BBC veteran John Simpson says TV licence fee dodgers are as bad as shoplifters.
The BBC News world affairs editor fears they will help kill off the current model of funding the Beeb.
John spoke out as increasing numbers of viewers, particularly the young, do not pay as they get most content though streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and YouTube.
He said: “If people can decide they simply don’t want to pay, which they’re increasingly doing, we’ve had it, we’re finished.
“Don’t tell me these people don’t watch the BBC.
“Of course they do. For me that’s just like shoplifting.”
The BBC annual report shows the number paying the £180 licence fee fell by 500,000 last year.
Regulator Ofcom reports about half of 16 to 24-year-olds do not watch live TV and nearly all prefer streaming services.
In January it was revealed that, for the first time, the BBC had been overtaken by YouTube — when for two months its audience was larger than for all the corporation’s channels.
John’s comments in Radio Times came as he promoted his new show, John Simpson: 60 Years at the BBC.
He said the best alternative to the fee was a mandatory household levy, collected and administered by an organisation independent of the Government and BBC.
Ministers have already rejected the idea but John, 82. said: “That to me is the right way of doing it. Everybody pays for it.”
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