BBC waives the licence fee for street parties watching the royal wedding
Good news for people planning on hosting viewing parties for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding—you won't have to pay a licence fee to screen it.
The BBC announced it will be waiving its fee for communities screening the wedding live, so people hosting street parties and other events on the day won't need to worry about buying a licence.
In the UK, premises need to buy a TV licence in order to view or stream TV programmes on any device. But, the BBC sometimes issues a "dispensation" for broadcasts it deems to be "of national importance." In a statement, Pipa Doubtfire, the BBC's Head of Revenue Management, said the BBC considers the royal wedding to be such an occasion.
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This means that the royal wedding can be broadcast at street parties, as well as events in town halls and community centres throughout the UK without a cost to those in attendance.
"We have decided to offer a one-off dispensation for the Royal Wedding on May 19," said Doubtfire. "This will allow the public to enjoy live coverage of the occasion at special events like street parties, where TV is not usually watched, without needing to buy a licence."
Better get planning that street party, people!
Topics BBC
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
