Hate the idea of paying for YouTube Premium? Imagine paying $240 a year for regular YouTube

Does nothing sound worse than the idea of paying for YouTube Premium? Well, imagine having to pay the government just for getting access to regular YouTube with none of the Premium perks attached. Sounds ridiculous, right? Unfortunately, that’s a possibility under consideration in the UK.

To truly understand the development, you first need to understand the concept of a TV license fee in the UK. By law, you must have a TV license (£180 per year/~$240) if you plan on watching or recording programs as they’re being shown on live TV. You also need a license if you plan on watching or streaming programs live on online TV services, including the likes of YouTube, Netflix, and even Amazon Prime Video. You do not need a license if you’re only watching on-demand content on these platforms, like our latest upload.

The collected fess funds the BBC, and that’s where the problem comes in. According to The Independent, with more people now ditching traditional TV in favor of on-demand streaming services that can be accessed on surfaces other than TVs, the number of households paying the license fee has been declining. An internal source said that “It’s not fair that people are essentially able to watch television content but avoid the license fee.”

There has been a drop of roughly two million licenses over the past five years, and that trend is concerning for the BBC. According to the report, bringing on-demand content from platforms like YouTube, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime Video under the license is one of the options the government is considering to address the decline.

Depending on whether and how the proposition is enforced, simply watching YouTube videos, like a phone review on our channel, could require you to pay the £180 annual licensing fee. Oh, and of course, the license fee would only cover access to the platform. You’d still need to pay extra for Premium perks.

It’s worth noting that this change hasn’t been finalized just yet. It’s just a proposal that’s being considered as part of a broader review of the BBC’s funding model. And even if the proposal does move forward, its exact rules remain unclear. A white paper with more details on the proposed change is set to be unveiled before Christmas.

As for those in the USA and Canada, there’s no need to worry. Neither country has a similar TV licensing system to the UK’s. You should be more concerned about these services constantly raising their subscription prices than about the government charging you to watch YouTube.