Fine Gael propose "content tax" to replace tv license

ednwireland

thats it FG just lost my vote, how is this going to help the smart economy Dolts the lot of them

Fine Gael plans to abolish the television licence, replacing it with a public broadcasting charge “to apply to all households and applicable businesses, regardless of the device they use to access content”.
The party’s manifesto gives no details of what “devices” it has in mind, instead detailing ways in which the tax would be collected – through utility bills, local authorities, the Revenue commissioners and An Post.

http://newswhip.ie/national-2/fine-gael-propose-content-tax-to-replace-tv-license

What the hell's content anyway, must scurry off to read the manifesto

page 40 of the manifesto

10.5 Broadcasting
TV Licence: We will change the TV Licence into a household-based Public Broadcasting Charge applied to all households and applicable businesses regardless of the device they use to access content. We will look a new ways of collection including the possibility of paying in instalments through another utility bill(electricity or telecom), collection by local authorities, the Revenue or a new contract with An Post. This will reduce the cost of collection and widespread evasion and could yield a further €20m per annum. TG4will be funded from the charge by 2014.

actually i think that means we will pay a licence fee for any device no getting away with it if you dont have an aerial or a tv. still dont like the sound of it seems like its been thrown in there

eoinoleary

jesus...its almost a type of censorship...no acess to information unless you pay???...

fine gael ,fcuk ya!!!....all the info i need just there

Nate--IRL--

Simple and equitable solution would be to make all RTE internet "content", paid for content. Then you could choose whether you want to pay for that ****e or not.

Nate

johnmcdnl

so even if you don't have a tv or internet you'll still be expected to pay for rte :mad:

Euroland

Instead of completely abolishing this unfair hefty (TV) charge the crooks from FG go even further then the crooks from FF.

kippy

This has to be one of the most backward policies I have head in years.

1. Why support RTE at all - privatise it. I dont believe the State get any value from the broadcaster in the state it is in at the moment. Let RTE fund itself.
2. How the hell do they intend to "police" this kinda thing?

Never mind some of the points people have made so far.
FG making a serious mistake on this one.

sensibleken

Between this, reintroducing stag hunting and the constituion ban on a deficit I am leaving Fine Gael completely off my ballot, no preference at all

Euroland

kippy wrote: »

This has to be one of the most backward policies I have head in years.

1. Why support RTE at all - privatise it. I dont believe the State get any value from the broadcaster in the state it is in at the moment. Let RTE fund itself.

+100%, they should stop extorting people and force this useless entity (RTE) to fund itself the way all private channels do.

Euroland

kippy wrote: »

2. How the hell do they intend to "police" this kinda thing?

Apparently would set up a special police force, the FG one (The FG racketeering squad).

flutered

were not the greens first off the blocks with this.

Elmo

I assume that the plan to review the situation. They seem to be doing that allot.

It will most likely be part of your Electricity bill or some other household bill.

They will most likely split RTÉ Networks from RTÉ. RTÉ unfortunately have been left with the role of rolling out digital TV and Radio something that the private sector is happy to let the public fund. They also support the NSO and other music groupings, Independent companies rely heavily on the licence fee through commissions, they provide an hour of TV to TG4 and 7% of the licence fee to the BAI Sound and Vision fund. The TV licence isn't just about RTÉ.

amen

tv or internet

do you have a mobile phone? Can you get the internet on it ? Then bet you have to pay the new licence fee.

Will get messy though as at the moment the License covers all tvs in a house.
So how will they handle mobile phones? what about kids phones?

ednwireland

Elmo wrote: »

I assume that the plan to review the situation. They seem to be doing that allot.

It will most likely be part of your Electricity bill or some other household bill.

They will most likely split RTÉ Networks from RTÉ. RTÉ unfortunately have been left with the role of rolling out digital TV and Radio something that the private sector is happy to let the public fund. They also support the NSO and other music groupings, Independent companies rely heavily on the licence fee through commissions, they provide an hour of TV to TG4 and 7% of the licence fee to the BAI Sound and Vision fund. The TV licence isn't just about RTÉ.

yeh but even if it doesnt fund RTE and only the network i cant see it going down, just seems like a pile of stuff they threw in there hoping no-one would notice.

Nate--IRL--

sensibleken wrote: »

......the constituion ban on a deficit I am leaving Fine Gael completely off my ballot, no preference at all

Not in their Manifesto that I can see.

Elmo wrote: »

I assume that the plan to review the situation. They seem to be doing that allot.

It will most likely be part of your Electricity bill or some other household bill.

They will most likely split RTÉ Networks from RTÉ. RTÉ unfortunately have been left with the role of rolling out digital TV and Radio something that the private sector is happy to let the public fund. They also support the NSO and other music groupings, Independent companies rely heavily on the licence fee through commissions, they provide an hour of TV to TG4 and 7% of the licence fee to the BAI Sound and Vision fund. The TV licence isn't just about RTÉ.

Still doesn't explain why it can't be privatised, I see no reason for a pubic subsidy.

Nate

Elmo

amen wrote: »

do you have a mobile phone? Can you get the internet on it ? Then bet you have to pay the new licence fee.

Will get messy though as at the moment the License covers all tvs in a house.
So how will they handle mobile phones? what about kids phones?

They will base it one of the utility Bill. It has been suggested before. Regardless of if you have a TV or device or not, regardless of if you only have a Radio.

PBS Levy. Some countries already provide such a levy on utility bills. I believe the Netherlands charge 10euro for car radios.

ednwireland wrote: »

yeh but even if it doesnt fund RTE and only the network i cant see it going down, just seems like a pile of stuff they threw in there hoping no-one would notice.

Sorry I didn't mean to suggest that, RTÉ will continue to pay for broadcast transmissions to the new super monopoly FG are calling SmartGrid. The Fee won't go near SmartGrid rather smartgrid will charge RTÉ, TV3, TG4, Communicorp and whomever else for the use of the network.

Da_Viper

Was it just me that read consent tax.

DoesNotCompute

What's Labour's take on the TV License? Anyone know?

FREETV

Politicians in their entirety are a waste of space, politics in general does not work, never has and never will.They also want to increase VAT to 23% which will mean less consumer spending and for instance RTE will launch Saorview and Saorsat here in Ireland in May, the shi*****s! Catastrophic political meltdown and failure. There is realistically no such thing as a democracy in any country on the planet. You are being forced to pay crazy taxes and bail out the banks against your will! It is a total scam!The system has failed and things economically will become worse in the next six to twelve months so it doesn't matter whether one votes or not or which party or coalition comes in to power. As regards RTE, they need to improve their program content drastically, although I have also noticed that the BBC channels and ITV channels have progressively declined dramatically in quality. Different political party, essentially the same difference.

Elmo

DoesNotCompute wrote: »

What's Labour's take on the TV License? Anyone know?

It is a non-issue TBH.

The roll out of broadband, DTT and other forms of communications are more important and how each party is going to deal with them.

Splitting hairs over the Licence fee is only a tactic to divert the fact that many parties have no real policies other than to bring to the people auction electioneering.

They will all raise taxes. They might do it in different ways but they will still do it.

ixtlan

Something of a bugbear of mine... the TV license...

Quite apart from the issue of whether people should pay a TV/content tax. And quite apart from the issue of whether RTE is value for money.

My issue is that if you invent a tax which is impossible to avoid and targeted at every household in the country, then you might as well just take those allocated funds from central revenue (determined if you want by number of households). It's crazy to be operating a complex collection system to collect a tax that you expect everyone to pay. Taxes can be for changing behaviour (carbon tax), or collecting necessary revenue from those better off (income), but this is not such a tax. It's affects everyone and is not targeted in it's base form. The system of excluding pensioners and welfare recipients is just adding more complexity.

I remember somewhere hearing/reading something along the lines of... an post visits X thousands of residences per month checking for licenses... and thinking what a monumental waste of resources!

ix.

ballinue

Time to give Sinn Fein a chance have they any plans to get the Country back on its feet

Elmo

ixtlan wrote: »

My issue is that if you invent a tax which is impossible to avoid and targeted at every household in the country, then you might as well just take those allocated funds from central revenue (determined if you want by number of households). It's crazy to be operating a complex collection system to collect a tax that you expect everyone to pay. Taxes can be for changing behaviour (carbon tax), or collecting necessary revenue from those better off (income), but this is not such a tax. It's affects everyone and is not targeted in it's base form. The system of excluding pensioners and welfare recipients is just adding more complexity..

The problem with centralizing the TV fund from the exchecure is the power that it gives the politicians. Even here Ray Burke was able to destroy much of RTÉ resource by keep the licence fee below that of Eastern European levels until the mid-1990s when it start to see an increase. Burke had received a few backhanders of course for his trouble.

johnmcdnl

I wouldn't mind paying a tax to roll out fibre optic broadband across the country and if this was included in this tax or something I'd have no problem paying it..

But how much of this is going to go to pay Pat Kenny, Marian Finucan, Ryan Tubridy - the so called "stars" that draw the audience to RTE - strangely though it's these same "stars" that I never ever watch and turn me of RTE...

There's very few shows that I ever watch on RTE either so for me personally paying the license/content tax is a complete waste of money for me...

I basically only ever use my tv for playing the PS3 or watching DVDs and I could easily live without the programs and tv tuner in general but I have to pay the license right now because my TV is capable of receiving stations... Now I'm going to have to pay to let everyone else in the country watch RTE and I don't even have the option of getting rid of my TV to avoid having to pay the charge...

It's a terrible policy and isn't going to go down well with anyone - all it's going to do is give RTE extra money to waste in my eyes...

myrak

It seems there is no end to the search for new income streams....when will politicians realise that the people have only one income stream- pay, pension or dole which have been been thoroughly raided already.

DoesNotCompute

ballinue wrote: »

Time to give Sinn Fein a chance have they any plans to get the Country back on its feet

No

Eric Cartman

if i can still avoid paying it by not answering the door i dont mind

Eric Cartman

ballinue wrote: »

Time to give Sinn Fein a chance have they any plans to get the Country back on its feet

sure sinn feinn would just send the RA around to collect the TV licence

flutered

would a tv without a tuner be exempt.

DoesNotCompute

flutered wrote: »

would a tv without a tuner be exempt.

Nope, once you own a TV you're liaible (under current rules)

Hotblack Desiato

DoesNotCompute wrote: »

Nope, once you own a TV you're liaible (under current rules)

Wrong, a TV without a tuner is a monitor, which is exempt.

If you have a tuner in another device though (VCR, Sky box, Cable TV box, USB TV tuner stick) then you do require a licence.

Aard

They should have abolished it altogether, while increasing the property taxes accordingly to make up the shortfall. RTÉ would then be paid for out of the national budget, as is done in many other countries. (Or, better yet, sold off.)

This kind of "content access" tax is ridiculous. Being able to avail of cheap information helps the economy goddamnit!

Elmo

Aard wrote: »

They should have abolished it altogether, while increasing the property taxes accordingly to make up the shortfall. RTÉ would then be paid for out of the national budget, as is done in many other countries. (Or, better yet, sold off.)

This kind of "content access" tax is ridiculous. Being able to avail of cheap information helps the economy goddamnit!

This isn't the case most European countries have a Licence fee to separate the powers of the government from the the broadcasters so that the Broadcaster isn't pressurized politically.

the groutch

makes Eamonn Ryan's plan almost seem sensible

irish147

what about people who use the internet to look at sports on eurosport player, or youtube, etc, you have to pay a tax to use the net?

So to use the net in the local hotel, we have to pay a 1 euro tax there?

emmmmm

or on wexford bus, you have free net....


to use a computer, that does not mean its your TV set.....

Euroland

Aard wrote: »

This kind of "content access" tax is ridiculous. Being able to avail of cheap information helps the economy goddamnit!

+1, They better re-name it as Access to Information Tax (AIT)

Laminations

I don't like how they've approached this - content tax makes it sound like they'll be policing the net. I think the bones of it is they see a public broadcaster as a valuable public service, but unlike other public services (health, railroads, schools) we were paying for it on a 'usage' basis i.e. if you have a tv (or radio?), you pay a licence fee. In recent times people have been avoiding thi either by simply not paying or switching to other streaming services and downloads on the net. Despite this public broadcasting is still a valuable public service and needs funding (according to FG). So instead of this divisive content tax why not just scrap the licence fee and devote a % of total tax take to the funding of public service broadcasting if we should all be paying for public services?

human 19

2 days ago these guys were getting my no. 1 and 2. With this and the stag hunting reversal they are getting nothing. To think of the total revamp they plan on semi-states and the public sector and then they keep this archaic TV license crap? If RTE had a strictly pay-per programme policy (not impossible in this digital age) i would be happy. Probaly because I would end up paying them feck-all for all their english soccer, english soaps, celebrity farm and fat losers etc, celebrity-pimp-my-x-factor-dancing-gardening-chef...on ice. The TV license is my most HATED tax of the year. I may as well just send Alex Ferguson a cheque for 160 quid every year. I get loads of German stations free via satellite

Bubblegums

What I find amusing if not frustrating is that FG plan to reverse the stag hunting thing, yet all politicians claim they cannot reverse policies previous governments have put in place... ie the Greens could not or would not revise the motorway near Trim/Hill of Tara etc...

So which is it, they either can or can't reverse/change policies put in place previously or not, I think it boils down to what they really want to change and finding pretend reasons for not changing things that have no effect on their own personal lives... :mad:

BumbleB

I believe the requirement came about during WW2 ,the govt wanted to know exactly how many wireless sets and who owned them, so they were in a position to confiscate them if they needed to.


Reform the tv license ,how about reforming kildare street , that would suit them better.

xE

And they accuse the Shinners of robbery!?!

nialldabass

A TV/Broadband/ Phone package here costs about 70 euros and the same thing in England I see advertised for £20, now that is a huge difference. I think they are getting enough tax out of our information services as it is, and for what RTE supply the licence fee is already extortionate. But I'm sure all these plans were laid while the ECB/IMF deal was being made so we probably have no choice.

ednwireland

nialldabass wrote: »

A TV/Broadband/ Phone package here costs about 70 euros and the same thing in England I see advertised for £20, now that is a huge difference. I think they are getting enough tax out of our information services as it is, and for what RTE supply the licence fee is already extortionate. But I'm sure all these plans were laid while the ECB/IMF deal was being made so we probably have no choice.

yep considering I pay vat on my broadband, smartphone connection etc etc, funny how political parties never say we'll introduce this but get rid of vat on it.

just another tax like all the others

DoesNotCompute

nialldabass wrote: »

A TV/Broadband/ Phone package here costs about 70 euros and the same thing in England I see advertised for £20, now that is a huge difference. I think they are getting enough tax out of our information services as it is, and for what RTE supply the licence fee is already extortionate. But I'm sure all these plans were laid while the ECB/IMF deal was being made so we probably have no choice.

Agreed, the extortionate cost of having a telephone + broadband is outrageous in Ireland. Line rental is a joke. Thank God we have UPC in my area - it costs a lot less for a much better speed connection.

Auctionmcd

It is only fair that everybody pays for RTE otherwise how would all those presenters keep their mansions and extravagant lifestyle. Come on guys seriously do you expect our national TV service to pay minimum wage to its presenters? Surely FG are just echoing the voice of the people.

WE WANT SUBSTANDARD TV AT ENORMOUS COSTS

nialldabass

Well I'm sure Tony Blairs expences were not cheap, And As for Turdbirdy he needs a pay rise. And if you want to really know whats going on in the world and get an unbiased opinion, and a fair and equal election coverage theres none better than RTE news.

DoesNotCompute

nialldabass wrote: »

And if you want to really know whats going on in the world and get an unbiased opinion, and a fair and equal election coverage theres none better than RTE news.

Only if you're a Fianna Fail supporter though

Zamboni

Terrible idea.
Another nail in the coffin for any chance they had of a vote.

Fergus

Crazy idea.

The transmission network makes money for the state as a standalone entity.

Central funds should be available to subsidize losses for production of content which the general public agree must be maintained regardless.. maybe things like the performing groups, recording Irish life for the archives, certain live events, etc. Can you imagine trying to put all that to popular vote?

In the US, PBS/NPR is heavily funded by private donations with a limited amount of govt grants.. unfortunately you get a lot of time spent on 'pledge drive / telethon' fundraising shows. But, I think the news service is about as objective as you'll get, and they give people a lot of decent science and education material, and good quality investigative journalism. Of course, it's not perfect.. Daniel O'Donnell Specials are one of their most popular shows

omg a kitty

I dont understand why I need a tv license, I have UPC Im not using their aerials, UPC pays RTE for their channels dont they?