The Television Licence Fee's history

It is interesting to see the amount that the TV Licence has cost over time.

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 21st September 2008 at 15:40}

In response to questions posted on another page, we calculated the cost of the BBC Licences over the years. The first graph, however, shows the percentage of homes with a television, a colour television and finally digital television from 1946-2008. This main graph (click to view full size) shows the cost of the various licences, adjusted using the Retail Price Index to 2008 prices.

• The blue line show the cost of a radio licence - at 2008 prices - which ran from 1922 to 1970, shown here from 1946;
• the grey line shows the cost of a monochrome licence at 2008 prices from 1948 to today;
• the red line shows (as before) the cost of a colour licence at 2008 prices from 1968 to today. I have adjusted the value for 2007 and 2008 to take into account the orange line.
• The orange line shows the amounts collected as part of the TVL which does not go to broadcasters, but is used to supply funding for set-top boxes for those aged over 75 (and selected others).
• So taking into account ALL of the above, there is a GREEN LINE that takes into account the proportion of homes with radio, monochrome and colour television and creates an average amount that each household would pay.
• This line starts the same as the radio line, but meets the monochrome line by 1970 (when almost all homes had a TV) and then eventually joins the colour line by 2003 when almost all homes have a colour TV.

In addition, the graph shows the projected levels of the "TV Tax" until 2012.