TV licence soon required for PCs, laptops, and tablets?

gramar · 27-03-2017 10:00am

What happens if in a public place on your 11+ inch tablet? Can you be asked to prove you have a license there and then?
I can imagine license inspectors hanging around coffee houses like vultures.

Silane · 27-03-2017 10:03am

gramar wrote: »

What happens if in a public place on your 11+ inch tablet? Can you be asked to prove you have a license there and then?
I can imagine license inspectors hanging around coffee houses like vultures.

I highly doubt they'd have the power to detain even if they tried that. The conversation would go something like this.

Inspector: I see you're using a tablet, do you have a license for that?
Me: Nope, goodbye.

gramar · 27-03-2017 10:04am

Dravokivich wrote: »

I've known plenty of people with tv's who didn't use'em to watch tv. Ideally you should only need the tv/broadcast license if you intend to use those services.

That makes perfect sense but unfortunately the law makes no sense.
I never got the fuss about water charges. The TV/broadcasting license
is much more worth potesting about.

jester77 · 27-03-2017 10:09am

It's been that way for years where I live. Mobile phones also count here towards the fee, strange omission that they are not included as they are capable of streaming content.

murpho999 · 27-03-2017 10:13am

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

And they want to double the licence fee at the same time? Good luck with that.

No,they don't won't to double the licence fee, the DG was misquoted.

Either way a licence fee on tablets over a certain size is totally unenforceable.

They need to come up with a new way of collecting this revenue.

VinLieger · 27-03-2017 10:13am

Totally against this, RTE needs to be dissolved or told to stand on its own self crippled legs and not propped up by the tax payers

Pac1Man · 27-03-2017 10:17am

I would go to war over this.

Edit: Actually I wouldn't. It only applies to non licence payers.

donegaLroad · 27-03-2017 10:17am

I could happily live without a tablet or laptop, and just use my smart phone hooked up to a screen.

Billy86 · 27-03-2017 10:50am

Deleted User wrote: »

This will only affect those that don't already pay their TV licence.

Including those that don't own a TV and use laptops, tablets etc for Netflix and the likes because they would rather spend €88 for a much, much, much, much better service and package than nearly double that for absolute garbage that is RTE, soon apparently to be about 4 times that.

If it does double, which would you choose given both will be around the same price:
1. Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, and all Sky Sports channels (or another €80-100 package with someone else if sports aren't your thing) - edit: via Sky Mobile.
2. RTE 1 & 2, TV3 & TG4.

They don't make the new/domestic content to justify themselves and just spend the tax payers money to outbid competitors for foreign shows, which is a disgrace. If they made a proper effort of following the BBC model, I wouldn't really mind paying as I would at least be contributing towards helping young Irish people in the industry get a chance and lots of domestic content to be made. But as we all know, that's not even close to the case.

Don't mean to go off on one at you

- but it really bothers me how RTE go about using the taxpayers money.

Knasher · 27-03-2017 10:56am

They are also planing on renaming RTE to Raidió Teilifís Computers Laptops and Tablets Éireann.

Sam Kade · 27-03-2017 10:59am

jimbobaloobob wrote: »

using the rte player online should require your license number that way their fees are covering their services.

Silane wrote: »

They should just make the whole thing subscription based like sky, let the people who want it pay for it and then you can access the online services too.

They'd get nothing that way as nobody would watch it

Silane · 27-03-2017 11:00am

Sam Kade wrote: »

They'd get nothing that way as nobody would watch it

Exactly, the point would be proven and they could wrap it up instead of wasting money.

Permabear · 27-03-2017 11:23am

This post has been deleted.

27-03-2017 11:41am

Billy86 wrote: »

Including those that don't own a TV and use laptops, tablets etc for Netflix and the likes because they would rather spend €88 for a much, much, much, much better service and package than nearly double that for absolute garbage that is RTE, soon apparently to be about 4 times that.

If it does double, which would you choose given both will be around the same price:
1. Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, and all Sky Sports channels (or another €80-100 package with someone else if sports aren't your thing.
2. RTE 1 & 2, TV3 & TG4.

They don't make the new/domestic content to justify themselves and just spend the tax payers money to outbid competitors for foreign shows, which is a disgrace. If they made a proper effort of following the BBC model, I wouldn't really mind paying as I would at least be contributing towards helping young Irish people in the industry get a chance and lots of domestic content to be made. But as we all know, that's not even close to the case.

Don't mean to go off on one at you - but it really bothers me how RTE go about using the taxpayers money.

You are only saying what most people think. Nothing wrong with that! Personally, I use the TV set to listen to Newstalk radio because I can't tune my old radio in to it! Otherwise it's Sky all the way. I cannot think of one RTE programme I've willingly watched in years.

Permabear · 27-03-2017 11:53am

This post has been deleted.

Hans Bricks · 27-03-2017 11:57am

We are witnessing the death throes of terrestrial national broadcasting in this country.

You're not relevant anymore RTE. Just fcuk off.

27-03-2017 12:03pm

I can't access any news sites at the moment...[China's Firewall]

is this intended to "tax" people for owning a computer (with the monitor sizes in question)? I'm a bit confused as to how they would prove youre using your comp to watch tv.

Bob24 · 27-03-2017 12:06pm

Deleted User wrote: »

is this intended to "tax" people for owning a computer (with the monitor sizes in question)? I'm a bit confused as to how they would prove youre using your comp to watch tv.

You would have to pay whether you use it to watch TV or not (in the same ways is if you have a TV only connected to a game console and not to any aerial/cable/satellite box you still have to pay simply because your device is capable of receiving TV signal).

OU812 · 27-03-2017 12:10pm

they need to collect the tax through the electricity bill in order to make this work. They'll still have the same amount of dodgers whether they call it broadcasting fee or licence fee.

If collected through the electricity bill it automatically becomes a €26.66 charge every month whether the site using electricity has facilities or not. Even if you don't have a TV, you still have to charge your device.

mzungu · 27-03-2017 12:11pm

I'm sure when they rethink this, it will probably be amended so it applies to all screen sizes. All this to justify paying megabucks to presenters, some of whom would be lucky to get half their salary in another country.

I love Sean nos · 27-03-2017 12:12pm

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Where does this figure come from?

Your Face · 27-03-2017 12:14pm

Not sure they can risk another tax backlash.

Bob24 · 27-03-2017 12:14pm

OU812 wrote: »

They'll still have the same amount of dodgers whether they call it broadcasting fee or licence fee.

Clearly the goal of this plan is not to go after cheaters. They want to widen the pool of people who need to pay to include people who are law abiding be don't have a TV so are currently not paying. Basically rather that going after the cheats who watch TV and refuse to pay, they find it easier to go after so honest people who potentially never watch TV but are honest and will pay if told they have to do so.

jonon9 · 27-03-2017 12:14pm

The sooner rte closes its doors the better.

Permabear · 27-03-2017 12:16pm

This post has been deleted.

OU812 · 27-03-2017 12:17pm

Bob24 wrote: »

Clearly the goal of this plan is not to go after cheaters. They want to widen the pool of people who need to pay to include people who are law abiding be don't have a TV so are currently not paying. Basically rather that going after the cheats who watch TV and refuse to pay, they find it easier to go after so honest people who potentially never watch TV but are honest and will pay if told they have to do so.

And by using the electricity bill to collect, they'll eliminate the cheaters as they'll have no way (almost) of charging a device without consuming electricity.

They'd immediately have almost 100% compliance, which should in turn allow them to lower the charge to €120 a year (€10 a month) without impacting the take - like that would EVER happen!!

Bob24 · 27-03-2017 12:19pm

Your Face wrote: »

Not sure they can risk another tax backlash.

I think politically they are safe. The main reason water charges became so toxic for the government is that as opposed to most previous changes they were affecting pretty much everyone in the country rather than hitting just one subset of the population at a time (which both helped the creation of a united front, and made some people who are used never to pay anything angry).

This proposal is much smaller in scope as it would only impact people who currently don't own a TV and don't have their licence paid through social welfare programmes.

I love Sean nos · 27-03-2017 12:20pm

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Hardly a trustworthy source then.

Your Face · 27-03-2017 12:21pm

Bob24 wrote: »

I think politically they are safe. The main reason water charges became so toxic for the government is that as opposed to most previous changes they were affecting pretty much everyone in the country rather than hitting just one subset of the population at a time (which both helped the creation of a united front, and made some people who are used never to pay anything angry).

This proposal is much smaller in scope as it would only impact people who currently don't own a TV and don't have their licence paid through social welfare programmes.

I wonder though, could the backlash be reasoned around the fact they will only raise an extra 5 million a year.

ChikiChiki · 27-03-2017 12:22pm

I've known this was in scope for a while. However is it being accelerated because of the head of RTE's comments last week?

They can fcuk right off. They're not relevant for much longer.

TV licence soon required for PCs, laptops, and tablets?

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