UK television licence hike due in April

The British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has announced the BBC's television licence fee will increase by £4 from 1 April.
The increase will bring the cost of the annual fee for a colour licence to £116. A black and white licence will cost £38.50.
It is understood the rise will provide the BBC with an estimated extra £100 million in revenue, taking its annual yield to around £2.7 billion.
In a written statement to the House of Commons, Jowell said the rise would "enable the BBC to provide a strong and distinctive schedule of high quality programmes and remain at the forefront of broadcasting technology."
The increase is in line with the formula the BBC agreed with former media secretary Chris Smith in 2000 which raises the licence fee by £4 each year.
Last week, Granada Chairman Charles Allen, called on the government to hand over 10% of the licence fee to support public service broadcasting on non-BBC channels.
Speaking at an RTS event in London, Allen described the licence fee as an "historical anachronism" and urged that £250 million of the currently levied £2.4 billion should be spent on additional public service broadcasting for the commercial channels.
(AMcE)