Tv licence new, law is to come!

caseyann

The new proposal that is on the table,a national charge to every household.
Even if you have no tv and no cable in the house you will be charged apparently the fee of having one.
What you think of this i heard it on the news driving home.

dotsman

Makes sense in one way. No need to spend huge amounts of money inspecting premises and chasing up people.

On the other hand, they should just get rid of it. Another stealth tax to pay for a useless, bloated service. There should be a small pool of money every year that is used to subsidise programmes of national significance (documentaries/current affairs etc) which any station can apply for.

It's the 21st century. We do not need a national broadcaster. State subsidies for certain pieces, but not a broadcaster.

wildefalcon

Should do same thing for fishing licences, and gun licences, dog licences and the like.

In fact, how about a charge coming out of everyones salary, you could call it, income tax.

Damned if I'll pay it - I don't have a TV, why should I pay for idiots to blather on and on in front of a camera and be paid a fortune by RTE?

dudara

Hmm, this isn't really a Consumer Issue - moved to Taxation

dudara

caseyann

wildefalcon wrote: »

Should do same thing for fishing licences, and gun licences, dog licences and the like.

In fact, how about a charge coming out of everyones salary, you could call it, income tax.

Damned if I'll pay it - I don't have a TV, why should I pay for idiots to blather on and on in front of a camera and be paid a fortune by RTE?

They are saying because they know you are watching programmes on the internet rather than tv,they have to get you basically.
So now to have a computer screen in your house you must pay 160 euro.

Oh_Noes

I wonder how many "No" ticks there will be now on the Census form under "Do you have a PC" and "Do you have internet"

If they want to start taxing computers, mobile phones, ipods etc... because you can watch TV on them will we see a lowering in price with broadband fees and mobile phone charges ?

So current law states;

"You do not require a television licence to watch television on your computer or mobile phone. However, you do require a licence if the computer is used together with any other apparatus to receive a signal."

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/consumer_affairs/media/tv_licences.html

So how will all this be changed, worded and work then ? Say you have a PC but you don't have broadband, broadband / internet being the apparatus needed to receive a TV signal, you have a mobile phone and opted not to have internet service on it, you just use it for calls ? How will this all be assessed ?

caseyann

hellboy99 wrote: »

I wonder how many "No" ticks there will be now on the Census form under "Do you have a PC" and "Do you have internet"

If they want to start taxing computers, mobile phones, ipods etc... because you can watch TV on them will we see a lowering in price with broadband fees and mobile phone charges ?

So current law states;



http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/consumer_affairs/media/tv_licences.html

So how will all this be changed, worded and work then ? Say you have a PC but you don't have broadband, broadband / internet being the apparatus needed to receive a TV signal, you have a mobile phone and opted not to have internet service on it, you just use it for calls ? How will this all be assessed ?

From what i heard on the news,no assessment needed.And you will be just charged the rate under the assumption you have one or the other or both.

Cookie_Monster

dudara wrote: »

Hmm, this isn't really a Consumer Issue - moved to Taxation

dudara

It's not a tax...

seamus

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

It's not a tax...

I think the idea is that it would become a tax rather than a licence fee. Seems pointless to make it a licence if every household has to pay it.

I do understand the rationale behind it. But before we can look at charging everyone for RTE, we need to make big changes in the payscales there. Nobody in the company should be making more than €150k per year. If tubbers or the plank want to go elsewhere and get their million-euro salaries, then off they go. There are plenty of far more talented people who'd be only happy to work for RTE for an average wage, never mind huge amounts.

Cathal Goan couldn't even justify being in his role as DG, such was his incompetence, never mind the huge salary he took home.

Add it onto the inevitable property tax and then take a slice to put in the arts budget. Remove state subsidies for RTE and create a local broadcasting fund where anyone can apply to have programming or any kind of series, TV movie, etc fully sponsored by the arts council on the understanding that no advertising may take place before, during or immediately after this programming is shown.
Include in this fund similarly stuff to cover sporting events for national teams, providing broadcast rights to all Irish stations.

Then insert into broadcasting licences a proviso that a certain % of programming must be produced in Ireland. This will force RTE to compete realistically but also force TV3 to start looking at more Irish-produced programming rather than regurgitating "documentaries" from the UK and US.

yoyo

caseyann wrote: »

They are saying because they know you are watching programmes on the internet rather than tv,they have to get you basically.euro.

You know what, if this is really the reason for taxing the internet I have a solution, only allow people who buy a tv license access RTE Player and all that. A simply thing to achieve with web based systems (via entering login details),

Nick

LK_Dave

yoyo wrote: »

You know what, if this is really the reason for taxing the internet I have a solution, only allow people who buy a tv license access RTE Player and all that. A simply thing to achieve with web based systems (via entering login details),

Nick

yoyo, you should be running the country. Imagine somebody using common sense?

I'm tempted to say "Down with that sort of thing"!

Worztron

Incredibly stupid idea. The TV license should be scrapped. RTE should be paid for by other taxes i.e. income tax, VAT. All of these stealth taxes such as toll roads (should be paid via motor tax) are cumbersome and require large overheads that defeat the purpose. The Universal Social charge is another example of idiocy (isn't PRSI supposed to pay for this?).