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General discussionQuestions for citizens of other countries!(32 posts)(32 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 21, 2016
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X-com: What I don't understand is, why is there a fee to use public radio and TV if they already have ads running. I would understand if there were no ads, but they are already making money from commercials.
Yes, that's another good question. Maybe the fee is not enough to cover the cost of broadcasting rights for sports events or the production of entertainment shows and soap operas. ;)

Although, to be fair, at least in German television, while there are commercial breaks on public channels, they are a lot less frequent than on the private ones, and they are mostly restricted to specific times of day and specific channels. Movies, documentaries and infotainment programs, for example, are never interrupted by them.

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timppu: The national (tax-financed) TV channels have a societal mission or purpose, while the commercial channels only have a purpose of making their owners as much money as possible. Both are needed, for different purposes.
That's the theory in Germany as well, but in practice the differences between the two get more and more blurry here, as the public channels enter the popularity contest and aim to compete with the private channels in terms of entertainment, trying to garner a greater share of audience.
Post edited April 21, 2016 by Leroux
Posted April 21, 2016
Seems like I haven't seen you in a while Kingbradley (i'll proper your name)... To answer you succinctly - no, the monthly ISP fee is all I pay.
Posted April 21, 2016
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Petrell: It was Hungary, a country within EU going the way of Erdoğan's Turkey, Putin's Russia and Hitler's Nazi Germany.
There was internet in Hitler's Nazi Germany? :P
Posted April 21, 2016
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Petrell: It was Hungary, a country within EU going the way of Erdoğan's Turkey, Putin's Russia and Hitler's Nazi Germany.
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Leroux: There was internet in Hitler's Nazi Germany? :P
Sure. Don't you know, that's where all the grammar nazis on the 'net come from.
Posted April 21, 2016
Here
Attachments:
tax_shelter.jpg (40 Kb)
Posted April 21, 2016
There is nothing like an internet tax in Germany. However, the state gets 19% of the monthly fee that you pay to your ISP. This is a tax you have to pay on almost everything you can buy ("Mehrwertsteuer").
Posted April 21, 2016
Mehrwertsteuer = Value Added Tax (VAT) in English. Yes, this one we all have to pay.
Posted April 21, 2016
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timppu: We have that "public TV tax" too in Finland, and those (YLE) channels don't have any commercials.

The commercial channels with ads are not financed through that tax, they are financed through the commercials.

As someone mentioned, one idea behind such national channels is that they are supposed to promote arts, education (e.g. learning programs, or documentaries even about "boring" subjects), services to minorities e.g. news for the deaf (I've never seen such on the commercial TV channels (not enough viewers I guess), albeit I am unsure how much deaf people nowadays need TV news with sign language when they could just as well read subtitles or read the news from internet, but maybe the sign language programs help them train their sign language skills then, and for hearing people too...), or news in the Saami minority language (the Laplanders living in the north) etc.

Commercial channels, on the other hand, concentrate more on stuff that gathers lots of viewers. Popular TV series, sports events, movies etc. Some of that stuff on the national channels too, but usually meant to somehow cater for the ideals mentioned above.

So I personally feel there is some justification for such tax-financed national TV channels, or nowadays also internet services. Some people complain that the programs on the national channels are not as interesting as on commercial channels, but those people completely miss the point. That's like complaining that going to school is not as much fun as staying home playing video games. It is not a popularity contest between the two.

The national (tax-financed) TV channels have a societal mission or purpose, while the commercial channels only have a purpose of making their owners as much money as possible. Both are needed, for different purposes.
Well from what I understand, all public channels here such as Telewizja Polska & Polskie Radio receive money both from ad revenue and from a "subscription" which is the tax for using TV and Radio.
Posted April 21, 2016
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Petrell: It was Hungary, a country within EU going the way of Erdoğan's Turkey, Putin's Russia and Hitler's Nazi Germany.
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Leroux: There was internet in Hitler's Nazi Germany? :P
I was more refering to Hungary's slide towards authoritarianism (one of the alleged reasons for the Hungary's internet tax bill was goverment trying to limit access to internet and free media).
Posted April 21, 2016
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bruceFish: There is nothing like an internet tax in Germany. However, the state gets 19% of the monthly fee that you pay to your ISP. This is a tax you have to pay on almost everything you can buy ("Mehrwertsteuer").
VAT is also evil, though, because it's not paid on onepercenter amenities.
Posted April 21, 2016
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KiNgBrAdLeY7: Are you people being taxed just for having an internet connection and using it? Besides your monthly fee to the company which provides your connection, i mean and totally irrelevant to the service...
Nope (or that is what I think).

About 5-10 years ago some Spanish societies for the artists rights tried to tax pretty much everything by arguing that they were not earning enough because of all the existing piracy. They tried hard with the Internet access, but without success.
Posted April 21, 2016
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X-com: What I don't understand is, why is there a fee to use public radio and TV if they already have ads running. I would understand if there were no ads, but they are already making money from commercials.
Their right to run adverts is very, very limited.

They may only run 20 minutes of adverts a day on average and may not exceed 25 minutes per day. They may not advertise after 8 p.m (sponsor messages during live sport events excluded) and not during news programmes shorter than 30 minutes or during kids shows. Regional and special interest channels (the vast majority of public TV) have to remain completely free of adverts.

That's nowhere near enough to fund even the most basic programme...
Post edited April 21, 2016 by Randalator
Posted April 21, 2016
Luckily we have now Internet tax and have the second best speeds in the world. However we do have a TV and a Radio tax which is included in the electricity bill. And of course we have VAT. Which ironically is applied to these taxes also. Becauseas you know taxes add value to services/goods. It's the same with fuel. During the years more and more taxes were added so now with oil being at around $40 we pay twice as much for fuel than 8 years ago when it was at around $140. Of course salaries stayed the same or got cut.
Posted April 21, 2016
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nightcraw1er.488: In the UK we are just thankful to get any internet at all. BT has a monopoly on the lines, and does everything possible to keep us in the dark ages. Not even going to talk about the lack of anyG phone connection which appears to only happen right next to the hub in London. So in essence around 50% of a bill goes to BT.
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Emob78: If you just had a brand new government agency to oversee it all. Maybe you could get a better deal. I mean, establishing an entire new branch of government with thousands of employees, all working hard to make sure no evil corporations dick you out of another pound for using a service that you agreed to.

Keep in mind, that new internet government security agency is also going to need its own legal department... human resources office, tech and industry support, a lobbying team, several hundred call center reps, and at least a hundred PR agents to assist in citizens concerns and public relations management.

I'm sure all those new taxes you'd have to pay would totally be worth the effort.
BT was ran by the government before they privatised it then they only started proper broadband when they were getting competition from UK cable companies.
At that time, the UK, Japan and the United States were leading the way in fibre optic technology and roll-out. Indeed, the first wide area fibre optic network was set up in Hastings, UK. But, in 1990, then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided that BT's rapid and extensive rollout of fibre optic broadband was anti-competitive and held a monopoly on a technology and service that no other telecom company could do.

"Unfortunately, the Thatcher government decided that it wanted the American cable companies providing the same service to increase competition. So the decision was made to close down the local loop roll out and in 1991 that roll out was stopped. The two factories that BT had built to build fibre related components were sold to Fujitsu and HP, the assets were stripped and the expertise was shipped out to South East Asia.
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/how-the-uk-lost-the-broadband-race-in-1990-1224784
Posted April 22, 2016
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HappyUnicorn: It is actually worse than that. At the present every household has to pay this fee, regardless of the posession of any TV, radio, computer or internet connection, leading to absurd situations in wich people suddenly had to pay for services they could not use in any form. Much like a tax, but oficcially it isn't one.
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Themken: So, a head tax, just like in Finland. A tax one has to pay to be allowed to live in a certain place.
Well, it is not a tax, it's a fee. In Germany the money gathered from taxes is not necessarily used for the support of the the part of living where the tax is collected. For example, the money of the Fuel Tax can be used to fund schools, not only for the maintenance of streets.
A fee, on the other hand, can only be used and raised for a specific service. And that makes the so-called Rundfunkgebühren rather unfair, as even people with no access to any receiving devices have to pay for the public broadcasters.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussionQuestions for citizens of other countries!(32 posts)(32 posts)
(32 posts)