Nearly a Million Brits Cancel BBC TV Licence Every Year

GettyImages-156248943
CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images

Nearly a million Brits a year have cancelled their BBC TV License for the past four years, with more than 3.5 million doing so since 2013.

Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the Sun reveal that, so far this year, 788,605 people cancelled. It was 817,509 in 2016, 875,169 in 2015, and a massive 945,751 in 2014.

It is now relatively easy to cancel a TV license online.

Some people may be ditching the publicly-funded national broadcaster for modern, private services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Now TV — but critics argue the BBC is increasingly out of step with the public.

Tory MP David Davies told the Sun: “These [cancellations] reflect that millions of people feel that the BBC no longer reflects their outlook on life.

“If the BBC don’t start representing the large slice of the populace who support Brexit and worry about immigration, then we will end up having to move towards a subscription service.”

Leading Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg said the license fee “model” was “out of date,” adding: “The BBC will have to scrap this in favour of a more modern approach – be that with advertising [or] a subscription model.”

A BBC and TV Licensing spokesman tried to put a positive spin on things, saying: “There are more licences in force than ever before – 25.8 million – while the number of cancellations has declined by 17 per cent since 2013/14.”

The BBC is widely perceived as harbouring a left-wing bias, and despite a majority of British voters opting for Brexit, numerous studies have demonstrated a consistent BBC bias against the vote to Leave the European Union (EU).

One News-Watch report before the referendum noted there were “no attempts in any programme to explore the benefits of leaving the EU, but conversely, Brexit came under sustained negative attack.”

This led to 72 MPs from across the political spectrum writing to BBC bosses in March, accusing the national broadcaster of harming Britain’s reputation by portraying the country as “xenophobic”.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.