TV License

andrew3

With the current erra of broadcasting, I think it's high time the Television License scheme was scraped. It gives the nationals an unfair advantage over competing networks.

Its absolutely ridiculous that recievers should pay license for recieving broadcasts - especially ones most don't want!
I can't remember the last time I watched or listened to RTE, the inability to stick to schedule and the overly dry content delievers poor value for money.

I would also request that the ability to add these channels to the top of the epg be at the request of the viewer rather than the broadcaster!

besides the fine for not having one is more acceptable than the license itself! according to this relic!

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ACT, 1972

the substitution in subsection (2) of "instal, maintain, work or use" and "expressly, or is by virtue of this Act deemed to have been," for "work or use" and "by virtue of this Act deemed to have been." respectively.

( b ) the substitution of the following for subsection (3):

"(3) Every person who keeps, has in his possession, instals, maintains, works or uses any apparatus in contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof—
( a ) in the case of a first such offence, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, and
( b ) in the case of a second or subsequent such offence, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds,
and also, in every case, to forfeiture of the apparatus in respect of which the offence was committed", and
( c ) the substitution of the following for subsection (6):

Uh yeah but it's been updated. The fine is now a grand or something

watty

RTE doesn't get all the money.

Basically it is a Tax.
TV3 is even poorer value for money.

Compared with UK stations (which over 70% watch) which is RTE's competion, really more than TV3 is. RTE has a tiny budget because we are a much smaller country.

I agree that RTE could do much better with the money they get. But this is true of most of the main channels today.

Round Cable

watty wrote:

RTE doesn't get all the money.

They get a fairly high percentage of it, no doubt.

watty wrote:

TV3 is even poorer value for money.

Can't see how €0.00 is bad value for money.

watty wrote:

Compared with UK stations (which over 70% watch) which is RTE's competion, really more than TV3 is. RTE has a tiny budget because we are a much smaller country.

I bet FTA BBC has lost them a good few viewers, at least they have the good taste not to complain about it.

leeroybrown

The current RTE Licence Fee utilisation.

watty

Round Cable wrote:

They get a fairly high percentage of it, no doubt.



Can't see how €0.00 is bad value for money.



I bet FTA BBC has lost them a good few viewers, at least they have the good taste not to complain about it.

You pay for the adverts even if you don't watch any TV at all. TV3 does get some licence money in theory, or could do if they bothered to commision any local programming.

Kellogs at one time was spending more on adverts than all the other cearal companies combined.

A myth, FTA BBC has hardly lost RTE any viewers. It has lost Deflector Operators, Sky Subcribers, Analog MMDS viewers etc.. A small percentage of FTA sat are triuly new viewers. Most are transfers.


Most people that want BBC already had it. Now they get it either better quality or without subscription.

I'm not sure that the RTE link shows non-RTE licence fee expenditure.

At one time the UK gov only gave BBC 2/3rds of what was collected. I wonder how much An Post is "paid".

bungeecork

I sort-of agree, the method of collecting the license fee is outdated and could be replaced with a scheme whereby the same money is raised by other means (the state through the tax system?) and then given to RTE or whoever. Theoretically, existing license payers could end up paying less in that dodgers would find it harder to avoid paying the fee, if indirectly, so the burden would be spread over more people.

OP, would you really rather 4 TV3s instead?

Round Cable

watty wrote:

You pay for the adverts even if you don't watch any TV at all. TV3 does get some licence money in theory, or could do if they bothered to commision any local programming.

A myth, FTA BBC has hardly lost RTE any viewers. It has lost Deflector Operators, Sky Subcribers, Analog MMDS viewers etc.. A small percentage of FTA sat are triuly new viewers. Most are transfers.

Fair enough we pay RTÉ twice in that case, TV3 once.

I'm sure people with FTA digital satellite systems and FTA Irish analogue would watch their Eastenders, in 16:9 widescreen, digital, no ad breaks, no on screen RTÉ facial tatoo. In which case RTÉ would lose out some surely.

About the licence fee, didn't RTÉ make a profit last year, should we get a refund?

Telefís

No. It should be invested in the organistation.

Lets get some persepctive on things here. Virtually every single public service broadcaster in Europe is funded by a licence fee, and most in a dual licence-advertising fashion also.

If we take all Western European countries:

Licence vs advertising. All excess is either commercial activities or other state funding.

Austria: ORF 44% vs 37%
Belgium (Fl) VRT 68% vs 10%
Denmark: DR 91% vs 0%
Denmark: TV2 10% 77%
Finland: YLE 86% vs 0%
France2 56% vs 36%
France3 67% vs 24%
Germany: ARD 83% vs 4%
Germany: ZDF 85% vs 7%
Ireland: RTÉ 50% vs 40%
Italy: RAI 48% vs 34%
Sweden: SVT 93% vs 0%
UK: BBC 68% vs 0


With state grants vs advertising:

Portugal: 60% vs 33%
Spain: 9% vs 80%
Belgium's RTÉ 2 (RTBF): 64% vs 0%


In the licence category we are in the bottom-middle ranking in terms of public funding vs advertising.
Only Spain and Portugal go the state grant (and barely with Spain's case) route - and no surprises there.

All other developed nations have publicly funded national public service broadcasters, and many publicly financed to a much larger degree than Ireland.
The licence fee is by far the most equitable way of paying for a national broadcaster - yes those that are on lower incomes pay the same as those on many multiples of what they earn, but at the end of the day you are receiving the same level of service. Whilst the licence fee adopts something of a tax format, at the end of the day it is not strictly a tax and therefore ought not dicriminate against those who have more or less, for what is the same service being recieved. And €155 is not exactly a vast sum for most people nowadays, even those on low incomes. There may even be an exemption/reduction for social welfare recipients, I'm not sure.
Certainly for OAP's there is a complete exemption.

Also An Post's appalling record in recent years has improved a lot since RTÉ threatened not to renew their contract about two years ago if collection rates did not improve. At one stage we had the highest level of evasion in Europe.

As for the 'licence fee fund', this is 5% of all money collected set aside for commercial operators to make pulbic service programming. So far this has been sitting accumulating in a big jar in the Dept of Finance over the past three years, and TV3 in their ususal pathetic whinging fashion said they have 'no interest' in the fund, as yet more American sh*te is simply more profitable to them.

And people wonder why we need a PSB in this country :rolleyes:

Ulsterman 1690

leeroybrown wrote:

The current RTE Licence Fee utilisation.

was suprised to see how much RnaG get from the licence fee/protection racket :rolleyes:

Telefís

Do you support the BBC's case Ulsterman?

That RTÉ link should answer the basic question most people want to know - do you need a licence per set or per household, i.e. no.
Ridiculous that it doesn't. Also, as much as everyone here probably knows the status of PC television cards and the content of the 1972 Act - most people don't. This ought to be outlined also.

watty

Very good Telefis. There is a reason why Gibralterians watch as much Morrocan TV as Spanish and almost all have Sky feeds (Part of UK for EU votes, yet Sky will not supply them. Cards & Boxes all grey imported from UK "mainland")

I though though that the fund is 10%?

When does TG4 become offically separate from RTE?

Telefís

Not sure watty - it's being considered at the moment certainly, and may happen at the end of this year, or next year. Elmo might have more on that.

Currently TG4 is funded directly by a state grant to the tune of €25 million a year, plus about €12 million in advertising and about €12 million worth of programming given under obligation by RTÉ.

The fund as far as I know is about €7 out of what was a €150 licence at the time it was introduced, so yes it may be closer to 8-10% of the overall licence collected.
I'd be interested to know if this fund is index-linked to inflation like RTÉ's income is...

I see little point in this fund really - all it does is spread public funds thinly about the place, helping to prop up private operators. As it is they all have certain public service obligations in the licence contracts, why give them money to do it?!!

One could also argue though that the funds would just get lost if injected into RTÉ which is perhaps a fair point. Overall though, I'd prefer to see them going into a public broadcasting institution.

At this stage there's over €30 million overflowing that fund jar.

Ulsterman 1690

Maybe someone in Gibralter should set up a deflector system

I wonder what size dish Falklanders would need though :eek:

andrew3

Weather your rich or poor is beside the point. - I think you'll probably find more wealthy people evading the license than the poor.

Alot of people here balragged Tv3 over its content. But just look at RTE - the "home produced" programming is an abslolute pile of cr*p (sorry there is no other word for it) -comedies that aren't funny (insulting to the intellligence) Factual programming that isn't put together properly --(Prime time two weeks ago had an older couple on that had just lost their two sons (god help them) but both the interviewer and panalists were blaming the government for not hammering down on legislation over speeding!???(there was no diversity in the reporting/ The two "old farts" they had called to give discussion couldn't have been more tactless and insulting I thought toward the grieving parents) i sure hope the researchers got the chop for that! Hello -has any of them ever drivin on the roads here? -they are a disgrace! Its no wonder the fatalities - I shredded a tire the other night on a part of a new stretch of road that had caved in! doing 40km/h!)


but back on point - They waste a ton of the money they get on american programming (not just TV3) thats shown on other channels a week later -scrubs, desperate housewives etc- and then they loose viewers to rival stations for not showing the series with consistancy.

Now a yearly tot on what it costs to run that thing in the living room...

sky full pack..................................................... 780euro/year
NTL because the girlfriend wont do without ch4...... 240euro/year
Mandatory Television License for fat air!................ 150euro/year
NASN...............................................................180euro/year
_______________________________________________________
1350!!

TG4 - shows its prime time shows at 1 in the morning!? -most of the time interrupted by euro news - since most of its content is coming from euronews shouldn't it be renamed euronews ireland??

Ulsterman 1690

NTL because the girlfriend wont do without ch4...... 240euro/year

Can you not get hold of an FTV card for the sky box ?
€240 for the NTL package is steep bbut for one channel its madness !

When does TG4 become offically separate from RTE?

Theyve only got the pigs glowing in the dark so far...........

Propellerhead

I use FTA satellite and an aerial for the four Irish stations. I therefore get excellent value for my licence fee. The DTT tests that will happen from some point in 2006 will also give me proper widescreen for the princely sum of No Cents as I have my UK Philips DTT box.

Never watch TV3 as reheated ITV, US TV movies and overmadeup idiots on Ireland AM in no way floats my boat entertainment wise. I would consider TV3's management to have some credibility if they used some of the PSB money - they don't and I draw my own conclusions.

Anyone who wants to scrap the licence fee in Ireland or the UK is working for the dumbing down and ghettoising of intelligent and interesting broadcasting.

When TV3 produces anything as well made as "Showbands" or when Sky produces something as thought provoking and entertaining as "Life on Mars" then I will engage somewhat with the licence scrappers. Until then I won't and will continue to believe that they are advocates for raping and pillaging Public Service Broadcasting.

Telefís

Well said Propellerhead, if somewhat, um, graphically

andrew3 are ye mad or what to be paying €240 for Ch4?!! Tell her where to shove it, or better still tell her where the nearest ATM is! Jeeeze....

And if anything, your listing merely serves to prove just what good value the licence fee is, a €155 pittance compared to the vast sums you're handing over over to $ky! By all accounts spend as you will, and certainly Sky have a lot to offer, but you cannot begrudge Ireland a half decent public service broadcaster offering two national television stations, four radio stations, teletext and online services, NCOrchestra, NPOrchestra, two choirs and a host of other services besides for an annual €155!

watty, just checked the 'Broadcasting (Funding) Act, 2003' - it is 5% of the overall licence collected that goes into the fund. You'd wonder why it's bothered with at all...

mjsmyth

Just a thought n this topic......

I pay the TV licence, I also think that the qualityt of programming on RTE 1 and Two is quite good, sometimes up to the level of BBC.

There are a lot of good movies, quality sport, sometimes interesitng politics, very good investgative journalism and some, not all, good comedy spread out between RTE 1, 2 and TG4.

i wonder though, if you take a up a sky, chorus, ntl or who ever subsuspription, why can't the cost of the licence be inbuilt into the monthly fee? The govt. then takes the money direct from the supplers.

Obviously the standard licence would have to exist as not everyone, my self included, uses a subscription service to get our TV.

MJ

bungeecork

Propellerhead, I hope you don't think that questioning whether the current license gathering system is the best way of funding PSB in Ireland is "dumbing down and ghettoising of intelligent and interesting broadcasting". I'd be all for scrapping the license fee if PSB could be funded by a more modern and efficient method.

It can be done. ABC Australia output 3 television networks, 4 radio networks and dozens upon dozens of local radio stations all completely independent of government influence, completely free of advertising and without a sniff of a TV license.

Ulsterman 1690

How do they do it ?

completely independent of government influence

All broadcasters are to some extent dependent on the government
1) Direcltly funded broadcasters are highly dependent on the Government for funding
2) Licence-fee funded broadcasters depend on the government to set their licence fee and (in the case of the BBC) renew their charter or (in the case of RTE) generally maintain a favorable legal/regulatory enviornment (remember "ad-capping" ?)
3) Even "Independent" broadcasters are dependent on the government (or its agencies) to renew their broadcasting licence every X number of years.

Some countries (Netherlands, Australia and IIRC Portugal) have indeed abolished their licence fee and replaced it with direct funding but this is not without problems as there is temptation on the part of government to cut back on such funding during difficult economic times

Telefís

Yes, if anything the licence fee helps to keep broadcasters just that little bit further away from government than direct funding, allbeit not by very much.
As things curently stand, the licence fee is now index-linked with inflation, however there is a possibility that the annual increase has to be approved by the Minister - not sure.

DublinWriter, to respond to your post here would perhaps be better instead of annoying GBCULLEN

DublinWriter wrote:

No disresepect Telefis, but I've heard this arguement several times over the last 20 years and it's very indicitive of self-important role RTE see themseleves in relation to national identity.

I get the impression that if RTE were abolished, never mind have to cope with the harsh economic realities of doing without the Licence fee, that they would crow about how the very social fabric of his country would unravel.

Untrue. Television these days, unlike 20 years ago, it not the amporphous 2 or 4 channel experience it once was. It's not the essential cutural-experience it once was. Putting it simply, people don't watch as much TV as they used to 20 years ago. It's not the same cultural imperitive that it once was.

For RTE to cry 'chicken-little' about the sky falling should they cease to exist is a laughable arguement. Most of their own home-grown content is of laughable quality. TV3 would be equally keen to employ someone like Mint Productions to produce something like 'Haughy' or Rip-Off-Republic based on the TAM ratings both got.

As for the lack of investigative journalism? Oh please. I didn't see RTE, unlike the BBC, probe deep into how car resellers work as a cartel in their country, but that's probably because Bill Cullen and Renault Ireland bankrolls RTE's flagship programme - The Late Late show. Despite the respect I have in individual journalists such as Mark Little, I'll never respect RTE for producting any level of consumer related programming. Why doesn't RTE have a programme like BBC's Watchdog FFS?

As for the level of Political investigation....both Scrap Saturday AND Bull Island were cut at the height of their respective popularities and coindently at a time when Cathal Goan was lobbying hard for an increase in the licence fee. Oh please.

If as you say Telefis, RTÉ is all we have, and is the best we will ever have, then God help us. At least in the states they have C-SPAN and PBS.

I think the worst thing you can do when assessing a broadcaster is nit-pick over individual programmes - people will always have likes and dislikes, it's the nature of broadcasting. At the same time I accept that there is often too much philosophising about public service broadcasting and not enough discussion about the hard reality of what actually goes out on air.

Overall I think RTÉ do a good job, and I think they are an essential part of Irish life. I agree when you say that they are now but one player in a much larger market, and no longer hold the dominance they once did. However I construe quite a different meaning from that than you - it makes the preservation and consolidation of RTÉ as PSB all the more important, not less. Agreed that it is no longer a creator of national identity nor a dominant force in Irish cultural life, how ever it does reflect Irish identity in a way that a commercial operator in Ireland simply cannot.

Of course commercial television could do many things - The Late Late Show earns in the region of a net €8 million a year by my calculations; similarly one-off series like Haughey are equally profitable with DVD spin-offs etc, as with You're a Star and a few others. However broadly speaking, the majority of what RTÉ Television does depends on the licence fee for support. The reason TV3 makes so little Irish output is because it doesn't have the resources to do so. Even the increased output that is possible were it enforced by the BCI still wouldn't amount to much. All of RTÉ's drama successes of late run at a vast loss to the organisation, as all drama does. It costs a feckin fortune, running into millions in cases, yet recoups but a fraction in advertising.
Similarly, while on the face of it programmes like Prime Time with an average of 400,000 viewers seem very cheap to make being largely studio-based, they rely on the vast resources of the RTÉ News Division, again which is largely financed by the licence fee. With the practicalities of covering the whole country, it simply costs a fortune to maintain - something commercial television in Ireland simply cannot pay for. We take all of this for granted, yet it’s invisibly paid for by the licence fee.

Of course there are one-off successes, but the majority of output comes nowhere near the revenues that accrue from these - so much runs at a loss, and rightly so. It is a public service broadcaster.
Commercial broadcasting in Ireland has no interest in children's programming, no interest in political coverage, no interest in arts programming, no interest in religious programming (can you see TV3 with a Religious Affairs correspondent?!!), no interest in agricultural coverage, in regional coverage, no interest in Northern Ireland, no interest in Irish language programming, no interest in the elderly, no interest in ethnic minorities (even if RTÉ do treat it rather patronisingly admittedly) etc etc etc.
And I don't mean TV3 doesn’t have an interest (though this is also the case), but commercial television in Ireland as a concept. Yes if RTÉ didn't exist you could probably regulate broadcasters to do most of this, but you wouldn’t get the same level of commitment, the cohesiveness, the expertise, the balance of programming, especially in a market as small as Ireland.

Fundamentally, what benefit is derived from taking the licence fee from RTÉ, or dismantling the organisation? Does anyone seriously beleive for a second that broadcasting in Ireland is going to improve with the abolition of the licence fee?! Or with the dismantling of RTÉ as a public institution?

I don't question for a second that reforms are needed within RTÉ, as with all broadcasters who must evolve and strive to improve what they do - but I don't believe for a second that anybody in this country can genuinely and honestly say that the redistribution of the licence fee, or its abolition, or the removal of RTÉ's PSB remit will so much as in the slightest improve Irish broadcasting. Not for a second. There’s no logic in splitting up something so great, something so valued by most people, for the sake of ‘the market’. It doesn’t make sense to me – the market will cherry-pick what it can and ditch the rest.

And people also forget that RTÉ has a commercial remit as well as a public service one, as laid out in legislation. It is both entitled and encouraged to actively pursue private finance in the form of advertising revenues and commercial activities such as the RTÉ Guide and RTÉ NL etc to boost the station, keep it strong, and help it to sustain Irish output as well as acquire material to serve an Irish audience. I personally see no bad thing in having a strong national broadcasting service in a small country swamped with foreign media with no chance of the market coming even close to matching what we already have.

rlogue

Agreed Telefis, when you see what Channel 6 are proposing, which is basically even more of the dross that TV3 shovel out, without even the news service - then the need for RTÉ to be in place as a strong Public Service Broadcaster is absolute.

I certainly believe that RTE are far too timid for their own good though - axing Scrap Saturday and Bull Island are prime examples of this, but are TV3 filling the gap?

Of course not.

So much for the superiority of the market, eh?

Propellerhead

bungeecork wrote:

Propellerhead, I hope you don't think that questioning whether the current license gathering system is the best way of funding PSB in Ireland is "dumbing down and ghettoising of intelligent and interesting broadcasting". I'd be all for scrapping the license fee if PSB could be funded by a more modern and efficient method.

It can be done. ABC Australia output 3 television networks, 4 radio networks and dozens upon dozens of local radio stations all completely independent of government influence, completely free of advertising and without a sniff of a TV license.

I am completely satisfied with the current funding system for RTÉ. It guarantees the existence of a properly funded News and Current Affairs service, Lyric FM and a balanced diet of programming across the television and radio services.

ABC is an interesting case in point. It's digital service, ABC2, operates on extremely tight constraints. Here's a question from ABC's FAQ:

Q: There’s no drama, national sport, national news or current affairs and no comedy or entertainment on ABC2. Why is that?

A: Government legislation restricts the kinds of programs that can be shown on any additional digital channels broadcast by the ABC or SBS. Specifically, the legislation prevents ABC2 from broadcasting drama, national sport, national news or current affairs, comedy and entertainment.

With respect, that does not sound like a PSB operating without fetters. I therefore reject fully your comparative of Australia with Ireland.

Rupert Murdoch and the late Kerry Packer made sure that ABC did not operate on a level playing field with them. I am extremely anxious that the same emasculation does not happen with Irish television.

DMC

I reject the Australian model, as the ABC there has constant run-ins with the Government on their annual budget. Depending on how favourably reporting on the govt is, can depend on what the ABC can get from the federal govt in Canberra.

Can you imagine (or want!) Mary Harney critising RTÉ's coverage of health news with the caveat of "well, remember who your paymaster is... the same as the nurses!"

Wikipedia wrote:

Relations between the ABC and the Australian government

Relations between public broadcasters and the governments that provide all or much of their funding, and establish and maintain their legal status, have typically been through periods of turbulence since the rise of current affairs and documentaries in broadcasting.

The ABC's treatment of current affairs—including This Day Tonight and its successors The 7.30 Report and Lateline on television, and AM on radio, have been criticised by the political right for alleged left-wing bias in its reporting. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the conservative Liberal Party government made several attempts to curtail the ABC's political coverage by threatening to reduce funding to the news and current affairs division. In the late 1980s, the Hawke Labor government proposed commercialising the ABC, a move that was successfully resisted by the organisation itself and a significant groundswell of devotees among the public. The Hawke government also proposed to merge the ABC and its sister organisation, the Special Broadcasting Service; again, this move was unsuccessful, this time because the enabling legislation failed to pass the Senate. The Howard government reduced the ABC's operating grants by 10% soon after coming to office in 1996.

Some ABC digital kids channels folded because of this.

Wikipedia wrote:

ABC Kids is a name given to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's children's programming.

Its use began as a replacement for the "ABC for Kids" branding used on ABC TV and ABC Online in around 2000. In 2001(?), a half-day ABC Kids channel launched nationally. It was available on digital terrestrial television, and subscription services Austar and Optus Television. It could not gain carriage on Foxtel due to Foxtel's financial interests in the Australian rights to competitors' Nickelodeon and Fox Kids.

The ABC launched the channel without additional funding for it, hoping that its success would prompt an additional government grant. This strategy did not succeed. In July 2003, it went off air.

The brand survived on ABC TV and ABC Online.

On March 7 2005, a new channel ABC2, launched. It carried many hours of ABC Kids programming, in addition to that broadcast on ABC TV.

Currently, ABC Kids offers a wide range of children's programing aimed at 6–12 year olds. A related sub-brand, Rollercoaster, covers programs aimed at 12–16 year olds and a related website and magazine.

bungeecork

Sound arguments, but still it can be done.

Legislation fixing government funding to the number of TV households would cut out the sphere of political influence. That'd fix John Howard (who looks set to be the Prime Minister until at least 2046).

In Australia, a country where the number of households with access to digital TV has only reached double figures (practically - years behind many EU countries although perhaps ahead of ROI) digital only channels are bound to come and go and in the digital TV area John Howard is heavily restrictive on commercial channels too.

I was just pointing out that it can be done, it has been done, and as it's possible there are many unexplored ways of doing it better, having a debate about how it might be done is totally legitimate.

Ulsterman 1690

One possible way it could be done

A "spectrum levy" imposed on all commercial broadcasters (TV3, Citychannel, Channel 6 and a privatised RTE2) to fund public service broadcasters (TG4 and a "de-commercialised" RTE1)

Any commercial station which carries some "public service" content will be entitled to a partial rebate on their levy.

Admitidely it would require a legal definition of what constitutes "public service broadcasting" along with a formula for calculating the rebate and may be more suited to countries with a high ratio of "commercial" to "public service" channels (like the USA)

watty

There is already a spectrum levy proposed. But Satellite Broadcasters don't agree with it, obviously.

The levy would take account of coverage and number of sites etc.

The austrialian figures seem wierd given that they had Digital MMDS before us and Digital Satellite a long time too.

AntiRip

Just read this report on RTE. I may be wrong but are they actually saying they're considering putting a license fee on people who watch YouTube video clips etc?????

Television is now much more than a 'box in the corner', and the concept of a television licence fee may have to be changed to include such developments as mobile phone streaming and websites such as YouTube, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

The Oireachtas Committee on Broadcasting is holding a public consultation process on forthcoming broadcasting legislation.

Technology expert Ronan Coy said television can include anything that is made visually available to the consumer, including developments such as Internet-based television stations and video blogging.

However, Conor Hayes, RTÉ's Chief Financial Officer, told the meeting that 99% of homes in the country still have a television set, and are therefore obliged to have a licence based on that set.

worded

How much is a TV licence and can you move address with it?

I recenly got a letter with my name on it from them.

AntiRip

worded wrote:

How much is a TV licence and can you move address with it?

I recenly got a letter with my name on it from them.

thinks its e158 and you can move address just tell them

Elmo

A sprectrum levy may not work in Ireland as commerical broadcaster may fell that they are supporting an extra channel or 2 while other non-irish broadcasters are able to sell advertising space without the need to give RTE funding.

I don't think the TV Licence gives an unfair advantage to RTE over commercial broadcasters.

The local radio stations are make loads of money, as is Today FM and TV3. Newstalk is going to make gains in the next 2 to 3 years and they really cann't blame the TV licence on over paying Eamonn Dunphy, that was a business discision they took. Today FM presenters are paid good money, and Ray D'arsy even went as far as saying that he might be paid more then Bertie Ahearn. (But in fairness he was also working on Your A Star at the time).

TV3 make around 50million euro a year, and have a staff of 155 which they pay 6.8million a year on (they haven't increased the number of staff in the station and they haven't increase the number of Independent productions/in house productions, they actually reduce their staff cost in 2005).

2FM is not funded by the licence and RnaG doesn't carry ads.

Other companies involved in broadcasting do not fund

www.rte.ie/radio
www.rte.ie/tv
www.rte.ie/music
www.tg4.ie
http://www.bci.ie/broadcast_funding_scheme/index.html

But they are prob make just as much money as RTE on advertising if not more when you divide it up.

fta keith

The tv licence here is great value here as I have the Sky freesat Digital satellite with a UK sky freesat card to receive channel 4, Five etc and I have an outdoor tv aerial to receive the 4 basic Irish tv channels with tv with a digital tv tuner I receive also the Irish DTT pilot project, RTEtv and TG4 show first airing of popular US shows like ER, Sopronos, Nip/tuck etc well before the UK tv channels and Sky one, RTE Sport got the live rights for champions league after TV3's poor coverage and RTE's sport coverage is the best around even compared to most of the uk tv channels etc