UK TV licence fee rises to £180 from 1 April 2026
From 1 April 2026, the TV licence price is going up. The standard colour licence rises from £174.50 to £180.00, and the black and white licence moves from £58.50 to £60.50. This comes via The Communications (Television Licensing) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/104), signed by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy with Treasury consent.
If your licence is issued on or after 1 April 2026, you’ll pay the new rate. Licences issued before that date keep the old price until renewal. The regulations extend to England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, and also to the Channel Islands except for the updated simple payment plan tables.
It isn’t just the headline prices. Instalment amounts are adjusted across the plans set out in the schedules. Budget instalment, easy entry and the simple payment plan will each total £180 across the year once the new tables apply. The premium instalment plan carries a small surcharge and now totals £185, up from £179.50.
For budgeting, £180 works out at roughly £15 a month, about £3.46 a week or around 49p a day. Actual direct debit amounts vary by plan and start date, so early payments may differ if you join mid‑cycle. What this means: expect each scheduled instalment to tick up in line with the figures published in the new tables.
Hospitality matters too. Hotels, guesthouses and similar venues pay using a separate framework that relies on a ‘relevant amount’. Those base amounts now align with the new fees: £60.50 for black and white and £180.00 for colour, as updated in Schedule 5. The structure of how units are counted isn’t changing here-only the amounts.
Quick civic note for your toolkit: this change is made by Statutory Instrument (SI). It was made on 4 February 2026, laid before Parliament on 6 February 2026, and comes into force on 1 April 2026. In practice, that timeline gives everyone clear notice to adjust payments before the new price applies to licences issued from the start date.
Nothing here alters who needs a TV licence or what types of viewing it covers; those rules are set elsewhere and remain unchanged by this amendment. Concessions and exemptions are also untouched. If you already qualify under existing schemes, that status is governed by separate rules, not these fee updates.
If you pay by instalments, the plan names in the legislation are the ones you’ll see on your paperwork: premium instalment, budget instalment, easy entry and simple payment plan. The updated per‑instalment figures in the schedules-such as £46.25 appearing in Part 1, or changes up to £11.70 in Part 3-are the precise amounts used to build the yearly totals.
Your next steps are simple. Check your renewal date, glance at your current plan, and budget for the new total if your licence is due on or after 1 April 2026. If you pay by Direct Debit, TV Licensing will apply the updated schedule automatically; you won’t need to re‑apply for a different plan unless you want to change how you spread payments.
This explainer draws directly on the official text published on legislation.gov.uk (SI 2026/104). We’ll keep our eye on any further guidance issued by DCMS or TV Licensing, but the core change is clear: from 1 April 2026, the standard colour licence is £180 and the premium instalment plan totals £185.