What your licence fee pays for
In the financial year 2008/2009, the television licence cost £139.50.
The £11.63 a month, or 39p a day, paid by each household provided all the BBC's programmes and services on TV, radio and online.
Note: the licence fee went up to £142.50 on 1 April 2009.
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News
Three-quarters of the UK population watch or listen to BBC News in one form or another. We take pride in our news journalism being both rigorous and incisive, from John Humphrys on the Today programme to Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight and investigative programmes like Donal MacIntyre on Radio 5 Live.
In 2008/2009 we broke many important stories during the banking crisis and used our consumer affairs programming to look in depth at the impact of the crisis on listeners and viewers.
Related websites:
BBC News
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Current affairs
We regularly set the news agenda, but we also play an important role in helping people across the UK understand how the news affects their everyday lives. Our current affairs programmes look behind the news, covering issues such as conditions in the backstreet Indian workshops where some of our clothes are made, investigated in BBC Three’s Blood, Sweat And T-Shirts.
Related websites:
BBC Business News
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Education and learning
Learning on the BBC ranges from support for schoolchildren sitting GCSEs to outstanding and informative documentaries, such as Baroque and The Lost Land Of The Jaguar, that broaden people's horizons and inspire a passion for knowledge. We make the maximum use of the enormous potential of the web, from online Bitesize revision and background information on 2008's crucial US elections to podcasts of Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 programme on the history of ideas, In Our Time.
Related websites:
BBC Bitesize | BBC Learning
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Comedy
Original, innovative and cutting-edge entertainment is at the heart of what we do. For example, no one invests more in original British comedy than the BBC, and it's one of the areas where the licence fee really comes into its own. It was by taking a chance on new talent that we were able to produce cult hits like Little Britain, Gavin And Stacey and Beautiful People.
Related websites:
BBC Comedy
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Drama
To many people around the world, the BBC is synonymous with outstanding drama. The new drama we screened in 2008/2009 included Little Dorrit, The Diary Of Anne Frank, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, The House Of Saddam and Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk To Finchley. The dramatisation of Henning Mankell's novels about the Swedish detective Wallander was an instant and award-winning success, as was Ashes To Ashes, the sequel to Life On Mars.
Related websites:
BBC Drama
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Music
No broadcaster offers the range of live and recorded music that we do, from country to classical, rock to R&B. We broadcast many hours of live music in 2008/2009, including 600 complete concerts on Radio 3 and live sessions from Maida Vale featuring the likes of Adele and Paul Weller.
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Local news and information
The BBC's local and regional network is one of its greatest strengths, and it's the security and stability of licence fee funding that makes this possible. As well as BBC Scotland, BBC Cymru and BBC Alba on TV, we have more than 40 radio stations broadcasting around the UK. These all make a unique contribution to their neighbourhoods and communities, offering news, information and the chance to debate local issues and concerns.
Related websites:
BBC Local
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Global coverage
Across the world, the BBC is a byword for objective, independent news and analysis. We broadcast globally, nationally, regionally and locally, bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world. Key stories covered by our foreign correspondents in 2008/2009 included the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Israel/Gaza conflict, and the US presidential elections.
Related websites:
BBC World News
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BBC World Service
The World Service is funded directly by a grant from the Foreign Office, not by the licence fee. The quality, objectivity and international reach of the World Service is one of the main reasons why the BBC is one of the world's most respected broadcasters, and it now transmits news in 32 languages. The new Arabic service was launched in 2008 and was the first part of the World Service to be fully functional across all three media of TV, radio and online.
Related websites:
BBC World Service
BBC iPlayer
The iPlayer is pioneering a complete revolution in the way people interact with the BBC, 'making the unmissable unmissable' and attracting 400,000 users every day. In 2008 we launched the CBBC version of iPlayer, which gives children and young people a safe, fun-to-use place of their own where they can enjoy their favourite shows all over again.
Related websites:
CBBC iPlayer | BBC iPlayer
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New technology
Developing new technologies is one of the most important ways we invest the licence fee for the future, so that our audiences continue to get the best experience broadcasting can offer. High definition TV is a good example. HD is revolutionising the way we watch TV and we're making more and more of our content available to view this way, from Wimbledon to Wallander and Strictly Come Dancing to Nature's Great Events.
Related websites:
BBC HD
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Children
The BBC is the only significant investor in original new programming for children. In 2008/2009 we commissioned 60 hours of new drama for CBBC and CBeebies including The Sarah Jane Adventures and In The Night Garden, which was only one of many new programmes made for us last year by independent companies.
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Sport
The BBC is one of the most respected and professional sports broadcasters in the world. Nearly 13 million people watched the 2008 Wimbledon men's singles final, and more than 42 million tuned in for our coverage from the Beijing Olympics. Meanwhile Radio 5 Live remains the home of cricket, and also covers boxing world title fights, motor racing and the US Open tennis.
Related websites:
BBC Sport
How the licence fee is spent
Television
Most of the money spent on TV goes towards programmes on BBC One and BBC Two, but it also pays for the BBC News channel, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC Three, BBC Four, BBC Parliament, regional versions of BBC One and BBC Two, BBC HD and Red Button interactive services.
Radio
The BBC broadcasts music, speech, sport, entertainment and news on Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Live, and on the digital-only stations 1Xtra, 5 Live Sports Extra, 6 Music, Radio 7 and Asian Network. It also serves communities throughout the UK with national stations for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and 39 English local radio stations.
Online
The licence fee pays for the BBC website, one of the most trusted and popular sites in the UK, as well as the hugely popular iPlayer, which is making it even easier to watch and listen.
Digital switchover and other costs
The licence fee doesn't just pay for broadcasting content; it also has to cover our investment in new technology, our running costs, and the costs of collecting the licence fee. Money is also set aside to support the UK's switchover to digital TV. This benefits the whole broadcasting sector, not just the BBC.
What is the BBC doing to save money?
We're working hard to make the BBC more efficient. Between 2000 and 2008 we saved well over £2billion and we plan to continue reducing our costs by 3% every year until 2013, which will be an additional saving of £1.9billion.
Most of the new savings will come from being smarter and sharper about how we run the BBC. The savings we generate are being reinvested in high-quality content and new technology for the future.
How does the BBC help the UK economy?
A third of the licence fee is spent outside the BBC, supporting the broadcasting industry as a whole - that's around £1.1billion a year.
Independent producers, programme-makers and artists are part of the 'creative economy', which ranges from TV and music to film, digital and computer games. This industry is vitally important to the UK economy, and the licence fee money we invest is particularly important during the recession.
We're also moving more and more of our operations outside London and the South East of England, which spreads the benefit of the licence fee more widely across the whole of the UK.
Why does the BBC need a commercial operation like BBC Worldwide?
We can get a higher return on the money invested by licence fee payers if we can sell our programmes and merchandise to other broadcasters around the world, which is what BBC Worldwide does. UK hits such as Top Gear and Doctor Who are also huge sellers overseas, and we have an international reputation for costume drama like Bleak House and Cranford.
We're also moving more and more of our operations outside London and the South East of England, which spreads the benefit of the licence fee more widely across the whole of the UK.
Giving our audiences real value for money
The licence fee is often in the news and the way the BBC is funded has always provoked debate.
Here we respond to questions that are often raised.
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