, down from 73% in 2024 and 78% in 2022. Linear viewing fell 12% year on year to 1 hour 51 minutes per person per day, the steepest annual decline in recent years.
iPlayer is absorbing the decline
The BBC accounted for 18% of all in-home video viewing across devices in 2025, level with 2024, as growth in BBC iPlayer viewing offset the fall in linear. 26% of BBC viewing came through iPlayer last year, up from 14% in 2022.
Among 16 to 34-year-olds, the BBC accounted for 6% of in-home video viewing, with iPlayer making up 4% of that. Among adults aged 55 and over, the BBC took 26%, with iPlayer contributing 5%. YouTube accounted for 23% of in-home viewing among 16-to 34-year-olds and 7% among the over-55s.
The BBC and ITV recorded the largest decreases in daily minutes viewed of any broadcaster between 2024 and 2025, down nearly five minutes and three minutes respectively.
Big events still matter
The BBC took eight of the ten most-watched titles in the first quarter of 2026.
The Traitors led the quarter with 13 million viewers, followed by The Night Manager on 9.5 million. Companion series The Traitors: Uncloaked averaged 8 million for its finale, matching new comedy-drama Small Prophets.
The Celebrity Traitors ranked as the third most-watched title of 2025, averaging 14.8 million viewers for its finale across BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Live viewing grew 53% between the premiere and the finale, rising from 23% of total viewing to 35%. Among 16 to 34-year-olds live viewing grew from 8% to 19%.
The BBC reported a peak audience of 24 million across BBC and BBC iPlayer for England’s FIFA World Cup semi-final defeat on 15 July, giving it an 85% share of all TV viewing at that time.
Online adults ranked the BBC first for news at 77%, British drama at 66%, current affairs at 64%, documentaries at 61%, British comedy at 60% and live sport at 60%.
25% said they turn to a BBC service first when deciding what to watch, close to the 26% who named Netflix.
