Pensioners will boycott the licence fee if a BBC-backed move to switch to online-only TV goes ahead, it has been warned.
There are fears that older people – the group most likely to be without internet – could be left behind if viewers are forced to buy high-speed broadband to watch TV.
A campaign launched by an 80-year-old viewer who is calling on ministers to drop the plans, saying she would cancel her TV licence, has been backed by leading pensioner groups and more than 100,000 supporters.
One group warned that “non-compliance with the licence fee would explode” while another warned many older people would not be able to afford the high-speed broadband required to watch online-only TV.
With the majority of viewers now viewing online through streaming platforms like Netflix and Smart TVs, the Government is set to decide whether Digital Terrestrial Television signals, or Freeview, could be switched off in the 2030s.
However, millions of people still rely on Freeview to watch TV.
Lynette, an 80-year-old from Bexley, has launched a petition to “save Freeview”, which now has 108,000 signatures.
“High speed broadband is unaffordable for many,” she said. “I don’t have high-speed internet and don’t want to be told I have to pay for that instead of what I want to spend my own money on.”
Lynette, who lives on her own and has a daughter who visits her regularly, said that for people of her generation, the licence fee “definitely won’t be worth paying, and it is already outrageous that some have already gone to jail for non-payment”.
She objected to being “coerced” into getting an expensive broadband contract to watch TV that is currently free.
“I think people my age would watch the BBC less if it was online only. The BBC seems to think that they know better than everyone else and I think maybe they will find they don’t understand what people want.”
Closing Freeview, currently still accessed on 10 million main household TV sets, would save the BBC and other UK broadcasters millions of pounds in programme distribution costs.
‘BBC digging its own grave’
Silver Voices, the senior citizens’ campaign group, said it would back a pensioner licence fee boycott.
Dennis Reed, the group’s director, said: “The BBC would be digging its own grave if it is successful in getting the Government to switch off terrestrial signals.
“Millions of pensioners and low income households would question why they are being forced to pay for expensive broadband to watch their favourite programmes and then being charged a licence fee on top. Non-compliance with the licence fee would explode.”
Reed said the Government should write into the new BBC Charter a commitment to support Freeview into the mid 2040s.
Caroline Abrahams, the charity director for Age UK, said moving to internet-only TV was not a “practical possibility” until the “affordability challenge” has been met.
“A shift to internet only TV would require everyone to have a smart TV and broadband, which millions of older people currently lack. Apart from anything else, these things would be completely unaffordable for an older person on a tight fixed income and few savings set aside.”
Morgan Vine, the director of policy at anti-poverty campaign group Independent Age, said television is an “important source of information, connection and comfort for many people in later life” but warned that “around a sixth of people aged 65 and over do not use the internet at all”.
Lynette said that older people like herself would find losing the simplicity of Freeview difficult, and that the online-move could condemn older people to loneliness and isolation.
“It would take away my awareness of what was going on in the world, because I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to get through the menus and searches that online television seems to need,” she said. “I tried Sky and I needed a typed sheet with instructions for remote.”
Lynette said she wasn’t against “progress” but urged broadcasters and the Government to agree to maintain Freeview alongside internet-TV for an indefinite period instead of a “rush” to online-only TV.
Cost of watching TV could rise to £500
A recent poll of 26,000 respondents for the Digital Poverty Alliance, found that 48 per cent would oppose paying the licence fee, which rises to £180 in April, if BBC content was only available online.
Tim Davie, the outgoing Director-General, told MPs last year that the timing of switchover was a matter for the Government and that the BBC would not endorse a plan that left a group of viewers unable to receive its programmes.
A BBC source said: “We understand the concerns around ensuring that the right conditions are in place for such a transition, which is why early clarity from the Government on the path forward is essential.”
The additional expense for those who do not currently subscribe to high-speed broadband could see the cost of “free” TV – a broadband contract, plus the licence fee – rise to over £500 per year, according to TV industry consultant Christy Swords.
The BBC could be required to fund transitional support for the elderly and those currently unable to receive high-speed broadband.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “We are committed to ensuring that no-one is left behind as TV viewing increasingly moves to online platforms.”
A spokesperson said the Government is working across the TV sector on a long-term sustainable approach to TV distribution, adding that a decision on whether to extend the current commitment to digital terrestrial television beyond 2034 would be made as soon as possible.
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