237,000 families quit paying the BBC licence fee

THE BBC has lost nearly £40million in income as 237,000 less households are paying the licence fee than they did last year.

In order to watch or record live television in the UK each household needs a £157.50 TV licence. However, there is speculation an increasing number of families are instead spending the money on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Overall, the proportion of the country that watches BBC1 at least once a week fell from 68 percent to 65.4 percent.

BBC2 also suffered a decline from 42.9 percent to 41.9 percent.

The only BBC channels which succeeded in increasing their audiences were BBC News and BBC Parliament, likely related to last year’s drama around Brexit.

Whilst its revenue fell the number of senior managers employed by the BBC rose by three to 153.

In total 106 of these earn more than £150,000 per year giving them a higher pay than the Prime Minister.

Another 76 BBC presenters and personalities also earn more than Boris Johnson.

Last year Tim Davie, the incoming BBC director general, earned £642,000 as head of BBC Studios.