TV Licence?

Sobanek

Hey there Lads, if I have no TV or radio at home but I DO have a satellite dish and a box that I connected to my PC (I don't see a point buying a TV when I've a 27 inch monitor). Do I have to pay the TV Licence then?

miketv

Sobanek wrote: »

Hey there Lads, if I have no TV or radio at home but I DO have a satellite dish and a box that I connected to my PC (I don't see a point buying a TV when I've a 27 inch monitor). Do I have to pay the TV Licence then?

Technically.. I think so. If you are able to recieve a tv signal by any means you need a licence.
But please, somebody give a second opinion!

Dammer

If your PC has any TV signal receiving equipment, (USB or Internal Card) you will need a TV licence

Sobanek

Well, that sucks then.

watty

Yes you do

... runs and hides from YET ANOTHER TV LICENCE thread :eek:

afishyfish

When I buy a tv, I pay 21% vat on it.
I also pay the w.e.e.e. tax
When I plug in my television in; I pay vat on the electricity required to make it work it.
When I take out a subscription to a television service provider, I pay 21% vat to them.
Isn't that enough? Surely?
RTE show ad's which cost a small fortune to air. I've seen tha rate cards for tv & radio. Far more expensive then so called "commercial stations".
If they're not making enough frm this to cover their costs, I suggest it's down to bad managment.
And for this every household must fork out €180 p.a. to supplement this mis-managment.
How do TV3 survive on advertising revenue alone? The're in the same market and produce a similar standard to television. RTE don't even have a have a decent breakfast show.

For the record; I (grudgingly) own a tv licence. And I'm not advocating not owning one. Just questioning the validity of this tax.
If I've broken any forum rules here I apologise. But thats what boards.ie should be about.

dpe

As others have said on these boards, its about economies of scale; RTE don't make enough to support their services from the licence fee alone, so ads subsidise that. The BBC can make the licence fee work because of the far larger population.

TV3 are a poor comparison example becuase they don't make much money (a €2M operating profit last year), and have even less original programming than RTE.

I'm not an apologist for RTE or the licence fee (I barely watch RTE), but if there's a requirement for public service broadcasting in Ireland then a combined licence fee/ads is probably the only way to make it stack up.

afishyfish

I'm not comparing RTE to BBC. That's apples and oranges.
But TV3...
"TV3 are a poor comparison example becuase they don't make much money (a €2M operating profit last year)"

But RTE are non profit organisation. All things being equal rte could make €2 million per year and then reinvest it.

Why do the need €252 MILLION on top of that. (>1.4 million households @ €180 per licence - not to mention businesses.

I accept RTE have a higher quality of show. . . but come on . . . 1/4 BILLION EUROS PER YEAR???? and no breakfast show????
I smell a rat.

Where's the money going? We need to question these things.


Apologies, the licence is €160, not €180. Still 224 million. Still alot of money

BeerNut

afishyfish wrote: »

Where's the money going? We need to question these things.

Would we not be better just looking up the answers?

afishyfish

That report shows where the money is being spent?
But doesn't explain how TV3 function and profit with a budget which is 250 million euro shy of rte's.
It's like every other publicly run organisation in this country. It's done loosely and carelessly with no regard for wasted resources.
It's like raising a child, and giving him a very large allowance of pocket money.
Does he grow up to be frugal and clever with his money? Or does he just spend it carelessly because, hey, there'll be another 1/4 billion there in January.

mossie

afishyfish wrote: »

Why do the need €252 MILLION on top of that. (>1.4 million households @ €180 per licence - not to mention businesses.

.

Licence is €180?? Still €160 surely and 1.4 million households would be if everyone paid up, no evaders

BeerNut

Licence fee income was €200,217,000 in 2009.

rlogue

Don't forget there is a massive source of income that RTE are ignoring - as one of the ever growing number of ex-pats I personally would gladly pay the full Irish television licence to LEGALLY access the Irish channels.

Several other European countries like the Dutch and the Swiss allow their expats to watch their encrypted TV by paying a fee equivalent to the TV licence.

Up until now that was a no go for Ireland because of the stupid money that Sky would charge for a solus scheme like this. However the landscape is changing and this *might* become a more reasonably priced option in the near future.

watty

Swiss, yes: Any passport holder, will post outside Swizerland officially.
Dutch: Any Resident only. Use outside Netherlands is like UK FTV card outside UK. Officially NOT for people outside Netherlands.

EU vs non-EU

Up until now that was a no go for Ireland because of the stupid money that Sky would charge for a solus scheme like this. However the landscape is changing and this *might* become a more reasonably priced option in the near future.

A FTV card scheme for people OUTSIDE Ireland isn't possible. It could only be very very expensive pay TV. Real Digital can't change that.

There is a HUGE difference to how Swiss card scheme (not EU) works and Netherlands, France, UK (supposed to be Geographically limited) FTV card schemes.

EU it's forbidden to limit sales by nationality against other EU citizens. But you ARE allowed to Limit sales to a Geographic area. Thus EU FTV cards are open to ANYONE in the covered area and NO-ONE outside the area.

You can't have a FTV card scheme only for Irish people in UK. That's illegal. So you can only have pay TV for ANYONE and that would be VERY expensive package.

I'm NOT saying I agree with this, but this is the reality of how it works. Real Digital are mad if they think they can offer Irish FTV cards outside Island of Ireland. Also the law here would need to be changed to offer an Irish FTV card IN Ireland. As it stands Irish TV can only be offered on Pay TV platforms sold in Ireland at no extra charge, and the pay TV package must not effectively be selling RTE.

rlogue

I don't represent Real Digital though I will readily admit to being a supporter.

If RD get going then the landscape will change - Sky will no doubt consider dropping their prices for FTV schemes etc if there is competition out there.

In none of my conversations with RD have they EVER mentioned a FTV scheme for Irish TV outside Ireland.

Sometimes people do post things that are their own ideas and not anyone elses Watty!

rlogue

Also the cold hard reality is that there are several thousand ex-pats subscribing to Sky in Ireland and bringing their boxes over to the UK and Europe.

All that money goes to Sky and we can have all the debates about whether they are ALLOWED to do this, they just will and all the harumphing about it will make NO difference.

So why shouldn't RTE capitalise on this?

I've never once said that access to RTE should be for the Irish in the UK only - it should be worldwide but since the Astra 2/Eurobird satellites have a western European footprint it would be a logical place to start.

Incidentally, I would not have approached Real or anyone else about setting up and Irish satellite service if RTE hadn't deliberately shut down Tara TV in the first place.

Like I always say to my children, actions have consequences.

watty

There is NOTHING that Real Digital can change.

They can't offer Freesat + RTE only in Ireland. That's fantasy. They would go bust.

They can't compete with UPC or Sky in Ireland for pay TV.

They can't Compete With Freesat.

If they launch they will go bust.

watty

rlogue wrote: »

Also the cold hard reality is that there are several thousand ex-pats subscribing to Sky in Ireland and bringing their boxes over to the UK and Europe.

All that money goes to Sky and we can have all the debates about whether they are ALLOWED to do this, they just will and all the harumphing about it will make NO difference.

So why shouldn't RTE capitalise on this?

Irrelevant to Real Digital or RTE International. They can't be seen to capitalise on it. In fact in the future there might be steps to stop it. Astra plans tighter spot beams for Ireland and UK.

rlogue wrote: »

I've never once said that access to RTE should be for the Irish in the UK only - it should be worldwide but since the Astra 2/Eurobird satellites have a western European footprint it would be a logical place to start.

I have agreed on that. It needs to be a tailored Government financed service. Like DW TV. Look what is happening to BBC WS now that Foreign office funding is gone/cut.

rlogue wrote: »

Incidentally, I would not have approached Real or anyone else about setting up and Irish satellite service if RTE hadn't deliberately shut down Tara TV in the first place.

Like I always say to my children, actions have consequences.

It was mad that Tara TV closed. However Real Digital is Irrelevant to creation of an International Irish Service.

rlogue

We are going wildly off topic on this thread but I would like to see where we will be in six months time.

If Real Digital want to go to market they will - it's their call to decide whether they go to the market or not. I am not at all party to what money they have but if they want to launch a service its their perogrative.


Real Digital ARE launching in Ireland and the UK. Sky won't like it, and a few nutters on Digital Spy won't like it but if the market likes it, then good.

Free markets are all about taking risks.

rlogue

watty wrote: »

There is NOTHING that Real Digital can change.

They can't offer Freesat + RTE only in Ireland. That's fantasy. They would go bust.

They can't compete with UPC or Sky in Ireland for pay TV.

They can't Compete With Freesat.

If they launch they will go bust.

Real Digital would not be offering Freesat and RTE only in Ireland. We know they will be offering Sky Sports 1 & 2 at a far cheaper price than Sky without the need to subscribe to tier after tier of unwanted channels.

Freesat is not a commercial service and it isn't even marketed in Ireland. So no competition there.

People want one box for their telly - why should people have to be forced to use different boxes when one will do - and don't tell me the oft talked about way of bodging a Saorsat signal into a twin tuner Humax box is a solution that will have traction outside anorak circles...

When they do launch they will offer Irish consumers a real choice - nothing wrong with that - one box, one dish.

Sam Russell

TV3 do not have an orchestra. They do not even have a quartet. RTE has both.

TV3 are not paying to be on DTT, RTE are. Not only that, RTE have shelled out €70 million on it so far.

TV3 do get some money from the licence fee to make poor quality programmes.

TV3 import most of their programmes from ITV, particularly the prime-time ones, and all they do is the equivalent of the deflectors. Breakfast time TV on TV3 is a product placement opportunity.

There is little comparrison between TV3 and RTE, at least none that is complimentary to TV3.

The licence fee is €160 per year, some people pay $ky over €100 per month, and a minimun of €276 per year, and some do that just to get RTE.

They must think it is worth it.

rlogue

RTE and Tg4 are worth paying money for - but apart from the Vincent Browne programme there is nothing at all worthwhile on TV3.

STB

TV3 - Tv for the lunching mums of Glenageary and Foxrock.

afishyfish

mossie wrote: »

Licence is €180?? Still €160 surely and 1.4 million households would be if everyone paid up, no evaders

Yes, I realise my mistake. Have ammended above. Apologies for this.
1.4 million householods does not include businesses however.

afishyfish

STB wrote: »

TV3 - Tv for the lunching mums of Glenageary and Foxrock.

RTE's daylime line up may as well be straight out of 'Living'
...The Doctors.... Doctor Phil .... Royal Pains ... Doctors - (what's with all the doctors????) ... Telly Bingo .... Home & Away .... Neighbours ..... Eastenders .... How clean is your house? ......

Quality viewing!

Sam Russell

afishyfish wrote: »

RTE's daylime line up may as well be straight out of 'Living'
...The Doctors.... Doctor Phil .... Royal Pains ... Doctors - (what's with all the doctors????) ... Telly Bingo .... Home & Away .... Neighbours ..... Eastenders .... How clean is your house? ......

Quality viewing!

Yea, as I said, why are Irish channels transmitting 24/7 with dross to Phill up the schedule?