RTE charging student for not paying their license fee

rantyface · 01-03-2009 08:57PM #1

Does anyone else think this is outrageous?

It's a tax on owning a tv and we don't earn enough to pay tax.

Most Irish talent ends up on Ch4 or the BBC. Since we come from a country which has statistically produced more writers per head of population than any other, why is there not more original Irish creative talent on RTE? Why do we let Ch4 make Father Ted and then buy it back? Ridiculous.

We all come from homes that do pay the fee, so we'd all have to be paid for twice.

They are overpaid, and since they are mainly paid for by our taxes (and I call the license fee a tax too), they shouldn't be earning more than civil servants unless they are very talented, in which case they will be working for the BBC anyway. Top RTE stars are paid more than their BBC counterparts.

We watch their ads, so if we do end up buying or using whatever is advertised, we do pay them indirectly.

I'm tempted to picket RTE, and since it's just across the road, I think a few of us should organise something. What do you think?

Économiste Monétaire · 01-03-2009 08:59PM

What an exceptionally appropriate user-name.

mikemac · 01-03-2009 09:04PM

rantyface wrote: »

Top RTE stars are paid more than their BBC counterparts.

Pat Kenny earns around 900,000 euro afaik. I think he might have taken a pay cut recently
Jonathan Ross earns up to 6 million sterling per year.

I don't know which is better value but what were you saying about RTE stars earning more?

Poor student eh? Can't afford 160 euro but you are a non-drinker right who has never wasted a cent on beer in your entire college life? I know it's a tough life

Fad · 01-03-2009 09:17PM

rantyface wrote: »

What do you think?

If you own a TV, you're obliged to pay it, there's not really any debate, pay it or go without a TV. Simple.

Donald-Duck · 01-03-2009 09:26PM

You're a retard

delta_bravo · 01-03-2009 09:38PM

rantyface wrote: »

Does anyone else think this is outrageous?

It's a tax on owning a tv and we don't earn enough to pay tax.

I'm tempted to picket RTE, and since it's just across the road, I think a few of us should organise something. What do you think?

No its not outrageous. If you didnt have enough to pay for it you shouldnt have brought it from home. It is well publicised that they target apartments and students residences in as people think they can get away with it.

If you paid for it at home simply inform them of a change of address but i presume it is not your name on the licence.

Your argument at the waste of the licence fee by RTÉ is irrelevant really, you simply have to pay the fee. Theres no getting out of it, dont waste your time complaining. Just pay the thing immediately before you get a fine of about €1000

The_Minister · 01-03-2009 09:40PM

Donald-Duck wrote: »

You're a retard

You're here long enough to know better - banned.

rantyface · 01-03-2009 09:49PM

Well since you asked, I get 50 from my parents per week, which covers food, laundrey, electricity, bins etc and I earn 75 from work, which covers rent. I don't drink or smoke or eat meat, mainly because of my budget before my parents started paying for my food but now because I feel healthier this way. I cycle or walk everywhere and don't get buses or anything like that. It's boring but it's only for a few years, when I'm on the dole and I'm absolutely rolling in it I'll be drunk every night and eating rashers every morning.
Please don't make nasty assumptions about me. I find it quite hard to make ends meet, but now I've gotten used to it I don't notice my budget.

I also don't own a tv because it's boring, but I think it's unfair students were charged. I imagine lots are in wore situations than me, and might have a housemate who watched tv and they didn't or something like that.

If you can get off the fee for being on social welfare, which for a single person is about triple the amount of spending money I have, you should get off it for being a student, because you're also not in full employment.

Économiste Monétaire · 01-03-2009 09:57PM

Uhh, how is TV boring? You clearly haven't discovered the raw awesomeness of Sky HD.

delta_bravo · 01-03-2009 10:03PM

rantyface wrote: »

but I think it's unfair students were charged.

Why? I cannot see a reason why a student should be exempt from paying a licence. What is the value in it? They pay VAT on foods and other goods in the exact same way a non student does. Students who drive have to pay for car tax.

So if this student fails to pay the licence fee they have broken the law so they must face the consequences. There is nothing else really to consider in this case

Red Alert · 01-03-2009 10:20PM

Get rid of the TV, put a Slingbox at home. You'd buy it with the TV license fee and you'd get your cable channels. Just won't work within UCD's network because of the draconian blocking. Technically then you don't have a TV but are streaming it from elsewhere.

Stabshauptmann · 01-03-2009 11:31PM

delta_bravo wrote: »

Why? I cannot see a reason why a student should be exempt from paying a licence. What is the value in it? They pay VAT on foods and other goods in the exact same way a non student does. Students who drive have to pay for car tax.

So if this student fails to pay the licence fee they have broken the law so they must face the consequences. There is nothing else really to consider in this case

Didnt you know, TV is a universal right!

And if students dont have to pay for the luas, why should they have to pay a TV license?????"""!!!111

33% God · 01-03-2009 11:43PM

I would like to state for all RTE license inspectors listening that I of course pay my TV license, so there's no need to check or anything. Seriously.

delta_bravo · 01-03-2009 11:55PM

33% God wrote: »

I would like to state for all RTE license inspectors listening that I of course pay my TV license, so there's no need to check or anything. Seriously.

Good, because these inspectors are hardcore. They dont take any sh*t

Jev/N · 02-03-2009 12:08AM

If you can't afford to pay a TV license, you shouldn't have one, student or not. It's comparable to owning a car, if you can't pay for tax or insurance, you shouldn't have one in the first place.

It costs around €170, that's less than 50c a day overall, so it's not extreme TBH. Also, most of the money for presenters fees etc comes from advertising and not from the license, as there isn't enough revenue from that alone.

I do understand where you're coming from with regard to living in a house/on res with others who want to have a TV and don't pay the license. If it isn't their TV and they can't afford to pay, they should make that clear to their housemates who own it, that they shouldn't have to pay it as it's not their TV.

Breezer · 02-03-2009 02:36AM

A TV licence costs €160. Presuming the students you're talking about live on campus with 3 other students, that's €40 between them. There are 24 weeks in a college year (not counting reading or exam weeks), and 5 days in a college week. So that works out at 33c a day each. You could probably find that if you went around campus for an hour. Not that I'm suggesting you do that, just illustrating the point that it really is a pittance. If you don't like it, don't have a TV. If you don't like TV, why rant about it on the internet?

rantyface · 02-03-2009 05:31PM

Ok, just wanted to know what people thought.
I still do find it crazy that if you have two homes and one is paid for, you have to pay again. And I think they're unduly overpaid and we have to pay for a third rate service because of their wages. TG4, which has very little funding compared to the other RTE channels, often has much better shows, and I think it shows how much must be wasted.

I don't understand why single people on social welfare, who are a lot better off than most students, don't have to pay it. It doesn't make sense that one group get off for not having a lot of money and another group doesn't.

So the general view is "Rules are there to obeyed, not questioned. There's no such thing as being ripped off and if something is legal- it's right- don't challenge it. Our high earners are extremely qualified compared to their counterparts in other countries and deserve our taxes. All students drink too much and equate everything to the cost of booze and taxis home, 'cos that's all they think about. If they drank less they could afford anything."

Red Alert · 02-03-2009 05:41PM

The idea of a television license is ridiculous, especially in a day when more people watch stuff on Youtube or via digital satellite.

Jev/N · 02-03-2009 05:52PM

Red Alert wrote: »

The idea of a television license is ridiculous, especially in a day when more people watch stuff [...] via digital satellite.

You still need a license for satellite

El Siglo · 02-03-2009 06:58PM

The fee wouldn't be as bad if we didn't have arse-faces like Kenny, Tubridy, Ryan, those knobs from 'how low can you go' etc... If they produced better programming, less of the current sh*te then it wouldn't be a problem. As was written on one placard in the last anti-fees protests: "Less Fees, More Gees!";)

Breezer · 02-03-2009 08:42PM

rantyface wrote: »

So the general view is "Rules are there to obeyed, not questioned. There's no such thing as being ripped off and if something is legal- it's right- don't challenge it."

Challenge it using the proper means. The logical conclusion to what you're saying is to break any law you don't agree with.

Red Alert wrote: »

The idea of a television license is ridiculous, especially in a day when more people watch stuff on Youtube or via digital satellite.

Agreed, the legislation badly needs to be updated. I believe it's on Eamon Ryan's to do list, somewhere between 'save the planet' and 'be intensely irritating.'

El Siglo wrote: »

The fee wouldn't be as bad if we didn't have arse-faces like Kenny, Tubridy, Ryan, those knobs from 'how low can you go' etc...

Oi, I like Tubridy and the 'How Low Can You Go?' lads!

Although I agree about Ryan and Kenny (on TV anyway). But any of them are better than Johnathon Woss!

El Siglo · 03-03-2009 09:52AM

Breezer wrote: »

Oi, I like Tubridy and the 'How Low Can You Go?' lads! Although I agree about Ryan and Kenny (on TV anyway). But any of them are better than Johnathon Woss!

Ryan Tubridy looks like he should be suffering from Marasmus or Kwashiorkor and he's a condescending knob on his saturday night program, those fools form "how low can you go" are not funny, they're a bunch of 30 year olds who are in denial of their growing decripitude and have found a vector for 'expressing' their 'youth', they're pathetic.:rolleyes:

Jonathan Ross is much better than any of the gobsh*tes employed by rté, at least he can get decent guests and can actually interview them, unlike plank kenny.

To summarise:

Abolish the fee, let rté finance themselves or at least start producing decent programs with no ads, look at the bbc, no ads we can learn many things from them!;)

Ryan Tubridy, d4, fianna fail knob: "sponsor him for €2 a month which can buy him vital supplies."

"How low can you go" fools, stupid, pathetic, relics of the celtic tiger.

End of rant.:D

Red Alert · 03-03-2009 11:10AM

Jev/N wrote: »

You still need a license for satellite

It's technically not the case if the sat receiver is hooked up to a display/projector with no analogue off-air tuner AFAIK. But if I'm wrong I'm open to correction on that one.

What you don't need one for is a DVD player hooked to a big screen that doesn't have a tuner.

Fad · 03-03-2009 01:05PM

rantyface wrote: »

I don't understand why single people on social welfare, who are a lot better off than most students, don't have to pay it. It doesn't make sense that one group get off for not having a lot of money and another group doesn't.

Because students are already sponging a few grand off the state for fees, why should the state give them anything else?

dyl10 · 03-03-2009 01:27PM

mikemac wrote: »

Pat Kenny earns around 900,000 euro afaik. I think he might have taken a pay cut recently
Jonathan Ross earns up to 6 million sterling per year.

I don't know which is better value but what were you saying about RTE stars earning more?

Well, Johnathan Ross broadcasts to 80 million people, Pat Kenny braodcasts to.....

beautifulmeath · 05-03-2009 09:42PM

if you get enough people behind you, then I'm def up for it. I never thought of it like that till you said it. Well done

Breezer · 05-03-2009 10:06PM

El Siglo wrote: »

Jonathan

Poor form :pac:

06-03-2009 01:48AM

mikemac wrote: »

Pat Kenny earns around 900,000 euro afaik. I think he might have taken a pay cut recently
Jonathan Ross earns up to 6 million sterling per year.

I don't know which is better value but what were you saying about RTE stars earning more?

Poor student eh? Can't afford 160 euro but you are a non-drinker right who has never wasted a cent on beer in your entire college life? I know it's a tough life

RTÉ don't have any "stars". The reason they're paid so much is that it allows RTÉ executive salaries look a little bit lower in comparison. Ross is paid £6m because if he was paid less, he might defect to ITV or Ch4. But no other channel would let Pat Kenny make the tea, or allow Dave McSavage within 200m of the building.

rantyface · 12-03-2009 02:23AM

Fad wrote: »

Because students are already sponging a few grand off the state for fees, why should the state give them anything else?

Dole is about 10000 a year plus rent allowance and that's in the region of what the state pay for education per student per year.

If they want to have private sector wage scales, then they should stop taxing everyone.

ArseBurger · 12-03-2009 02:40AM

rantyface wrote: »

I still do find it crazy that if you have two homes and one is paid for, you have to pay again.

You pay a fee per residence. It's fair. You used to have to pay a fee per receiver. So, if you had two TV's in a house - two licenses. Also, you used to have to have a black & white TV and Radio license per radio receiver too.

As for satellite and internet TV etc... It's not an RTE subscription that you're paying. It's a license for a receiver. This is then used to fund broadcasting in Ireland.

Fact before opinion puhlease.

Breezer · 12-03-2009 12:16PM

ArseBurger wrote: »

It's not an RTE subscription that you're paying. It's a license for a receiver. This is then used to fund broadcasting in Ireland.

To be fair, that's pretty much the same thing unless you're speaking legalese.

RTE charging student for not paying their license fee

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