BBC Licence fee set to rise by £4 in April

The BBC closed the so-called "iPlayer loophole" last year

The television licence fee is going up from £150.50 to £154.50 on 1 April 2019, the government has announced.

The annual price rise is in line with inflation.

Anyone watching or recording TV programmes as they are shown on TV, or watching or downloading BBC programmes on the iPlayer, must have a licence. This also applies to laptops, tablets and phones.

The new licence fee will cost £2.97 a week or £12.87 a month.

It covers the cost of nine TV channels, regional programming, 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations, the BBC website, BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer.

The BBC said that in the last financial year, "94% of the BBC's controllable spend went on content for audiences and delivery, with just 6% spent on running the organisation".