HUNDREDS of thousands of homes have ditched BBC TV licences as No10 plans to force the broadcaster to adopt a Netflix-style subscription.
The full extent of the strain on the licence fee has been revealed by new figures of the plummeting number of households paying for the Beeb.
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Research revealed that there had been a 200,000 drop of “in force” TV licences in only one year, according to the MailOnline.
In November 2018 there were 25,805,141 licences, but only a year later, the number had dropped to 25,606,957 – a staggering drop of 198,184 households without licence fees.
There was a steady decline in households owning a licence fee in every month from January to November last year, with the exception of only one month.
Most months recorded drops between 7,000 and 30,000.
But in November that drop was more than double – 62,000 less licences from the previous month.
The BBC is the target of new plans from Downing Street to revamp the broadcaster with a “Netflix-style” subscription model.
The plans could also force the sale of the majority of the 61 radio stations but keep Radio 3 and Radio 4 safe.
They will also reduce its number of TV channels, scale back the website, invest in the World Service and ban BBC stars from lucrative second jobs.
A No10 source told the Sunday Times: “We are not bluffing on the licence fee.
“We are having a consultation and we will whack it.
“It has to be a subscription model.
“They’ve got hundreds of radio stations, they’ve got all these TV stations and a massive website.
“The whole thing needs massive pruning back.”
The source added that No10 is now on “Mission: attack.”
It comes days after the BBC announced the licence fee would rise £3 to £157.50 a year from April – just before the firm axes free ones for over 75s.
The corporation is also facing a huge backlash after their plans to scrap free licences for over 75s – affecting 3.7million pensioners.
