If you’re a student – or the parent of one – there’s a good chance nobody’s ever sat you down and explained exactly how the TV licence works. And according to new research, that confusion is widespread enough to be costing millions of pounds in unpaid fees every year.
Tens of thousands of students in shared accommodation could be unknowingly breaking the law right now – simply because the rules around who needs a licence, and when, are genuinely confusing.
Shared houses, halls of residence, tenancy types, battery-powered devices – there’s a lot more to it than most people realise.
And the timing couldn’t be more significant. The TV licence fee is rising to £180 in April, enforcement is tightening, and the BBC is under enormous pressure to close the gap on non-payment.
Students – already the demographic least engaged with the BBC – are right in the middle of all that. So whether you’re heading to uni for the first time, already living in student accommodation, or just trying to figure out if you actually need to pay – here’s everything you need to know.
What Is The TV Licence – And Do You Need One?
The TV licence is an annual fee that funds the BBC – its TV channels, radio stations, the BBC News website, BBC Sounds, and more. It currently costs £174.50 per year, though that’s rising to £180 from April 1, 2026.
A lot of people have the wrong idea about when they need one. Some think owning a TV automatically means you need a licence. Others assume that if they never watch the BBC, they’re off the hook. Neither is quite right.
You need a TV licence if you watch or record any live TV – on any channel, via any device. That means ITV, Channel 4, 5, Sky News, international channels streamed online – anything broadcast in real time.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re watching via a TV aerial, a satellite dish, or an app on your phone (though that’s a bit different for students – we’ll get to that below).
You also need one if you use BBC iPlayer in any way – live, catch-up, or on-demand.
What you don’t need a licence for is watching purely on-demand content – Netflix, Disney+, Amazon’s Prime Video, or catch-up services like ITVX and Channel 4’s app, as long as you’re not watching their live feeds.
The licence covers your household, so everyone at the same address is covered by a single licence.
If you don’t pay when you should, it’s a criminal offence, with fines of up to £1,000, and potential jail time if you fail to pay the fines. For a full breakdown of the rules, check out our complete guide to the TV licence fee.
Most Students Are Confused About The TV Licence
So where do students fit into all this? According to a new survey by the Uswitch Student Broadband team, the picture isn’t great.
Uswitch surveyed 500 students living in shared accommodation and found that only 38% feel they fully understand the TV licence rules.
That leaves nearly two thirds – roughly 404,000 students in shared housing across the UK – uncertain about their obligations.
And that confusion has real consequences. Around one in eight students surveyed (13.2%) say nobody in their household is paying for a TV licence at all.
More worryingly, 8.8% say they simply didn’t know a licence was required – which, when applied to official student population figures, suggests around 57,750 students could be unknowingly at risk of fines of up to £1,000.
In financial terms, that gap could amount to anywhere between £2.6 million and £10.4 million in unpaid licence fees every year – depending on whether students are on joint or individual tenancies.
And with the fee rising to £180 in April, that figure will only go up.
It’s not hard to see why students are confused. The rules around shared housing, tenancy types, and battery-powered devices are genuinely fiddly.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
The student confusion doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The BBC is currently facing one of its biggest funding crises in decades – and non-payment, whether deliberate or accidental, is a big part of the problem.
Licence fee evasion now stands at a record 12.52% – roughly one in eight households who should be paying aren’t.
That’s costing the BBC around £550 million a year. On top of that, another 3.6 million households have legally declared they don’t need a licence because they don’t watch live TV or use iPlayer – up 300,000 in just one year.
Combined, that’s over £1.1 billion in lost annual revenue, more than a quarter of the BBC’s total licence fee income.
The BBC’s traditional response – sending officers to knock on doors – is working less and less. Nearly 2 million home visits were made in 2024/25, a 50% increase on the previous year, yet prosecutions actually fell by 17%.
As the BBC’s own Director of Revenue Management, Shirley Cameron, told MPs: “It can be harder to get an answer these days than, say, five years ago.”
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee delivered a damning verdict on all this last November, demanding the BBC modernise its enforcement approach – specifically by developing ways to track who’s watching iPlayer.
There are already reports that the BBC is working on ways to verify TV licence status through iPlayer logins, potentially blocking access for non-payers in the same way Netflix or Disney+ cut off subscribers who don’t pay.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s Royal Charter expires at the end of 2027, and the government’s Charter Review – currently open for consultation until March 10 – is considering everything from adverts on BBC services to putting dramas behind a subscription paywall.
All of which makes the student confusion particularly timely. Younger viewers are already the demographic least engaged with the BBC – only 51% of 16-34 year olds feel the broadcaster reflects them.
If students are also the group most likely to be accidentally breaking the law, it doesn’t paint a great picture for the BBC’s long-term relationship with the next generation of licence payers.
The Student TV Licence Guide
So, what are the rules if you’re a student? Here’s a straightforward breakdown.
Living In Halls Of Residence
You’ll need your own licence for your room. Your licence covers you in your room (and when you watch on your own devices elsewhere), but it doesn’t cover your flatmates’ rooms – they’ll need their own licences.
Universities sometimes buy a separate licence that covers TVs in shared/common spaces such as lounges, common rooms or some kitchens – but not individual rooms.
Living In A House Or Flat Share
This depends on your tenancy type. If you have a self-contained flat or annex, or a separate tenancy agreement for your room, you’ll need your own licence.
If everyone in the house is on a single joint tenancy, one licence covers the whole property. If you’re not sure which applies to you, check your contract or ask your landlord.
Living At Home And Commuting
You’re covered by your family’s licence at home, as long as the property has one.
Can Your Parents’ Licence Cover You At Uni?
Possibly – but only under specific conditions – and this is where it gets a bit bizarre.
If you only ever watch on a device running on its own internal battery – a smartphone, tablet, or laptop – and you never plug it into the mains while watching, you may be covered by your parents’ licence back home and won’t need your own.
The moment you plug that device in while watching, that exemption goes away. And if you have a TV set, or a desktop computer, in your student room – you’ll need your own licence.
Is There A Student Discount?
No – there’s no student discount on the TV licence.
However, you can spread the cost via Direct Debit, either quarterly or monthly. And if you cancel at the end of the academic year, you can claim a refund for any unused complete months – worth keeping in mind if you’re not in your student house year-round.
What If You Genuinely Don’t Need One?
If you only watch on-demand content and never touch iPlayer or live TV, you don’t need a licence.
You can declare this on the TV Licensing website. But make sure you’re actually clear on what counts as “live” – streaming a live boxing match on Netflix, for example, counts just as much as watching it on a traditional TV.
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How many of the students that were asked came from abroad from countries that had no form of TV Licence to begin with so the whole idea of having to pay for one wouldn’t have crossed their mind to begin with?
Also in student accommodation it is hard to enforce because you have multiple people all listed at the exact same address and you don’t know how many people out of all of those do or don’t watch TV.