BBC puts live news on YouTube as £180 licence fee faces its biggest test – Herald.Wales

BBC puts live news on YouTube as £180 licence fee faces its biggest test  Herald.Wales

Viewers can now watch BBC News live through the world’s biggest video platform – but they still legally need a TV licence to do it THE BBC has begun broadcasting its live news channel directly through YouTube in Britain – creating one of the clearest examples yet of how rapidly the traditional television system is being overtaken by the internet. Anyone in the UK can now open YouTube on a television, phone, tablet or computer and watch BBC News live alongside millions of other videos. The licence now costs £180 a year, yet YouTube does not ask viewers to enter a licence number, sign into a BBC account or demonstrate that their household has paid before the live channel begins playing.

That apparent contradiction comes at a critical moment for the BBC. Its Royal Charter expires at the end of 2027, ministers are considering how the corporation should be funded in future and the number of people consuming television through conventional channels continues to fall. Figures published by Ofcom this summer show average YouTube viewing through television sets has doubled since 2022, increasing from nine minutes per person each day to 19 minutes in 2025. Across devices in the home, viewers spent an average of 41 minutes a day watching YouTube. And the transformation is no longer limited to younger