Is This The End Of The Radio - TV Sheriff?

Michael Hedges June 11, 2010 Follow on Twitter

Oh, the radio and television license fee has suffered. Unless you live where it’s collected by stealth or not collected at all, the fee supporting your public broadcaster is compulsory. The radio and TV sheriff comes sniffing around your door.

In Germany, the Federal Broadcasting Commission and the State Prime Ministers reached agreement (June 9) to reorganize the license fee structure.  Beginning in 2013 the agency mandated to collect, Gebühreneinzugszentrale (GEZ), will no longer send around inspectors to count the number of radios, TV, PC, smartphones or any other device that could be used to access German public media channels. Instead, households will pay a single fee. Rates for businesses and hotels will also be adjusted.

"The objective…is to provide funding for public broadcasting on a timely basis,” said Commission chairman and Rheinland-Pfalz Prime Minister Kurt Beck, “to reduce the verification system and, especially, to protect the privacy of the users."

Currently and for the next few years, German households pay monthly to the GEZ €5.76 for a radio, €17.98 for a TV and another €5.76 for any other internet-enabled device (PC’s and smartphones). The PC and smartphone charge applies only to households without radios or TV receivers and the highest fee is pegged at €17.98 per month.

That doesn’t change. “Not one euro more, not one euro less,” said constitutional expert Paul Kirchhof in a May report to the Commission. “This is no disguised fee increase.” The GEZ collects from 42.5 million users.

What does change, pending further approval, is the GEZ. Those 1,100 inspectors could be looking for new jobs. “The profession of GEZ sheriff would die,” said Private Radio and TV Association (Verbands Privater Rundfunk und Telemedien - VPRT) president Jürgen Doetz. “The spying would stop and that would be a great advantage.”

Nonetheless, Herr Doetz remains unhappy. “The reform of the license fee model was long overdue,” he said in a VPRT statement. “The move away from a device-specific levy is, in principle, correct. What failed, however, is a full-bodied, comprehensive reorganization.”

German public broadcasters divide up license fee revenue, which is about 85% of their operating revenue. In 2009 German public broadcasters had a combined total income of about €9 billion. The savings from sliming down the GEZ will accrue to the public broadcasters.

See also...

Public Broadcasting - Arguments, Battles and Changes

Public broadcasters have - mostly - thrown off the musty stain of State broadcasting. And audiences for public channels are growing. But arguments and battles with politicians, publishers and commercial broadcasters threatens more changes. The ftm Knowledge file examines all sides. 64 pages PDF (January 2010)

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