We will start our review with two countries where there is no subscription and there has never been a subscription. It is the small Luxembourg and a large country like the United States of America. How is the media financed there?
and Luxembourg RTV has never had a licence fee, although there is a private station that acts as public television and can receive state support. It is a popular radio station – RTL, Radio Television Luxembourg. RTL relies solely on advertising. However, the station will broadcast a government message if necessary, for example. However, the government has no influence on its journalistic programmes.
and USA There are two government broadcasters – Voice of America radio and PBS television. The latter is a network of about 350 stations. Its activities are financed by television fundraising campaigns (so-called pledge campaigns). But this money is not enough to keep the PBS stations afloat. Therefore, a large part of their expenses is actually funded by Congress. The United States spends about $ 500 million on stations that broadcast government radio programs. annually. Voice of America broadcasts programs aimed at audiences outside the United States. They present the American view of foreign policy. PBS stations broadcast their programs only in the United States and partly in Canada. Americans support them with their taxes.
Almost PLN 300 for RTV license fee! Don’t want to pay? Read more
What does RTV subscription look like in Czech Republic and Italy?
In the Czech Republic, electricity consumers pay a licence fee for radio and television. Czech politicians assumed that everyone who has access to electricity can also access radio, television or the Internet, and must pay for their use. The electricity supplier sends a list of beneficiaries to the post office, which collects the fee from the population. The subscription rate is about 90 percent. The monthly radio fee is 45 CZK (about 8 PLN) and the monthly television fee is 135 CZK (about 23 PLN).
A similar model theoretically applies in Italy. The subscription fee is added to the electricity bill. The fee is about 70 euros per year (300 PLN). However, it does not depend on how many electricity meters you have. Two or three apartments means… all at once. It is paid at the place of permanent residence. You can also have several TVs in each house. This is not taken into account when calculating the subscription fee.
Institutions pay higher fees.
However, in Italy, as in Poland, there is no presumption of owning a TV. For example, if someone deregisters their receiver, they do not pay higher electricity fees. It is assumed that around 30 percent of Italians do not pay the licence fee, even though they own a TV.
The Italians, who hate paying the license fee, even invented a procedure to deliberately damage TVs in order to cancel their registration. They dismantled the antenna sockets in them. This TV set could not receive TV programs and was exempt from paying the fee. The clever Italians connected small TV set-top boxes to the HDMI sockets so that they could quickly hide them in case of inspection.
End of TV licence fees. Poles are asking for only one thing
In Finland there is a “fair model”, in Germany they pay for each apartment
In Finland, the TV licence fee is paid as a progressive tax. What does this mean? The more you earn, the higher the fee you pay. The fee ranges from 70 euros (300 PLN) to 165 euros (over 700 PLN) per year. Only companies pay higher fees. Importantly, if someone earns less than 14.5 thousand PLN (approximately EUR) per year, there is no subscription fee.
In Germany, a subscription fee (Rundfunkbeitrag) is paid per apartment. It amounts to 220 euros per year (about 950 Polish zlotys). It does not matter how many people live in the apartment or how many TV sets there are. It is paid for ARD, ZDF and the German radio stations. It does not matter whether someone has a TV or radio or not. If he has an apartment, it is assumed that he lives in conditions that enable him to use these devices and pays for access to this possibility.
TV Licence Fees in Poland. Prices for 2024
Poles pay PLN 294.90 for an RTV licence fee per year.
- The monthly fee for the radio receiver is PLN 8.70 per month (if the subscriber pays the fee every month, the fee for 12 months will be PLN 104.40).
- The monthly fee for a TV receiver or TV and radio is PLN 27.30 per month (if the subscriber pays the fee every month, the fee for 12 months will be PLN 327.60).
Receiver users who pay the subscription fee for a full year in January get a 10% discount. The discount gives PLN 294.90 of the RTV license fee per year.
New news about RTV subscription. Poles will not like it
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