Since April 2020, the annual cost has been £157.50 for a colour licence and £53 for a black and white licence. The fee enables viewers to watch a range of content, including nine national TV channels, more than 40 local and national radio stations as well as programmes online via the BBC iPlayer. The current licence fee model is guaranteed until the end of the current charter on December 31, 2027.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to review the current model amid the rise in popularity and success of subscription services such as Netflix.
In August, the debate over the licence fee took off after the BBC controversially pressed ahead with ending free TV-licences for millions of over-75s.
The taxpayer-funded service has also been criticised for its spending after accounts revealed staff salaries had risen by 3.4 percent to £1.5billion this year.
The BBC has also faced questions over its impartiality and accused of being too left-wing in its politics – something the broadcaster denies.
A subsequent poll of more than 15,000 Express.co.uk readers has found the overwhelming majority do not think the licence fee is worth the money.
The survey conducted on Sunday October 11 between 10.47am and 8pm asked 15,730 Express.co.uk readers, is the BBC worth the £157.60 per year licence fee?
A huge 95 percent (14,957) of people did not think it was worth it and voted no.
Just four percent (648) of respondents thought the BBC was worth the outlay and voted yes.
Meanwhile, one percent (125) of people remained unsure and said they did not know.
A number of Express.co.uk readers let their feelings known in the comments section.
One user wrote: “Scrap the licence fee and make them a subscription service then we will see if they are value for money.”
A second reader said: “Not worth £1 a month. I can honestly say I haven’t watched a single programme on BBC for months. It is a forced subscription for a service that is substandard.”
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He said: “I haven’t seen a model that beats the current one at the moment, a universally funded licence fee.
“The vast majority of households think it offers very good value.
“That’s what the BBC needs to focus on. Under my leadership, we’ll focus on that.”
