TV licence collection privatised and replaced with device licence fee in 5 years

GarIT

https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0802/1066568-rte-tv-licence-fee-reform/

The collection of the TV licence fee will be given to the lowest bidder via a public tendering process tendering process. So some private company is going to be noseying around our homes looking in our windows for a TV etc. Then after 5 years the TV licence fee will be replaced with a device licence fee to make sure everyone pays whether they consume RTE content or not.

I didn't think this government would do it, they kicked the can down the road since the early 2010's. I'm disgusted, I'd happily pay for an independent news/investigations media company with some home made content but not the bloat that is RTE.

Between this, the go-ahead/DB privatisation and the Maria Bailey case I will find it very hard to vote for FG within the next ten years.

dudara

Moved from AH > CA

Fizzlesque

"Broadcasters are facing major challenges as audiences are moving away from traditional platforms such as television."

Broadcasters, plural? Who will be the beneficiary of this new tax then? If RTE have lost their audience, surely they can't still expect to be the recipients of this newly-named tax. Or is that exactly what they want? Money for old rope even though many don't want their ropey old service?

I'm disgusted too, GarIT. I got rid of my TV years ago, long before I had Netflix, so to me this is just another pocket-picking exercise.

I never vote Fine Gael but I hope those that do have a change of heart next time round.

73bc61lyohr0mu

I have a PC that I built from scratch. I have a smartphone. I never watch RTE nor do I have any intention of. I've already paid tax on my pc parts when I built it, tax on my smartphone to buy, tax on my phone bill, tax on my Internet, tax on my electricity. I'll go to court before I pay the government a cent to pay for Ryan Tubridy and Ray Darcys salary.

Atlantic Dawn

Will you be exempt with just a Nokia 3310, asking for a friend.

gozunda

Tbh there is no eartly reason in this day and age that anyone should be obliged to pay for media they do not consume.

Considering the rubbish produced by our 'national' broadcaster and the current direction of their tabloid presentations - I reckon it's simply another excuse for another bloated tax take from the cent collectors.

FortuneChip

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Will you be exempt with just a Nokia 3310, asking for a friend.

Not if you use Snake. Their adopted Mascot.

malinheader

Joe,Miriam and co must be looking for another pay hike, or they might even want to start up another orchestra, God forbid.
But then again it is a great station for pushing the government line.

ILoveYourVibes

So basically a private company will be making money from the T.V license.

malinheader

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

So basically a private company will be making money from the T.V license.

I would nearly put money on it being a friend of a friend in dail eireann who owns the company.

ILoveYourVibes

malinheader wrote: »

I would nearly put money on it being a friend of a friend in dail eireann who owns the company.

Or a friend in RTE or someone in RTE who owns the company.

Charles Babbage

This is blx.They should simply add the licence fee to the property tax, collection costs zero.

whisky_galore

What can they do in the event of non payment? Cut you off?

Could be like Irish Water all over again.

Inviere

GarIT wrote: »

Then after 5 years the TV licence fee will be replaced with a device licence fee to make sure everyone pays whether they consume RTE content or not.

So keep things relatively kosher through the next election and not upset the masses (minimise electoral damage), then take the pain early on if they're re-elected by introducing the new fee, and it'll all be forgotten about by the following election a few years later.

Someone above coined it perfectly, we're being forced to pay for media that we don't consume.

_Kaiser_

Ah FG. The party of taxation and privatisation, but nothing else except never-ending waste and scandals.

They are obviously not expecting to be reelected next time out if they're pushing this through at this stage.

I pay the license but I don't watch RTE at all. I couldn't even if I wanted to as I don't have the necessary external aerial for Saorview (internal doesn't work in my area). I do have freesat and everything else comes from the likes of Netflix, Amazon and the US.

Why should I have to pay for services I can't even access?

twinytwo

Charles Babbage wrote: »

This is blx.They should simply add the licence fee to the property tax, collection costs zero.

Even better idea.. RTE should have to stand on its own two feet like everyone else.

corsav6

Charles Babbage wrote: »

This is blx.They should simply add the licence fee to the property tax, collection costs zero.

Add it to a tax that we shouldn't have to pay in the first place? Nah, their taking more than enough and giving absolutely nothing back to us. Property tax is just plain wrong, it's hard enough to get by in this country but to tax a person's home is just wrong.

CPTM

I don't really understand this. Would it not be more economical (And politically advantageous) to just scrap the tv license and factor it into the income tax instead. So for example, instead of dropping income tax by 2%, cut it by 1.5%. That way people will see tax reductions and also no tv license. Unfair for the handful of people who don't have a device I suppose but why have a whole system just for them?

Inviere

CPTM wrote: »

I don't really understand this. Would it not be more economical (And politically advantageous) to just scrap the tv license and factor it into the income tax instead. So for example, instead of dropping income tax by 2%, cut it by 1.5%. That way people will see tax reductions and also no tv license. Unfair for the handful of people who don't have a device I suppose but why have a whole system just for them?

But then when the inevitable license fee increases come along, people would see that as income tax increases, and it might not be as politically advantageous.

drunkmonkey

We shouldn't have to pay to be advertised to. I get it with the UK and the BBC having no advertising but not here. Make RTE advertising free and independent then I wouldn't question paying.
Charge Netflix, Amazon, Sky not the consumers being programmed.

Kivaro

Let's not kid ourselves here; this is just another household tax that Fine Gael is imposing on us.

Fine Gael have nothing but contempt for the Irish people. They have shown time and time again that vested interests is their primary concern. We should seek our revenge at the next general election; otherwise we deserve all the new "progressive" taxes that they will impose on us if they get reelected.

whippet

This should be a fun debate .. listening to Brid Smith on newstalk earlier ... no broadcasting charge .. google and Facebook should be levied as they are making the money from people watching RTE online !!! I kid you not ... she will be the one banging the drum about this and hasn’t even a clue what google does

I’d also love to know how many people watched the recent RTE Investigates programmes and saw what they uncovered and then would whinge about paying s public service broadcast charge

Grumpypants

What they should do is add a tax to all the bills for tv, mobile and broadband services provided regardless of who provides it. Sky, Vodafone, eir etc. That way you capture everyone and then use that money to fund psb.

For example I pay 100 a month for 2 mobiles, tv and broadband with vodafone. That's 1200 a year.

Lets say they charged 23%. Then that's €275 nearly double the TV license amount.

Hold on a second !! That tax sounds familiar .....

whisky_galore

whippet wrote: »

This should be a fun debate .. listening to Brid Smith on newstalk earlier ... no broadcasting charge .. google and Facebook should be levied as they are making the money from people watching RTE online !!! I kid you not ... she will be the one banging the drum about this and hasn’t even a clue what google does

I’d also love to know how many people watched the recent RTE Investigates programmes and saw what they uncovered and then would whinge about paying s public service broadcast charge

I'm not disputing that the Investigates programmes aren't worthy, but why all the dross, dead weight and repeats in the other 99.9 percent of the schedule?

biko

In Sweden the TV licence was replace by a "public service fee".
So even if you never watch TV or any of that, your tax still pay towards the salaries of people that you never intended to reward.

It's opposite of fair and free market.

vicwatson

If they really want it give it to revenue to collect just like property tax, I imagine the PT has an enormous compliance rate

vicwatson

twinytwo wrote: »

Even better idea.. RTE should have to stand on its own two feet like everyone else.

They could start by slashing the huge salaries they pay

dhaughton99

gozunda wrote: »

Tbh there is no eartly reason in this day and age that anyone should be obliged to pay for media they do not consume.

Considering the rubbish produced by our 'national' broadcaster and the current direction of their tabloid presentations - I reckon it's simply another excuse for another bloated tax take from the cent collectors.

Isn’t €160 reasonable for that 1 episode of ‘reelin in the years’ you might accidentally watch when flicking through?

The J Stands for Jay

People Who Don't Watch RTÉ To Be Charged For Watching RTÉ.

This could be as popular as water charges.

Personally I think news and current affairs should be kept on RTE and founded by the tax payer. The rest should be either up for grabs by Virgin media or others or not publicly funded at all. RTE2 should be wound up.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGbNBgS3B0

NIMAN

whisky_galore wrote: »

I'm not disputing that the Investigates programmes aren't worthy, but why all the dross, dead weight and repeats in the other 99.9 percent of the schedule?

Its not only Rte this could be directed at.

Take a look at the BBC, ITV, Sky etc on freesat. There is loads of dross and repeats on there too. And 80% of programming on Netflix is rubbish too.

It's a worldwide issue, unfair to pick on Rte on their own.

When you have 24/7 TV to fill and hundreds of channels, most of its going to be cheap muck.

They can "reform" away, to minimal effect. Little will change in this household. Don't own a TV, everything is streamed via a monitor or phone. And before the pedants intervene, I don't access RTÉ online. Thus, no obligation on my part to pay the TV licence.

NIMAN

[Deleted User] wrote: »

They can "reform" away, to minimal effect. Little will change in this household. Don't own a TV, everything is streamed via a monitor. And before the pedants intervene, I don't access RTÉ online. Thus, no obligation on my part to pay the TV licence.

When they reform, it'll not be called a TV licence any more, it'll be something like a DIGITAL DEVICE tax, then you fit the bill.

The J Stands for Jay

dhaughton99 wrote: »

Isn’t €160 reasonable for that 1 episode of ‘reelin in the years’ you might accidentally watch when flicking through?

Bit hard to accidentally watch something on rte when you never turn on the saorview box because there's never anything on it and it's too much hassle to turn on for the miniscule chance that there'd be something watchable on one of the 10 channels so you just stick to Freesat or Netflix.

Kivaro

biko wrote: »

In Sweden the TV licence was replace by a "public service fee".
So even if you never watch TV or any of that, your tax still pay towards the salaries of people that you never intended to reward.

It's opposite of fair and free market.

Then you have to ask the question why?
The cozy relationship between state broadcasters and governments who dictate their funding is the obvious answer. Look at RTE and our sitting government; where are all the difficult questions from our national broadcaster about the various sub-standard services that we are paying through the nose for, the lack of affordable housing, the disfunctional healthcare system, massively overpriced projects, an insurance cartel who are closing down small companies and businesses all over the country etc. etc.

Nope, no hard-hitting questions or substantive investigations from RTE, and today they get their reward.

The J Stands for Jay

NIMAN wrote: »

When they reform, it'll not be called a TV licence any more, it'll be something like a DIGITAL DEVICE tax, then you fit the bill.

*Investigates analogue streaming devices*

Harry Palmr

Perfectly reasonable policy.

Cookie_Monster

In the modern age there is simply no reason for rte. Privatise it, remove the licence fee and if they cannot survive so be it

NIMAN

Rte often question the government decisions.

You must never listen to news on TV and radio. Or debates.

The housing crisis has been used a stick to beat the government for years now, as has the health crisis. And Rte make plenty use of it.

But if you want to believe that all the issues are hidden and never questioned, then you'll not be swayed.

NIMAN

Most other countries do something similar, be it a TV licence or a digital tax, but if you listen to some moaners in Ireland, we are the only ones doing it

Of course their argument is that Swedish or Dutch TV is great compared to Irish TV.

Ave Sodalis

In our small town, there's at least 20 restaurants and eateries. We haven't got a huge population, and there is only so much you can cut prices and still be a viable business. So quality is increased. They try to out compete each other by making consistently good food. As someone who lives in the surrounding area, I have never been charged for not eating at any of the restaurants. And it works. There have been restaurants open for decades because they understand the basics of competitiveness.

It seems RTE haven't received the same memo.

corny

We'll all bitch about it, do nothing and vote FG/FF in the next election. Yay democracy.

All is not lost though. Corporatism will eventually be challenged by a major revolution. We might all be reduced to serfdom by then but it'll happen.

OldGoat

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

So basically a private company will be making money from the T.V license.

malinheader wrote: »

I would nearly put money on it being a friend of a friend in dail eireann who owns the company.

(Ironically enough) From the RTE source quoted in the OP, "To address this, Mr Bruton is announcing that a new five-year contract for the collection of the licence fee will be put out to public tender later this year."

If you don't want the tender to go to a friend of FG then apply for it yerself. It's a public tender.

Assess the task
Draw up a plan
Present your costings
Profit.

InTheShadows

whisky_galore wrote: »

What can they do in the event of non payment? Cut you off?

Could be like Irish Water all over again.

Cut what off, RTE? Not much of a punishment that.

JohnnyFlash

Excellent news. A publicly funded state broadcaster with a public service ethos is the sign of a strong democracy and should be protected at all costs. We need that impartiality in our media. Hopefully this will put an end to the scroungers, leeches, cranks, and the ‘no way, we won’t pay’ crew.

InTheShadows

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Excellent news. A publicly funded state broadcaster with a public service ethos is the sign of a strong democracy and should be protected at all costs. We need that impartiality in our media. Hopefully this will put an end to the scroungers, leeches, cranks, and the ‘no way, we won’t pay’ crew.

A publicly funded braodcaster shouldn't be paying the ridiculous wages RTE do. Until that's ended i'll continue to be that "scrounger" that doesn't pay the licence fee.

And RTE "impartial" are you ****ing kidding me. They practically made a saint out of people the ilk of Margaret Cash ffs.

mike_cork

NIMAN wrote: »

Its not only Rte this could be directed at.

Take a look at the BBC, ITV, Sky etc on freesat. There is loads of dross and repeats on there too. And 80% of programming on Netflix is rubbish too.

It's a worldwide issue, unfair to pick on Rte on their own.

When you have 24/7 TV to fill and hundreds of channels, most of its going to be cheap muck.

But you can choose to pay for Netflix or not.
RTE wants to put a gun to your head- Pay for a service you dont use or else.
Do you not think that's wrong ? Make RTE a subscription service and let people have the choice to pay for the service if they want to watch it.

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage wrote: »

This is blx.They should simply add the licence fee to the property tax, collection costs zero.

So, only homeowners would have to pay? Not on your nelly.

Kivaro

OldGoat wrote: »

(Ironically enough) From the RTE source quoted in the OP, "To address this, Mr Bruton is announcing that a new five-year contract for the collection of the licence fee will be put out to public tender later this year."

If you don't want the tender to go to a friend of FG then apply for it yerself. It's a public tender.

Assess the task
Draw up a plan
Present your costings
Profit.

Wonder if hobnail boots will be required for the staff of the new company that will be peering through windows and banging on doors and caravans all around the country?

Kivaro

Deleted User wrote: »

So, only homeowners would have to pay? Not on your nelly.

Not on your telly!

odyssey06

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Excellent news. A publicly funded state broadcaster with a public service ethos is the sign of a strong democracy and should be protected at all costs. We need that impartiality in our media. Hopefully this will put an end to the scroungers, leeches, cranks, and the ‘no way, we won’t pay’ crew.

Where this impartial media - certainly not at RTE!

As for scroungers, leeches and cranks, you've done a good job of describing RTE staff there.