All Homes To Be Hit With New Broadcasting Charge

Lightbulb Sun · 17-07-2013 05:52PM #1

Every household in the country will be hit with a new Public Service Broadcasting Charge to replace the television licence fee next year.

Nobody will be able to refuse to pay the charge because it will apply regardless of whether you have a television, computer or any other device that can pick up public information.
The new universal charge will be collected in a way that tackles the current very high evasion rates of the TV licence fee - suggesting the payment mechanism could be modelled on the new property tax.
Currently nearly one in five households does not pay the TV licence fee and this is costing the government €30m a year in lost revenue.
Announcing major changes to the way public service broadcasting is funded Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte today gave a commitment the new charge will not exceed the current €160 a year licence fee.
A public consultation into how the charge will operate will be launched shortly and Mr Rabbitte said ideally he would like to see it introduced by late 2014.
There would be no excuse for not paying the charge, and the only exceptions would be for those currently exempt from the TV licence fee such as households in receipt of the household benefits package.
Mr Rabbitte said that he simply did not believe there were any households who could claim to have no access to public service broadcasting whether via television, radio or the RTE website on phones and computers.
“It’s not some of us should pay for, all of us should pay for it, we should not have freeloaders,” he said.
He also revealed that RTE will have to cut its advertising time if it wants to get any extra public funding in future.
Mr Rabbitte said he will introduce a new funding mechanism where both advertising revenue and public funding is considered in working out how much money RTE and TG4 should get.
Consultants will also be sent in to RTE to see if further cost efficiencies can be achieved prior to any increase in funding.
Mr Rabbitte said that could include presenters’ salaries as though the terms of reference of the review of costs had not yet been set, nothing was off the table.
However he acknowledged that RTE had already made substantial savings, having cut staff numbers by 500 in recent years and been one of the first public bodies to cut wages, achieving total savings of €104m since the recession hit.
The changes were approved by the Cabinet yesterday after it considered the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s five-year review of how public service broadcasting is funded.
The BAI said that RTE would need more money if it’s to deliver on its public service broadcasting remit.
RTE saw commercial income drop by €84m or 35pc between 2008 and 2012 which Mr Rabbitte said was a “mindboggling” fall.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/every-single-home-to-be-hit-with-new-broadcasting-charge-29428338.html

I think this may have been known about for a while now, anyway it's official now.
The government continue their devious crafty tax ways then...

My name is URL · 17-07-2013 05:56PM

lol... they can go and shite

super_furry · 17-07-2013 06:01PM

My name is URL wrote: »

lol... they can go and shite

People said the same about the universal social charge, the property tax, the water meters and yet the government still gets their way.

richymcdermott · 17-07-2013 06:01PM

Dont pay the tv licence , you could face prison time

Bankrupt the country , you get a nice bonus and no prosecution

Good old ireland

bumper234 · 17-07-2013 06:03PM

Never had a tv licence and will never pay this.

Phoebas · 17-07-2013 06:04PM

:mad: I'm going on hunger strike over this

.... after Fair City.

c_man · 17-07-2013 06:04PM

They should save a bit of money from firing all those unnecessary tv licence inspectors and ads and billboards etc etc! Right....?

Phoebas · 17-07-2013 06:05PM

bumper234 wrote: »

Never had a tv licence and will never pay this.

Do you have a TV?

bumper234 · 17-07-2013 06:05PM

Phoebas wrote: »

:mad: I'm going on hunger strike over this

.... after Fair City.

Fairly chitty......if ever there was a reason NOT to give rte any money.

bumper234 · 17-07-2013 06:06PM

Phoebas wrote: »

Do you have a TV?

Nope

Petey89 · 17-07-2013 06:09PM

another load of crap, shouldn't have to pay if you don't use public services I cant remember the last time I watched anything on RTE. I pay my sky bill and my broadband that's enough.

gifted · 17-07-2013 06:10PM

what about the untouchables...sorry the unemployed?

Phoebas · 17-07-2013 06:12PM

Petey89 wrote: »

another load of crap, shouldn't have to pay if you don't use public services.

I never use the health or education services.
Can I opt out of paying income tax?

Elmer Blooker · 17-07-2013 06:13PM

Pat Rabbitte gave a commitment the new charge will not exceed the current €160 a year licence fee.

right then - that means the new broadcasting charge will be around €320 a year.

OU812 · 17-07-2013 06:13PM

I still say they should make RTE subscription based to see how many people want to watch it.

The J Stands for Jay · 17-07-2013 06:13PM

Why should we have to pay for rte radio that most people don't listen to and for pointless rte websites that do nothing but harm other Irish website's potential to get any advertising revenue?

What if you live in a cottage with no electricity, will.they still claim you have a computer which is being used to look ay rte.ie?

And I'm sure every household with no tv and just a laptop uses it just to watch fair city. My brother doesn't have a tv in his apartment. He uses his laptop to play minecraft and watch funny videos on YouTube. He probably isn't even aware of any of rte's output. Now he's going to have to start paying money to Pat Kenny?

Phoebas · 17-07-2013 06:13PM

gifted wrote: »

what about the untouchables...sorry the unemployed?

They are liable.

There would be no excuse for not paying the charge, and the only exceptions would be for those currently exempt from the TV licence fee such as households in receipt of the household benefits package.

The J Stands for Jay · 17-07-2013 06:15PM

OU812 wrote: »

I still say they should make RTE subscription based to see how many people want to watch it.

This is the answer.

Judgement Day · 17-07-2013 06:15PM

c_man wrote: »

They should save a bit of money from firing all those unnecessary tv licence inspectors and ads and billboards etc etc! Right....?

Not to mention decommissioning all those empty hi-tech detector vans.

kneemos · 17-07-2013 06:16PM

About time the spongers were made to pay up.

VinLieger · 17-07-2013 06:17PM

kneemos wrote: »

About time the spongers were made to pay up.

What spongers? Your mean the people that use absolutely none of RTEs services so they dont feel they should pay for them?

kneemos · 17-07-2013 06:19PM

VinLieger wrote: »

What spongers? Your mean the people that use absolutely none of RTEs services so they dont feel they should pay for them?

The vast majority that don't pay have RTE services.

Sinfonia · 17-07-2013 06:22PM

Lightbulb Sun wrote: »

[...T]his is costing the government €30m a year in lost revenue.

Well, here's a fantastic sentence.

usernamegoes · 17-07-2013 06:29PM

If this is for public service then make it a public service. Sell RTE 2 and all the Fair City and such non-sense on RTE 1. If I wan't to watch Friends repeats I can do so elsewhere.

Also Pat Rabbitte said that this would increase the amount that RTE gets from the tax payer so he is going to reduce the amount that RTE can get from ads! :-D WHAT! He should reduce the amount of the payment and let the ads fund that! Like what an arseways way to do it!

VinLieger · 17-07-2013 06:29PM

kneemos wrote: »

The vast majority that don't pay have RTE services.

Just cus they have access to them doesnt mean they use them

Lightbulb Sun · 17-07-2013 06:33PM

Sinfonia wrote: »

Well, here's a fantastic sentence.

The Independents words not mine.

kneemos · 17-07-2013 06:44PM

VinLieger wrote: »

Just cus they have access to them doesnt mean they use them

Doesn't matter anyway it's a public service like the health service you should pay for it if you use it or not and I doubt very much if there's more than a handfull of people that don't use one of RTE's services through the year even if to watch a match or check a score on Aertel or listen to a news bullitin or special event.

VinLieger · 17-07-2013 06:49PM

kneemos wrote: »

Doesn't matter anyway it's a public service like the health service you should pay for it if you use it or not and I doubt very much if there's more than a handfull of people that don't use one of RTE's services through the year even if to watch a match or check a score on Aertel or listen to a news bullitin or special event.

Thats a load of ****e, the health service is a neccessity, equating RTE to the health service which is required so people stay alive is ridiculous.
Yeah people might do that but they also could do the same if RTE didnt exist on several thousand other websites out there.
RTE is a bloated luxury especially considering it gets tax payer money and ad revenue when its competitors have to make do with advertising revenue only and they get on fine.
Its time RTE was kicked out of the kiddie pool and told to go swim with the grown ups

donegal_road · 17-07-2013 06:51PM

you could buy the Saorview box over the border for £25, they are a different brand mind you... but they can pick up all the same channels as the southern Saorview box.... yet another way the Irish public were conned.

.

Sir Osis of Liver. · 17-07-2013 06:52PM

I"ll be getting the Black and White broadcasting charge licence.

Karate Chop · 17-07-2013 06:56PM

In all fairness we need an impartial national broadcaster, and the reality is that it has to be subsidised by the citizens.

All Homes To Be Hit With New Broadcasting Charge

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