PanAmerican From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 384 posts, RR: 5 Posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 1169 times:
One of the most outrageous fees in this country is the Public TV and Radio Fee. The average German has to pay about 300 Euros a year for some low quality public channels that nobody who is younger than 70 would be interested to watch due to the outdated shows they air...
No matter whether you watch the public channels or not, if you own a TV you gatta pay it.
It is just another taxation that is set by the government. Not only do they charge for TVs and Radios, they will introduce (or better invent) a charge for PCs in the coming years that will mean another ~250 Euros a year for internet users. Interesting how these guys come up with new charges every year, isn't it?
To describe the horrible situation here in Germany, you can have a look here: http://www.german-way.com/german/radio.html
For our German friends, I'd suggest http://www.gez-abschaffen.de/
Well, I'd be interested to know if this sort of rip-off (which is organized by a government agency named GEZ in Germany) exists in other countries as well?
I read they have it in Austria and Switzerland, what about the rest of the world?
N312RC From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 2678 posts, RR: 18 Reply 1, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1163 times:
I know that the british pay for the BBC (some 200 dollars a year)
Here in the US, Public Broadcasting (PBS, NPR) is funded by grants from corporations and individuals.
Sonic From Lithuania, joined Jan 2000, 1670 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1162 times:
In Lithuania there is no such fee, public TV (2 programs) and Radio (2 programs) gets funded from budget and also from commercials. Although there was a plan to introduce such a fee and stop airing commercials, but probably this won't happen at least in near future.
Our public TV also shows almost nothing good and mostly old people watches it. However, sometimes it aires quite a good political talking shows and it's news are probably the most unbiased.
PanAmerican From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 384 posts, RR: 5 Reply 3, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 1156 times:
This is interesting. Good to know things are alright in the US and Lithuania.
Maybe with the EU they will force Lithuania to impose such fees?
Anyway, in the US I would have expected it's not paid for by the consumer... too bad this isn't the case over here.
I love NPR and it's great to listen the high quality programs they air. We don't have that at all here. Public TV and Radio stations in Germany have advertisement, too. So there is really no advantage.
Well, let's see if people from more countries come here and answer this.
Seb146 From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 9832 posts, RR: 17 Reply 4, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 4 days 5 hours ago) and read 1155 times:
Public TV and Radio is by donation and grants in the States. I always think it is interesting to watch public TV in Canada since they have commercials! (The Bionic Woman, Lindsay Wagner, was peddling Ford trucks last time I was there) I don't know how they fund it otherwise.
Airsicknessbag From Germany, joined Aug 2000, 4723 posts, RR: 38 Reply 5, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1140 times:
I´m happy to pay some small fees for quality TV. Phoenix, 3Sat and arte are just great, I love them.
I used to watch the private programmes for their movies, but nowadays I rather rent a DVD or go to the cinema in order to get the orginal language, un-mutilated version.
Other than that, n-tv from time to time.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20860 posts, RR: 55 Reply 6, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1139 times:
Most of the public TV budget goes into information/news. And it´s your own problem if you´re not watching the news; But I for one do not want to have them degraded to the outright pathetic level of the commercial channels.
Quality information is essential for a democracy... we´ve just had to witness the consequences of a lack of reliable information somewhere else...
Andreas From Germany, joined Oct 2001, 6104 posts, RR: 34 Reply 7, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1137 times:
Actually I like German "Pay-TV", too, and I even pay the fee (now I had to say that, GEZ bullies are everywhere ).
Though I have to say that it is too high and too much of it just evaporates in administration, so no increaes until they re-structure OR are change their program back to where they come from, and try NOT to copy those bullshitters like Sat1 or pro7 etc., so partly I'm with the threadstarter.
Quote: Good to know things are alright in the US
Go watch free US TV for a while, and you'll find out that is definitely NOT the case!...and it is NOT an exclusively American problem, too!
PanAmerican From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 384 posts, RR: 5 Reply 8, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 1129 times:
Klaus: Of course I watch the news, however N24, n-tv and CNN are just as good for me as the public news. Also, newspaper and internet are good sources as well.
The problem I have with these fees is that it's mandatory. If you don't watch it you still have to pay. That is unacceptable, they should scamble the public channels and give out decoders to those that want to watch it.
Sure quality news are important, but you can't force everyone to watch it, which is what happens everyday at 8pm on all public channels. On top of that, the public news are not objective in my opinion.
Yes, the fee is way to high and the reason I believe it's a rip off is because they want to introduce a 15 Euro monthly fee for PCs, that is outrageous! What would be the justification for that? They just made this up.
Andreas: That quote was rather in respect to the involuntary charge which does not exist in the US, neither in Lithuania.
Of course we all like ad free TV, but it doesn't even work without ads on the public channels.
So what about France, the UK and all other countries? How much do they pay? Are they forced to pay it, too?
Racko From Germany, joined Nov 2001, 4838 posts, RR: 21 Reply 10, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 1116 times:
For me the public TV channels are worth the money. Sure, there are programs I don't like but you don't get the same quality of political and cultural programs on private TV stations. And actually you have to pay 193€ / year in Germany, not 300. And the private TV stations are probably way more biased than the public stations (which are biased just towards the country, not a political party).
Eg777er From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2000, 1829 posts, RR: 13 Reply 11, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 1113 times:
The pain of paying for public TV is negated somewhat in the UK for the following factors:
1. No adverts. I'd happily pay £150 for this privelige over a year for all the other channels.
2. Quality. The BBC can take risks on programs. For example, "The Office", the funniest and most successful British comedy in years, would never have been made had BBC2 not taken a gamble on its success. A commercial channel would never have taken such a risk- fair enough, as they are operating with shareholders in mind, but it often doesn't result in "good" television.
3. Partisan-ship....the BBC's political independence is enshrined in its charter and, despite the occasional slip-up or dispute, is successful at translating this into its operations. I'd take the independent BBC over a ritualistically partisan US network any day...........
(BTW: Don't we have this debate with the same actors every couple of months!?)
PanAmerican From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 384 posts, RR: 5 Reply 12, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 1110 times:
Yes, Klaus, and that is wrong, too. You should only pay for highways if you use them, that's what makes sense to me.
Well, what I was basically trying to inquire with this thread is other countries fees for TV and Radio, unfortunately this hasn't had the response I wished.
What I still want to say is that these are just a few things of a huge list of things that are absolutely wrong and highly unacceptable in this country.
If things don't change very soon, I don't really see a bright future here...
I'm most upset with how badly things are handled here, everything being complicated instead of simplified, well that is just typical and the GEZ fees is the perfect example for this.
PanAmerican From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 384 posts, RR: 5 Reply 14, posted (9 years 5 months 2 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 1100 times:
Well, I can assure you that if this government hold out for much longer....
But seriously, don't you just love the demographic predictions they have for us? With only 60 million of us left in a few years time, I wonder how we will be able to keep up and especially how we will be able to pay retirement.
To sum it up, I'm sure the ones who'll pay is my generation which is why I pick on the increase of fees and taxes.
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