Tv license, do you pay yours?

[His Divine Shadow]

Not relevant for you americans but for most of us europeans we got state-tv, or public service as they call it. In Finland we got YLE, which I watch only by accident. Britain has the BBC and plenty of other countries has their own equivalents as well.

Anyway the situation it is here in Finland and Sweden atleast is that if you own a TV (or a computer with a tv-tuner) then you have to pay your TV-license in order to fund the public access channels, the cost is around 300 euros per household in Finland, 1600 SEK in Sweden(maybe 200 euros) per year, as far as I know.

In both Finland and Sweden the channels are run separately from the goverment and they employ their own inspection agencies that come around to see if you have got a TV in your house, in Sweden if you buy a TV the seller has to report your purchase to "Radiotjänst" according to what I've been told.

Radiotjänst are the fellas who hunts people who don't pay their licenses. They go around to people who don't have TV licenses and want to know if you got a TV at home. You don't have to let them in but they tend to get in and it's enough if they can see it from the door or through a window really. Then you got a bill to pay.

The reason I make this thread is because in Sweden there has been alot of of publicity about the new goverments minister of culture not paying her TV license for 16 years because of ideological reasons(ofcourse she didn't have the guts to say it outright). Well by now she's the ex-minister of culture, which probably has the culture-people in sweden happy since her ideology pretty much thought the goverment shouldn't do culture or pay artists to sit around doing art and theater and such that would otherwise not sell well to the public.

So, do you pay your license or do you have a snail on your eye?!? (swedes will understand)

Personally I pay but my girlfriend don't and fortunately nobody has bothered her yet, which is lucky since she is currently unemployed, low on money and has only a 12" TV anyway which is probably not worth even 50 euros.

[Spetulhu]

I never felt the need to buy a TV in the first place. The license goes unpaid and my conscience is clear. (They send out license bills to every household and those that feel like it pay.)

[salm]

I have a TV and use it for watching DVDs and playing video games. Theoretically i would be able to recieve a couple of programs. Therefore i´d have to pay. I never watch TV. Therefore i say: Fuck them and send them off if they come to my door.

In principle i find the licence thingy a good thing. Theses non privat TV stations are very good. They don´t have commercials don´t have to rely on high quots so they can broadcast good news instead of the tabloid like shit that the privat networks broadcast.
The problem is, that you have to pay if you have a TV and don´t even want to use it to recieve programs. You´d have to open the TV and take out the reciever in order to do that.s

[His Divine Shadow]

I don't find the non-private stations to be anything to hoot about, nor do I in sweden think they succeded in their neutrality-aspect at all. P3 which I for some reason listen to, seems to be mostly a venting place for people who voted vänsterpartiet or miljöpartiet.

I think SVT should be privatized and encrypted, i.e. make it a pay-channel in name and not just function. Then let people who want it pay as usual to watch, now however they'd get a card that enabled them to watch it. If the goverment has some homemade public-service thing they have going then rent time from SVT to broadcast it. Also SVT should stop leeching of TV4's (which I pay for) commerical renevues.

Possibly the same could work for YLE, I dunno I think it sucks so much that I just don't watch it.

[Jon]

I pay it, just another monthly direct debit for a tenner or so. Too much hassle not to pay it really, and it doesn't hurt. I don't have Sky so I've not got some £40 per month subscription to pay and freeview is well, free practically. I'm happy, the BBC churn out enough good stuff to justify a tenner a month off me.

[Prozac the Robert]

I pay a fair share of a tv license. The BBC can ocasionally produce some good stuff, I think the BBC is a very important thing to have in the country news-wise, and it's a law that you can get badly fined for breaking. So lots of reasons to pay.

[Edi]

I pay it, but not by choice. Didn't do it originally when I moved to my own place but since I moved together with my gf, she harped on it that we should pay it and so forth and two years later I get complaints about it costing so much. I'm stuck with it now, though. However, I'd probably start paying it anyway now that I actually have a job that is essentially long term, instead of being unemployed or a student (even less money then).

Edi

[Netko]

Don't pay it. While I have a TV set, I watch it so very little that I don't feel that I should pay for it (for example, I haven't watched TV for over a week now). I do have a very basic cable package that I'm considering canceling so that I recive the main channels with good quality - I get around them nailing me on not paying the licence by claiming I only watch with my PC (a loophole not yet closed here).

For news, HRT is lightyears above the commercial stations. Instead of infotainment, they have actual, honest to god, boring (to the dumb) news and analysis, most nights followed by a serius talkshow on the main channel that grills politicians about current topics while the commercial ones are busy playing the current american hit series, domestic drama (that has the quality suspiciusly like the south-american soaps) or a "look at the rich and plastic-surgery-made-beautiful people" show.

[Keevan_Colton]

I'm definetly a Reithian fanboy when it comes to public service broadcasters.

The BBC is the largest news gathering organisation in the world, a quality producer of documentary and educational programming and they managed to slip some entertainment in too.

If they had to fight for advertising scraps, they wouldnt be able to do it.

[Geodd]

I'm paying, but I'm seriously considering stopping.

I mean, I don't watch tv, seriously, my tv is plugged in to my computer, my ps2 and the dvd-player. I don't even own a fucking antenna cabel.

And apparently our minister of culture isn't alone, 124 mambers of parliament chose not to pay. Way to encourage me fuckers

[Crazedwraith]

I don't have a TV in my Uni room but if I did I'd probably pay. Large fines aren't fun. And besides the beeb is quite good really.

Whats annoying is that every single person in the block needs liscence for their individual sets rather than a single liscence covering one building like it would if you a private homeowner.

[Bedlam]

I pay my licence fee for the BBC. Hell I'd probably pay it for Dr Who alone, but then I'm a say fanman (To old to be a fanboy).

Have noticed that this year you can't pay it via the post office any more. No idea why

[His Divine Shadow]

And apparently our minister of culture isn't alone, 124 mambers of parliament chose not to pay. Way to encourage me fuckers

Frankly the ex-minister did what I wish I could do. She shouldn't have folded like a sack of cards though and she sucked at handling the press. And they did succeeed in killing her career as soon as possible, no way that the decadent culture-elite who've been suckling richly on the goverments teat for decades would allow someone like her in a position like that. Illuminating article that really sums up my feelings on the subject:
http://expressen.se/index.jsp?d=880&a=717521

People from the Moderate party and their allies doing this doesn't suprise me because alot of them aren't really OK with SVT and the way its funded on an ideological level. But socal democrats and the other left parties doing it, well fuck me sideways thats hilarious in it's inherent hypocrisy.

[Geodd]

While I can certainly agree that the current system with grants etc. to artists and authors could use looking over I strongly believe that public access televison like SVT has an important role to play in society(hint, that role does not involve trying to compete with commercial channels, stop pandering to the lowest possible denominator retards).

And re politicians cheating, is it so wrong to hold them to a high standard? if they find paying for public access tv to be so ideologicly wrong I'd expect them to find some way to protest other than breaking the fucking law. And yes, the fact that 51 of the cheating bastards are from Socialdemokraterna is disturbing in it's hypocrisy

[Pezzoni]

No, but then again, I don't own a TV.

If I did, it would be a PCMCIA card for my laptop, so I wouldn't need one anyway (assuming I kept it unplugged when I watched: it is then counted as a battery powered device, and therefore covered by the licence of my parents).

[Dennis Toy]

Hold UP! Hooolllllddd Upppp.....

You have to pay a license to watch TV? Which countries is this? Is this a tax? is this like cable/satellite in US?

[salm]

Hold UP! Hooolllllddd Upppp.....

You have to pay a license to watch TV? Which countries is this? Is this a tax? is this like cable/satellite in US?

That´s in several European Countries. Finlan, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Italy, Holland, UK for example.

They´re TV and radio stations which are under public law (says my dictionary but i´m not sure if the translation fits 100%).
The stations have to be neutral. That´s why they´re not financed with tax money. They´re financed with money that everybody who owns a TV, radio, PC with TV card... has to pay on a monthly basis.
All income may only be used to create or broadcast programs or to keep the station running.
Stations under public law are controlled one senate that is responsible for the content and one senate responsible for the financial stuff.
They consist of people from socially relevant groups like political parties, unions, churches, social institutions...
The stations have to broadcast fair and balanced Information, education, entertainment and culture and have to stick to certain journalistic and ethical guidlines.

[Netko]

It's commonly defined as a tax on the ownership of a TV/radio capable reciving device, altough every country has its little quirks in the exact tax/licencing (hence the loophole I'm currently using). As far as what it gets you - well, nothing you wouldn't get otherwise, however the proceeds go to the local public TV and gets it funded, so you get stuff like the BBC and all the other European national/public TV stations. Some other stuff might be also funded by it (for example, it localy funds the board that is the equivalent to the FCC's radio and television content functions). Most of Europe has the tax/licence, along with some Asian states (notably Japan), and fewer African states (including South Africa).

[CJvR]

So, do you pay your license or do you have a snail on your eye?!? (swedes will understand)

Only because I fear the snails...

[2000AD]

Pay it, watch it, love it.

[weemadando]

I pay my taxes to support Aunty and Sex, Bullshit and Soccer.

[Faabio]

No I dont pay it. It is paid by the Student housing organization from whom i rent my place. But even so i wouldnt pay it as i use my TV only for watching movies from dvd and for gaming purposes. Been years since I last watched TV actually.

[Genii Lodus]

I've just moved and am quite prepared to wait for the TV Licensing agency to notice the previous occupier's no longer live here or for their licence to run out whichever may be sooner. I don't feel like I'm screwing the BBC over because they are still getting money from this household just not mine . I am quite willing to pay once the past licence expires.

Besides the TV Licensing guys are incompetent, last year at uni halls they insisted on having a seperate licence for each bedroom and one for the common living room/kitchen if we wanted a TV in each room. Around once a month or so they would send a threatening letter to all the rooms which didn't have a licence. This was a tremendous waste of paper. It was unreasonable that in effect they could have been getting 7 TV licences when a normal house could have a similar number of TVs covered under one licence. It is a consequence of the way the lease was organised but still seems unfair especially since students have such little money anyway.

In the end I called their bluff phoned up the number and asked for someone to come round and see that there were no unauthorised TVs (one in the common room just for games and DVDs and one in another guy's room for TV). They promised to send someone within two weeks but this never happened thought they did stop sending the letters.

[Argosh]

So, do you pay your license or do you have a snail on your eye?!? (swedes will understand)

We don't have to pay license fees, yet but the are rumours that its coming in the near future.
Btw, MTV3 was a nice channel, last time I checked ... oh about 5 years ago.

[His Divine Shadow]

So, do you pay your license or do you have a snail on your eye?!? (swedes will understand)

We don't have to pay license fees, yet but the are rumours that its coming in the near future.
Btw, MTV3 was a nice channel, last time I checked ... oh about 5 years ago.

MTV3 though is not part of YLE, only TV 1 and TV 2 are YLE channels.