People in the UK with subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube may need to pay a £180 annual TV Licence fee depending on what they watch, according to TV Licensing officials. The fee, which rose on April 1, 2026, covers colour TV licences at £180 and black-and-white at £60.50.
What the TV Licence Covers
A TV Licence is not just for BBC channels. It covers all TV channels like BBC, ITV, Channel 4, U&Dave, and international channels; pay TV services such as Sky, Virgin Media, and EE TV; live TV on streaming services including YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video; everything on BBC iPlayer; and watching, recording, and downloading on any device.
Netflix and the TV Licence
TV Licensing states: "If you are watching a TV programme that is being broadcast live on Netflix, you need to be covered by a TV Licence. You don’t need a TV Licence to watch on-demand programmes on Netflix."
YouTube Viewing Rules
Officials explain: "If you are watching a TV programme live on YouTube, you need to be covered by a TV Licence. A licence is not required to view user-generated content, clips and videos on YouTube." This includes live-streamed content that is not part of a television broadcast. A YouTube Premium subscription does not replace a TV Licence.
Amazon Prime and Disney Plus
For Amazon Prime, the rule is the same: live TV requires a licence, on-demand does not. For Disney Plus, no licence is needed for on-demand programmes, as per TV Licensing.
Freely and Other Services
TV Licensing stresses: "Freely is the newest way to stream live and on demand TV, all in one place. If you’re watching broadcast TV on Freely, you need to be covered by a TV Licence." On-demand programmes via Freely do not require a licence, except for BBC iPlayer.
