BBC licence fee will go up by over £10 next year – as half a million Brits stop paying

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.

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.

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.