Do we have to get a licence?

yop

Lads

Since we have sky and no cable or aerial do we need to get a licence? There is no mention of satellite in the wording so why do we need a licence paying for something we do not have

DMC

Licence chat moved to Broadcasting.

And yes, you do. Its the law.

Draco

You have the ability to recieve the signal so you have to pay.

eth0_

YOP i'd just wing it and see if you get any letter about it.
I reckon they just look for aeriels and NTL terminators on your house and then send you a letter about non payment.

I've had sky for a year and never ever ever watch RTE, and never got a licence or any letters about it. Living at home now though so my parents licence covers me.

At least the good news is you only have to buy one licence per household.

yop

Ok, if it is law, but I would not miss RTE if I did not get it on the satellite, I am already paying for it on the Satellite sub, so why do we have to pay twice.

Originally posted by yop
Ok, if it is law, but I would not miss RTE if I did not get it on the satellite, I am already paying for it on the Satellite sub, so why do we have to pay twice.

You are not paying twice if you are paying a sky digital subscription.

There is a subtle distinction here.

It's a bit like the economy fare versus the business fare on an airline.
The license fee is the economy fare it allows you to watch commonor garden, analog tv, in the republic of Ireland as your contribution to the RTÉ service.

It's a tax , yes on something , that maybe you never watch, but all taxes contribute to some things that some taxpayers never use, the majority of taxpayers use most services, most of the time, as do license payers with RTÉ

The business fare suppliment is the extra you pay to Sky for , the digital quality sound and picture, and the convenience of EPG information on programmes,personal planner etc.
mm

hallelujajordan

The licence is on the television unit, doesn't matter if you only ever watch videos. . . . . !

Our man in Havana

Originally posted by hallelujajordan
The licence is on the television unit, doesn't matter if you only ever watch videos. . . . . !

Well if you disable the tuner you can avoid paying the licence.

With this increase I would expect massive amounts of enforcement in student towns like Carlow. Students seem to have an adversion to paying for the tv licence.

DMC

The video also is a television signal tuner, so you need a licence, and even if you a video and a B & W TV, you'd have to pay a colour licence, but the B&W licence bit the dust yesterday amougst all the news.

dmeehan

the B&W licence bit the dust yesterday

do they still make B&W tv's?
I havent seen one in years

deepspeed

so why dont TV3 and Today FM get any of the license fee?

Bit monopolistic.

Does a TV Card on your PC count

Jasper

Originally posted by deepspeed
so why dont TV3 and Today FM get any of the license fee?

They do now. God knows why. They're crap.

DMC

so why dont TV3 and Today FM get any of the license fee?

They are commercial broadcasters without the PSB remit that RTÉ have, and their sole purpose is to be independent of RTÉ.

Does a TV Card on your PC count

Yes, it is a device capable of getting a TV signal.

We had a right barney on this one over at the Television forum on this one not too long ago... http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62950

DMC

Originally posted by Jasper
They do now. God knows why. They're crap.

The amount that is going to Independent broadcasters is very minimal, a €7 cut, and as I said above I cant see TV3 getting that slice of the cake, I see that only going to ILR's around the country and community based radio stations such as Pheonix FM in Blanchardstown.

Richard

Originally posted by DMC
I cant see TV3 getting that slice of the cake.

Didn't they do something in Irish a while back? (Where they removed the DOG). Wouldn't that be classed as public service.

BrianD

Originally posted by yop
Ok, if it is law, but I would not miss RTE if I did not get it on the satellite, I am already paying for it on the Satellite sub, so why do we have to pay twice.

---

You are not paying twice. Your sub to Sky, Chorus or NTL is for programme delivery not for content ... though some of your Sky sub will go back to some of the channels on the Sky platform (e.g. MTV). The licence fee in Ireland is used to fund programming on RTE TV and Radio and is levied on all TV ownership at a specific address.

icdg

do they still make B&W tv's?

I've seen some portables (and I mean really portable, hand held sets) in Power City at about EUR 50 a go. Other than that not really.

You still need a licence for B&W (just not a cheaper one) AFAIK, but I'm going to check that out.

LFCFan

Originally posted by Jasper
They do now. God knows why. They're crap.

What, and RTE is a great station? They get advertising revenue and the license fee and with the exception of Bachelors Walk, produce utter crap. They shouldn't have been granted a license fee increase until they could show that they would improve their service.

leeroybrown

The licence is on the television unit, doesn't matter if you only ever watch videos. . . . . !

You pay a licence for the ability to tune in a TV picture. (The licence also covers radio reception equipment)

Many companies buy Combo TV/Video sets which have had no TV tuner for use in Training. This avoids having to pay the TV Licence on multiple sites (at a higher corporate rate).

Many of the security VCR's are probably also sold without a TV Tuner to avoid paying Licence fees.

watty

Due to a strange arrangement, with Sky, RTE don't get a brass farthing from your Sky Sub.

Maybe someday they might fund Public Service Broadcasting content from general tax. But for now in common with many European countries inc UK (who never seem quite sure if they are European), a tax is raised on households having TV reception capability (VCR + Monitor, or PC tuner or TV Set etc). Most, but not all goes to the PSB, in our case RTE. The organisation collecting it takes a whack (in case of UK, the PO used to take 1/3rd!). The government(s) sometimes stump up extra PSB money (not likely here!). It is a mechanism to make PSB look somewhat indepentant from politics, which would be less so if there was no TV licence and it just came out of taxes.

There used to be Radio Tax too (I mean licence). Windows and Hearths used to be taxed.


Yes there are still B&W TV. Mostly 4" or so built in to a cheap radio.

Is a household with *ONLY* a B&W TV exempt now, or do they have to buy a regular TV licence? (But do you really want B&W TV only to save Licence?).

TV Licence is *STILL* a quarter approx what Sky is aiming to get from each household (About 600 Euro, about 1/2 subscription and 1/2 from "interactive" services)

watty

I'd complain more that there is no FTV service in Ireland unlike UK, rather than the Licence.

The Licence is still too low if we want decend PSB. There about a 1/10th as many people to collect it off here in ROI as in UK.

Hmm.. Is BBC *REALLY* providing TEN TIMES the quality or Services of RTE?

*Warning Will Robinson, stupid humour approaching *

What about just give the Licence fee to UK and sell BBC the RTE and have FREE BBC on Satellite AND 30 terrestrial channels?

(I was "Up North" visiting last weekend. Actually everything seems a lot dearer there than here now).

LFCFan

Originally posted by watty
Hmm.. Is BBC *REALLY* providing TEN TIMES the quality or Services of RTE?

More like 100 times the service

RTE:

Fair ****ty
Glenroe
The Cassidys
Upwardly Mobile
The Premiership

BBC:

Only Fools and Horses
Fawlty Towers
The Office
Eastenders
Match of the Day

No comparison!

DMC

BBC:
Population: 60 million
TV Licence price: €174.33
No advertising.
Income (2002): £3.38bn stg

RTÉ:
Population: 3,917,000
TV Licence price: €107
Advertising makes up 55% of revenue.
Income (2000): circa €400m

The only comparision you can make.

watty

Than ks DMC. you have the figures for my point.

Also BBC Enterprises probabily makes as much as RTE gets in Ads (wild guess).

We pay LESS licence than UK that has 15 times as many people to collect it off!

The "begrudgers" should pay their TV tax and concentrate on writing to RTE telling them what programs they would like.

I know from time I worked in BBC that Broadcasters:
1) Get very little written feedback
2) Actually take it seriously. (They might not DO anything, but it will still make executives lose sleep )

The time in late 1970s that BBC NI closed early and Divis then came up rebroadcasting the newish Longford TX RTE about 10 people rang Fanum Hse in Belfast (RTE) asking for more and less than 20 I think rang BBC complaining abouthe the "Soldiers Song" at the end of the film!

They added an "Id" in the signal and timeswitches to prevent such "Accidents" in the future.

In those days of limited hours if you had a landrover, 10W TV transmitter and VCR at start of broadcast chain you could hold open almost the entire network if you caught the next Transmitter after Crystal Palace just after closedown. About the same time a bloke with Porn tapes did just that in Japan.

(I f the link feeding a Transmitter is lost it changes over to an aerial feed of the next area's transmitter. Nowadays you need a secret Digital signal embedded in the analog picture to make it work).