BBC insiders see Celebrity Traitors as ‘last chance’ to save the licence fee

“Watch Celebrity Traitors – now pay the TV licence”. That will be the message from the BBC as it seeks to avert a financial crisis by using the return of its biggest show to target millions of viewers who watch its programmes without paying the licence fee. Licence fee evasion and cancellations cost the BBC an estimated £1bn last year. Audiences will see prominent messages telling them they need to pay the £180-a-year charge when The Celebrity Traitors returns to BBC One on Thursday night. With 15 million viewers watching Alan Carr win last year’s series – the most-watched TV programme of 2025 – Celebrity Traitors is the BBC’s best opportunity to reach the 3.7m households it says are risking a £1,000 fine by watching live TV or iPlayer without a licence. BBC ‘could not risk Traitors without licence fee’ A BBC insider said: “We know people are actually watching who say they don’t need a licence. We used England games at the World Cup to tell people to get licensed and that had some impact. “The BBC is having to make big cuts and Celebrity Traitors is the last chance to stem the accelerating rate of people cancelling this year.” A recent report by the Social Market Foundation think-tank found that the BBC would not be able to take “risky bets” on shows that “require relatively high costs in their early years”, citing “The Traitors, Gavin and Stacey and Line of Duty“, if the licence fee income continues to fall or future funding is slashed.TV Licensing figures show that the BBC lost £323m last year from people whose licences have lapsed, claiming “no licence needed” – but are still believed to be consuming licensable content. Viewers can also expect to see the “what has the BBC ever done for me” campaign, fronted by Romesh Ranganathan, also a Traitors contestant, prominently around episodes of the series on BBC One and iPlayer. But with BBC director-general Matt Brittin calling the current licence fee a “busted flush” as non-payment escalates, the Traitors marketing campaign may not generate the hoped-for windfall of lapsed payers signing back up. BBC campaign ‘zero impact’ “Expectations will be high for Celebrity Traitors 2026, on the back of last year’s success. However, the BBC’s licence fee ads will have zero impact in my view,” said media analyst and investor Alex deGroote. The BBC may instead have to cut more shows to maintain its investment in its biggest property, which is produced by independent company Studio Lambert. DeGroote said: “The BBC has already announced that the show is under production until 2030. This should be watertight, even at a time of concern of overstretched corporation finances and gripes over the licence fee.” The BBC is maximising its investment in the ten-episode celebrity series fronted by Claudia Winkleman, running a 45-minute “visualised podcast” Uncloaked directly after Thursday’s launch, creating a two-hour Traitors block on BBC One. Celebrity Traitors’ broad appeal – it recorded the largest on-demand audience for any UK TV series and pulled in 3.1 million viewers aged 16-34 last year – means it has now outstripped Strictly as the jewel in the BBC crown. It has become one of the best arguments in negotiations with ministers for retaining a publicly-funded BBC. Success ‘like Monopoly money’ But Sarah Fay, the award-winning Traitors executive producer, said there was no guarantee that the second celebrity outing would live up to the last year’s runaway success. She said: “We never take for granted that the audience is always going to come to it. So (the first series) felt a little bit like Monopoly money, it just didn’t seem real, but obviously we’re so, so chuffed.” Fay added: “Going into the (new) series, we wanted to make sure it felt it wasn’t comparable and we could bring a new freshness to it.” The BBC said of its Celebrity Traitors plans: “We run campaigns throughout the year to help people understand when they need a TV Licence and support them to get and stay correctly licensed.” A licence is needed to watch live content on streaming services, watch or record a TV programme on any channel and when using BBC iPlayer. Netflix subscribers in BBC’s sights The BBC also wants commercial rivals to do more to inform viewers that anyone watching England football games live on ITV or Netflix’s upcoming live stream of the British heavyweight boxing bout between Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua also needs to buy a TV licence. The BBC, making deep cuts and axing 2,000 roles to fill a £500m black hole, could expect a windfall if Netflix accompanied the Fury/Joshua fight with messages reminding subscribers to get a licence. However, Netflix said it had no current plans to do so. Former Culture Secretary Sir John Whittingdale told The i Paper: “It has always been the case that you need a TV licence for live TV, so that must apply to the Fury/Joshua bout. “How you enforce it is a much bigger challenge. The BBC, of course, want it to apply to all streamed services which I would not support. If the BBC want Netflix to carry a warning then they will need to do a deal with Netflix.” Enforcement visits less effective The BBC has also hired a debt arrears company, Themis Recoveries, in a trial programme to persuade lapsed licence fee payers to sign up again. Themis sends additional letters to people who have stopped paying, warning they face an enforcement visit if they don’t engage with TV Licensing. The BBC said Themis was not acting as a debt collector and the BBC does not use bailiffs. The BBC declined to give an update on the trial’s success but said it “works hard to support people in staying licensed and we regularly test new approaches to achieve this.” Prosecutions for non-payment fell by 18 per cent last year, along with a decline in enforcement visits, with people less likely to open the door when officers knock. The BBC said replacing the current licence fee enforcement system with a new “universal” payment system would save £190m in collection costs.