The U.K. has come a long way from TV detector vans seeking out those who hadn’t paid their TV/Radio license fees, which, when they were introduced (in 1923 for radio and 1946 for television) funded the BBC, the only broadcast entity in the country, through what is known as a Royal Charter mandate (that remit is due to end December 31, 2027). Many homes had someone peeping from behind living-room curtains in order to spot what everyone had been told was a vehicle fitted with equipment that could detect if a TV was on in a home, but not on the “paid” register.
However, from that era on, there have been protesters who either complained about or refused to pay the fee (currently £159, or U.S. $197, for a color TV and £53.50, or $66, for black-and-white (if they still owned one) those over 75 did not have to pay the fees until recently but are now liable, and recent figures indicate that nearly two million U.K. homes (nearly a nine percent increase last year) refused to pay the fee, claiming they no longer watched the BBC or any live television on any other device, which are the parameters for having a license. This refusal cost the BBC about £42 million ($ 52 million).
Incidentally, the U.K. is but one, among about two-thirds of all European countries that require direct or indirect TV license fees.
Today, politicians in different countries are saying that TV license fees should be dispensed with and are echoing the calls heard during last year’s French government’s licensing debate calling such fees “outdated and obsolete.”
In the U.K., when the 2027 cut-off decision was made, Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, was quoted in The Guardian newspaper as saying, “The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors are over. Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.”
More viewers have gone to streaming services for their small screen entertainment, while others suggest they just cannot afford the license fee. Incidentally, those people are likely to be paying more over a year for those streaming services.
Outside of the BBC, all other U.K. channels (radio and TV) have been 100 percent funded through advertising revenues.
Between now and 2027, the BBC will get a cost of living increase to the current license fee, but one of the big questions still remaining is how the BBC will get the financing it needs to continue operations in a broadcasting world that has changed beyond comprehension since they first went on air?
Many funding alternatives have been proposed for the BBC, including advertising revenues, charging for computer and/or phone connection to live TV, a government grant, and even a special income tax, but nothing has yet been determined. One thing is certain. Despite the success of its content worldwide and the general excellence of its programs (which actually supply about 25 percent of its operating revenue via its licensing deals and commercial sales outside of the U.K.), the BBC will be unable to get by on just that, so it’s little wonder that drastic cuts are already underway.
Hundreds of staffers who worked at the BBC’s World Service have been let go, even though that service had been funded by the U.K. government. Local radio and TV have seen cuts in staff and program content, with Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC, saying, “everything’s on the agenda.”
He also suggested that the BBC is preparing to become an online-only service over the next decade, “bringing the BBC together in a single offer.” This could be through an umbrella app containing links to all BBC content.
While the U.K. has to determine just what the BBC funding proposal will be for the online and current over-the-air services, other countries have already made their decisions to eliminate license fees and establish alternate funding proposals for their local national broadcast entities.
Recently the French National Assembly voted to scrap their TV license fee, amounting to between €3.2 billion (U.S.$3.47 billion) and €3.5 billion a year, which funded about 85 percent of their public broadcasters (including Radio France, ARTE, France 24, and France Televisions, comprised of France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Info, as well as certain regional TV outlets). They determined that the government would now offer some funding from their VAT (Value Added Tax, or sales tax) collections, which would be about the same amount as received from the former license fees, which cost each household €138 a year ($150).
The decision ruffled plenty of feathers with suggestions that a future government could exert unfavorable pressure upon broadcasters, or have them more reliant upon advertising revenues to pay their bills.
Alternatives to the license fee range across several alternatives but usually come back to the consumer still paying out of pocket via a new tax, or, as is the case in countries such as Turkey, Serbia, and Romania, where license fees are paid through increases in electricity bills.
Meanwhile, in Italy, Matteo Salvini, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister, announced last month that the current cost would be reduced by just over 20 percent, from 90 to 70 euro ($76). This is the beginning of what his government promised to be an eventual and complete abolition of the TV license fee. Currently, public broadcaster RAI benefits from the monies collected via electricity bills. At the moment, no definite funding plan has been determined.
Turkey is another country where the TV license was part of the electric bill but last year the Turkish government has decided to remove the fee from consumers’ electricity bills.
The Norwegian License fee was eliminated, only to be replaced with a new public service tax to be paid by all residents aged 17 and above. They join other Nordic countries, such as Iceland (16-70 years old), Denmark, Finland and Sweden (18+).
Australian consumers of TV content seem luckier than most, as the government funds the ABC network and no one pays for a TV license under any form at all.
However, when all is said and done, it doesn’t matter that any government determines its population pay a tax within their electric bill, a tax based on their income level, or through their VAT, people are still going to have to pay a tax in order to watch TV –– the license fee has just been given a different name.
(By Mike Raynolds)
Audio Version (a DV Works service)
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