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A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of

television broadcasts Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and T ...

, or the possession of a

television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence fee paid. The fee is sometimes also required to own a radio or receive

radio broadcasts Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

. A TV licence is therefore effectively a

hypothecated tax The hypothecation of a tax (also known as the ring-fencing or earmarking of a tax) is the dedication of the revenue from a specific tax for a particular expenditure purpose. This approach differs from the classical method according to which all g ...

for the purpose of funding

public broadcasting Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

, thus allowing public broadcasters to transmit television programmes without, or with only supplemental funding from radio and television advertisements. However, in some cases, the balance between public funding and advertisements is the opposite – the Polish broadcaster TVP receives more funds from

advertisements Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

than from its TV tax.

History

The early days of broadcasting presented broadcasters with the problem of how to raise funding for their services. Some countries adopted the advertising model, but many others adopted a compulsory public subscription model, with the subscription coming in the form of a broadcast licence paid by households owning a radio set (and later, a TV set). The UK was the first country to adopt the compulsory public subscription model with the licence fee money going to the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

, which was formed on 1 January 1927 by

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...

to produce publicly funded programming, yet remaining independent from the government, both managerially and financially. The licence was originally known as a wireless licence. With the arrival of television, some countries created a separate additional television licence, while others simply increased the radio licence fee to cover the additional cost of TV broadcasting, changing the licence's name from "radio licence" to "TV licence" or "receiver licence". Today, most countries fund public radio broadcasting from the same licence fee that is used for television, although a few still have separate radio licences, or apply a lower or no fee at all for consumers who only have a radio. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Japan, also have different fees for users with colour or monochrome TV sets. In most cases, the fee for colour TV owners is much higher than the fee for monochrome TV owners. Many give discounts, or charge no fee, for elderly and/or disabled

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. T ...

s. Faced with the problem of licence fee "evasion", some countries choose to fund public broadcasters directly from taxation or via other less avoidable methods such as a co-payment with electricity billing. In some countries, national public broadcasters also carry supplemental advertising. In 1989, the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

created the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, which regulates, among other things: advertising standards and the time and the format of breaks, which also has an indirect effect on the usage of licensing. In 1993, this treaty entered into force when it achieved seven ratifications including five EU member states. , it has been acceded to by 34 countries.

Television licences in Europe

The

Museum of Broadcast Communications The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an American museum, the stated mission of which is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain through our archi ...

in Chicago notes that two-thirds of the countries in Europe and half of the countries in Asia and Africa use television licences to fund public television. TV licensing is rare in the Americas, largely being confined to French overseas departments and

British Overseas Territories The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...

. In some countries, radio channels and broadcasters' websites are also funded by a radio receiver licence, giving access to radio and web services free of commercial advertising. The actual cost and implementation of the television licence varies greatly from country to country. Below is a table of the licence fee in various countries in Europe (see below for rest-of-world).

Albania

The Albanian licence fee is 100 lekë (€0.8) per month, paid in the electricity bill, equivalent to 1200 lekë (€9.6) annually. However, the licence fee makes up only a small part of RTSH's funding. RTSH is mainly funded directly from the government through taxes, which makes up 58% of RTSH's funding. The remaining 42% comes from commercials and the licence fee.

Austria

Under the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n TV and Radio Licence Law (''Fernseh- und Hörfunklizenzrecht''), all broadcasting reception equipment in use or operational at a given location must be registered. The location of the equipment is taken to be places of residence or any other premises with a uniform purpose of use. The agency responsible for licence administration in Austria is the Gebühren Info Service, a fully-owned subsidiary of the Austrian public broadcaster, (

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of the ...

). As well as being an agency of the Federal Ministry of Finance, it is charged with performing functions concerning national interests. The transaction volume in 2007 amounted to €682 million, 66% of which are allocated to the ORF for financing the organization and its programs. The remaining 34% are allocated to the federal government and the local governments, including the taxation and funding of local cultural activities. GIS employs some 191 people and approximately 125 freelancers in field service. 3.4 million Austrian households are registered with the GIS. The percentage of licence evaders in Austria amounts to 2.5%. The main principle of the GIS's communication strategy is to inform instead of control. To achieve this goal, the GIS uses a four-channel communication strategy: * Above-the-line activities (advertising campaigns in printed media, radio and TV). * Direct Mail. * Distribution channels – outlets where people can acquire the necessary forms for registering (post offices, banks, tobacconists & five GIS Service Centers throughout Austria). * Field service – customer consultants visiting households not yet registered. The annual television & radio licence varies in price depending on which

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

one lives in. As of 2022,

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

has the highest annual television licence cost, at €343.80, and

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

and

Burgenland Burgenland (; hu, Őrvidék; hr, Gradišće; Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland;'' Slovene: ''Gradiščanska'') is the easternmost and least populous state of Austria. It consists of two statutory cities and seven rural districts, with a total of ...

has the highest annual radio licence cost, at €94.92. Annual fees from July 2022 are:

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The licence fee in

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

is around €46 per year. The

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

and the associated collapse of infrastructure caused very high evasion rates. This has, in part, been resolved by collecting the licence fee as part of a household's monthly telephone bill. The licence fee is divided between three broadcasters: * 50% for

BHRT BHRT (Bosnian-Herzegovinian Radio Television) ''Bosanskohercegovačka radiotelevizija''/ ''Босанскохерцеговачка радиотелевизија'') formerly known as PBSBiH (Public Broadcasting Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina ...

(Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina) – serving as the main radio and television broadcaster in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

at state level. It is Bosnia's only member in the EBU. * 25% for

RTVFBiH The Radio-Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (locally known as Radiotelevizija Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine or RTVFBiH for short) is entity level public broadcaster which operates own radio and television services in the F ...

(Radio-Television of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina) – a radio and television broadcaster that primarily serves the population in the

Federation of BiH The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two entities within the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Republika Srpska. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of 10 autonomous cantons with their own govern ...

. * 25% for

RTRS Radio Television of Republika Srpska (Serbian: ''Радио Телевизија Републике Српске'' / Radio Televizija Republike Srpske or RTRS) is the entity-level public broadcaster which operates radio and television services i ...

(Radio-Television of the Republika Srpska) – a radio and television broadcaster which primarily serves the population of the

Republika Srpska Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Feder ...

. There is a public corporation in the establishment which should be consisted of all public broadcasters in BiH.

Croatia

The licence fee in

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

is regulated by the

Croatian Radiotelevision ''Hrvatska radiotelevizija'' (abbr. HRT), or Croatian Radiotelevision, is Croatia's public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. HRT is divided into thr ...

Act. , the last incarnation of the act dates from 2003. The licence fee is charged to all owners of equipment, capable of receiving TV and radio broadcasts. The total amount of the fee is set each year as a percentage of the average net salary in the previous year, currently equal to 1.5%. This works out at about €137 per year per household with at least one radio or TV receiver. The fee is the main source of revenue for the national broadcaster Hrvatska Radiotelevizija (HRT), and a secondary source of income for other national and local broadcasters, which receive a minority share of this money. The Statute of HRT further divides their majority share to 66% for television and 34% for the radio, and sets out further financial rules. By law, advertisements and several other sources of income are allowed to HRT. However, the percentage of air time which may be devoted to advertising is limited by law to 9% per hour and is lower than the one that applies to commercial broadcasters. In addition, other rules govern advertising on HRT, including a limit on a single commercial during short breaks and no breaks during films. Croatian television law was formed in compliance with the European Convention on Transfrontier Television that Croatia had joined between 1999 and 2002.

Czech Republic

The licence fee in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

is 135 Kč (€4.992

sing the 27 July 2015 exchange rate Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

per month as from 1 January 2008, amounting to €59.904 per year. This increase is to compensate for the abolition of paid advertisements except in narrowly defined circumstances during a transitional period. Each household that owns at least one TV set pays for one TV licence or radio licence, regardless of how many televisions and radios they own. Corporations and the self-employed must pay for a licence for each television and radio.

Denmark

, the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

media licence fee is 1353 kr, or €182 per year. This fee applies to all TVs, computers with Internet access or with TV tuners, or other devices that can receive broadcast TV, which means that the customer has to pay the TV licence if the customer has a relatively new mobile phone. The monochrome TV rate is no longer offered after 1 January 2007. The majority of the licence fee is used to fund the national radio and TV broadcaster DR. However, a proportion is used to fund TV 2's regional services. TV2 itself used to get means from the licence fee. However, it is now funded exclusively through advertising revenue. Though economically independent from the licence fee, TV2 still has obligations and requirements towards serving the public which are laid down in a so-called "public service contract" between the government and all public service providers. Commercials broadcasting in TV2 may only be broadcast ''between'' programmes, including films. TV2 receives indirect subsidies through favourable loans from the Danish state. TV2 also gets a smaller part of the licence for their 8 regional TV stations, which have 30 minutes of the daily prime time of the channel (which is commercial-free) and may request additional time on a special new regional TV channel (in which the regional channel has several other non-commercial broadcasters apart from the TV2 regional programmes). In 2018, the government of Denmark decided to "abolish" the fee from 2019. The media licence was abolished in 2022. Currently, the fee is replaced by general taxation; particularly, in most cases, it is an addition to the Danish income tax.

Germany

The licence fee in Germany is a blanket contribution of €18.36 per month (€220 per annum) for all apartments, secondary residences, holiday homes as well as summer houses and is payable regardless of equipment or television and radio usage. Businesses and institutions must also contribute, and the amount is based on several factors, including the number of employees, vehicles and, for hotels, number of beds. The fee is billed monthly but typically paid quarterly, and yearly advanced payments are possible. It is collected by a public collection agency called

Beitragsservice von ARD, ZDF und Deutschlandradio The ( en, Contribution service of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio), commonly referred to simply as , is the organization responsible for collecting the television and radio fee () from private individuals, companies and institutions in Germany. ...

which is sometimes criticized for its measures. Since 2013, only recipients of a certain kind of social benefit such as Arbeitslosengeld II or student loans and grants are exempt from the licence fee and those with certain disabilities can apply to pay a reduced contribution of €5.83. Low incomes in general like those of freelancers, trainees and the receipt of full unemployment benefit (Arbeitslosengeld I) are no longer reasons for an exemption. Since the fee is billed to a person and not to a dwelling, empty dwellings, for instance, those being renovated, or for which a tenant is being sought after the previous tenant moved away, remain exempt. The same is true for a house or flat which is for sale and all residents, including the owner, have moved out since those previous residents and the owner will be charged at their new address. Prior to 2013, only households and businesses with at least one television were required to pay. Households with no televisions but with a radio or an Internet-capable device were subject to a reduced radio-only fee. ARD Karte

The licence fee is used to fund the public broadcasters

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

and

Deutschlandradio Deutschlandradio (DLR) (''Radio Germany'') is a national German public radio broadcaster. History ''Deutschlandfunk'' was originally a West German news radio targeting listeners within West Germany as well as in neighbouring countries, ''Deutsc ...

, as well as the nine regional broadcasters of the ARD network, who, altogether, run 22 television channels (10 regional, 10 national, 2 international:

Arte Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

and

3sat In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfie ...

) and 61 radio stations (58 regional, 3 national). Two national television stations and 32 regional radio stations carry limited advertising. The 14 regional regulatory authorities for the private broadcasters are also funded by the licence fee (and not by government grants), and in some states, non-profit community radio stations also get small amounts of the licence fee. In contrast to ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio, Germany's international broadcaster,

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

, is fully funded by the German federal government, though much of its new content is provided by the ARD. Germany currently has one of the largest total public broadcast budgets in the world. The per capita budget is close to the European average. Annual income from licence fees reached more than €7.9 billion in 2016. The board of public broadcasters sued the German states for interference with their budgeting process, and on 11 September 2007, the Supreme Court decided in their favour. This effectively rendered the public broadcasters independent and self-governing. Public broadcasters have announced that they are determined to use all available ways to reach their "customers" and as such have started a very broad Internet presence with media portals, news and TV programs. National broadcasters have abandoned an earlier pledge to restrict their online activities. This resulted in newspapers taking court action against the ARD, claiming that the ARD's ''Tagessschau'' smartphone app, which provides news stories at no cost to the app user, was unfairly subsidised by the licence fee, to the detriment of free-market providers of news content apps. The case was dismissed with the court advising the two sides to agree on a compromise.

Greece

The licence fee in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

is indirect but obligatory and paid through electricity bills. The amount to be paid is €51.60 (2013) for every separate account of the electrical company (including residence, offices, shops and other places provided with electricity). Its beneficiary is the state broadcaster

Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation ( el, Ελληνική Ραδιοφωνία Τηλεόραση AE, Ellinikí Radiofonía Tileórasi SA) or ERT () is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Greece. History Overview ERT b ...

(ERT). The predicted 2006 annual revenue of ERT from the licence fee, officially called the ''retributive'' fee, is €262.6 million (from €214.3 million in 2005). There has been some discussion about imposing a direct licence fee, after complaints from people who do not own a television set and yet are still forced to fund ERT. An often-quoted joke is that even the dead pay the licence fee, since graveyards pay electricity bills. In June 2013, ERT was closed down to save money for the Greek government. In the government decree, it was announced during that time, licence fees are to be temporarily suspended. In June 2015, ERT was reopened, and licence holders are currently paying €36 per year.

Ireland

As of 2020, the current cost of a television licence in Ireland is €160. However the licence is free to anyone over the age of 70 (regardless of means or circumstances), to some over 66, and to the blind (although these licences are in fact paid for by the state). The Irish post office,

An Post (; literally 'The Post') is the state-owned provider of postal services in Ireland. An Post provides a "universal postal service" to all parts of the country as a member of the Universal Postal Union. Services provided include letter post, p ...

, is responsible for the collection of the licence fee and commencement of prosecution proceedings in cases of non-payment. However, An Post has signalled its intention to withdraw from the licence fee collection business. The Irish TV licence makes up 50% of the revenue of

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

, the national broadcaster. The rest comes from RTÉ broadcasting advertisements on its radio and TV stations. Some RTÉ services have not relied on the licence as part of their income in the past, such as

RTÉ 2fm (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

, RTÉ Aertel,

RTÉ.ie RTÉ.ie is the brand name and home of Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ)'s online activities, located at the URL https://www.rte.ie/. The site began publishing on 26 May 1996. According to RTÉ, it operates on an entirely com ...

, and the

transmission network Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a ''transmission network''. This is d ...

operate on an entirely commercial basis. Since 2012 RTÉ 2FM has seen some financial support from the licence. The licence fee does not entirely go to RTÉ. After collection costs, 5% is used for the

Broadcasting Authority of Ireland The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) ( ga, Údarás Craolacháin na hÉireann) was established on 1 October 2009 effectively replacing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) ( ga, Coimisiún Craolacháin na hÉireann). The BAI is ...

's "Sound and Vision Scheme", which provides a fund for programme production and restoration of archive material which is open to applications from any quarter. From 2011 until 2018 5% of what RTÉ then received was granted to

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

. RTÉ are required to provide TG4 with programming. The remainder of TG4's funding is direct state grants and commercial income. The licence applies to particular premises, so a separate licence is required for holiday homes or motor vehicles which contain a television. The licence must be paid for premises that have any equipment that can potentially decode TV signals, even those that are not RTÉ's.

Italy

In 2014, the licence fee in Italy was €113.50 per household with a TV set, independent of use. There is also a special licence fee paid by owners of one or more TV or radio sets on public premises or anyhow outside the household context, independent of the use. In 2016, the government opted to lower the licence fee to 100 euros per household and work it into the electricity bill, in an attempt to eliminate evasion. As of 2018, the fee is €90.00. 66% of

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

's income comes from the licence fee (going up from about half of total income about seven years ago). The remainder came from advertising and other income sources, contributing to about 34% of RAI's income in 2014, in which advertising alone contributed to 25% of total income.

Montenegro

Under the Broadcasting Law of December 2002, every household and legal entity, situated in

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

, where technical conditions for reception of at least one radio or television programme have been provided, is obliged to pay a monthly broadcasting subscription fee. The monthly fee is €3.50, or €42.00 per annum. The Broadcasting Agency of Montenegro is in charge of collecting the fee (currently through the telephone bills, but after the privatization of state-owned Telekom, the new owners, T-com, announced that they will not administer the collection of the fee from July 2007). The funds from the subscription received by the broadcasting agency belong to: * the republic's public broadcasting services (radio and television) – 75% * the agency's fund for the support of the local public broadcasting services (radio and television) – 10% * the agency's fund for the support of the commercial broadcasting services (radio and television) – 10% * the agency – 5%

Poland

As of 2020, the licence fee in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

for a television set is 22.70 zł per month or 245.15 zł per year. The licence may be paid monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually, but the total cost when paying for less than a year in advance is higher (up to 10%). Those that have no TV but have a radio must pay the radio-only licence which costs 7.00 zł per month or 84.00 zł per year. The licence is collected and maintained by the Polish post office,

Poczta Polska Poczta Polska ( lit. ''Polish Post'') is the state postal administration of Poland, initially founded in 1558. It is the largest mail-handling company in the country, which additionally provides courier, banking, insurance and logistics serv ...

. Around 60% of the fee goes to

Telewizja Polska Telewizja Polska S.A. (; "Polish Television"; TVP), also known in English as the public Polish Television is a Polish state media corporation. It is the largest Polish television network, although viewership has been declining in the 2010s. Sinc ...

with the rest going to

Polskie Radio Polskie Radio Spółka Akcyjna (PR S.A.; English: Polish Radio) is Poland's national public-service radio broadcasting organization owned by the State Treasury of Poland. History Polskie Radio was founded on 18 August 1925 and began making ...

. In return, public television is not permitted to interrupt its programmes with advertisements (advertisements are only allowed between programmes). The TV licence is waived for those over 75. Only one licence is required for a single household irrespective of the number of sets, but in case of commercial premises one licence for each set must be paid (this includes radios and TVs in company vehicles). However, public health institutions, all nurseries, educational institutions, hospices and retirement homes need to pay only single licence per building or building complex they occupy. There is a major problem with licence evasion in Poland. There are two main reasons for the large amount. Firstly, licence collection is based on the honesty-based

opt-in Opt-in email is a term used when someone is not initially added to an emailing list and is instead given the option to join the emailing list. Typically, this is some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising. Opt-out emails do not ask ...

system, rather than the systems of other countries of

opt-out The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This option is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as e-mail marketing or direct mail. A list of thos ...

, i.e. a person liable to pay the licence has to register on their own so there is no effective means to compel people to register and to prosecute those that fail to do so. Also as the licensing inspectors, who are usually postmen, do not have the right of entry to inspect premises and must get the owner's or main occupier's permission to enter. Secondly, the public media are frequently accused of being pro-government propaganda mouthpieces, and not independent public broadcasters. Due to this, it is estimated that back in 2012 around 65% of households evade the licence fee, compared to an average of 10% in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. In 2020, it was revealed that only 8% of Polish households paid the licence fee, and as a result, the government gave a 2 billion złoty grant for public media.

Portugal

RTP was financed through government grants and advertising. Since 1 September 2003, the public TV and radio has been also financed through a fee. The "Taxa de Contribuição Audiovisual" (Portuguese for ''Broadcasting Contribution Tax'') is charged monthly through the electricity bills and its value is updated at the annual rate of inflation. Due to the economic crisis that the country has suffered, RTP's financing model has changed. In 2014, government grants ended, with RTP being financed only through the "Taxa de Contribuição Audiovisual" and advertising. Since July 2016, the fee is €2.85 +

VAT A value-added tax (VAT), known in some countries as a goods and services tax (GST), is a type of tax that is assessed incrementally. It is levied on the price of a product or service at each stage of production, distribution, or sale to the en ...

, with a final cost of €3.02 (€36.24 per year).

RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mainst ...

can only broadcast 6 minutes of commercial advertising per hour (while commercial televisions can broadcast 12 minutes per hour).

RTP2 RTP2 (''RTP dois'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's second television channel, and is known for broadcasting cultural, ...

is a commercial advertising-free channel as well the radios stations.

RTP3 RTP3 (''RTP três'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's all-news television channel, and is known for its 24-hour rollin ...

and

RTP Memória RTP Memória ( ''RTP Memory'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's heritage television channel, and is known for broadcasti ...

can only broadcast commercial advertising on cable, satellite and IPTV platforms. On DTT they are commercial advertising-free.

Serbia

Licence fees in Serbia are bundled together with electricity bills and collected monthly. There have been increasing indications that the Government of Serbia is considering the temporary cessation of the licence fee until a more effective financing solution is found. However, as of 28 August 2013 this step has yet to be realized.

Slovakia

The TV licence fee in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

is €4.64 per month (€55.68 per year). In addition to the licence fee

RTVS Radio and Television of Slovakia ( sk, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska ) or RTVS is a nationwide public broadcasting, state-funded organisation in Slovakia. It is headquartered in Bratislava and led by Ľuboš Machaj. History The organization i ...

also receives state subsidies and money from advertising. The license fee will be abolished from 1 July, 2023.

Slovenia

Since June 2013, the annual licence fee in

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

stands at €153.00 (€12.75 per month) for receiving both television and radio services, or €45.24 (€3.77 per month) for radio services only, paid by the month. This amount is payable once per household, regardless of the number of televisions or radios (or other devices capable of receiving TV or radio broadcasts). Businesses and the self-employed pay this amount for every set, and pay higher rates where they are intended for public viewing rather than the private use of its employees. The licence fee is used to fund national broadcaster

RTV Slovenija Radiotelevizija Slovenija ( en, Radio-Television of Slovenia) – usually abbreviated to RTV Slovenija (or simply RTV within Slovenia) – is Slovenia's national public broadcasting organization. Based in Ljubljana, it has regional broadcastin ...

. In the calendar year 2007, the licence fee raised €78.1 million, or approximately 68% of total operating revenue. The broadcaster then supplements this income with advertising, which by comparison provided revenues of €21.6 million in 2007, or about 19% of operating revenue.

Switzerland

In Swiss law, any person who receives the reception of radio or television programs from the national public broadcaster SRG SSR must be registered and is subject to household licence fees. The licence fee is a flat rate of CHF 335 per year for TV and radio for single households, and CHF 670 for multiple households, e.g. old peoples homes. The licence fee in private households can also be paid quarterly. Households which are unable to receive broadcasting transmissions are exempt from the current fees up and until 2023 if the resident applies for an opt-out. The collection of licence fees is managed by the company Serafe AG, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance collections agency Secon. For businesses, the fee is based on the companies' annual turnover and an annual fee is on sliding-scale between nothing for businesses with an annual turnover of less than CHF 500,000, and CHF 35,590 per year for businesses with an annual turnover of over a billion francs. The fee is collected by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration. A large majority of the fee, which totals CHF 1.2 billion, goes to SRG SSR, while the rest of the money goes a collection of small regional radio and television broadcasters. Non-payment of licence fees means fines for up to CHF 100,000. On 4 March 2018, there was an initiative on whether TV licensing should be scrapped under the slogan "No Billag", which was reference to the previous collector of the TV licence fees. The parliament have advocated a no vote. Voters had overwhelming rejected the proposal by 71.6% to 28.4% and in all cantons. The fee however was significantly reduced.

Turkey

According to the law, a licence fee at the rate of 8% or 16%, depending on equipment type (2% from computer equipment, 10% from cellular phones, 0.4% from automotives) is paid to the state broadcaster TRT by the producer/importer of the TV receiving equipment. Consumers indirectly pay this fee only once, at the initial purchase of the equipment. Also, 2% tax is used to be cut from each household/commercial/industrial electricity bill monthly, according to a law which was abolished recently. Additionally, TRT also receives funding via advertisements. No registration is required for purchasing TV receiver equipment, except for cellular phones, which is mandated by a separate law.

United Kingdom

A television licence is required for each household where television programmes are watched or recorded as they are broadcast, irrespective of the signal method (terrestrial, satellite, cable or the Internet). As of September 2016, users of

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

must also have a television licence to watch on-demand television content from the service. As of 1 April 2017, after the end of a freeze that began in 2010, the price of a licence may now increase to account for inflation. The licence fee in 2018 was £150.50 for a colour and £50.50 for a black and white TV Licence. As of April 2019, the licence fee is £154.50 for a colour and £52.00 for a black and white TV Licence. As of January 2022, the licence fee is £159 for a colour and £53.50 for a black and white TV Licence As it is classified in law as a tax, evasion of licence fees is a criminal offence. 204,018 people were prosecuted or fined in 2014 for TV licence offences: 173,044 in England, 12,536 in Wales, 4,905 people in Northern Ireland and 15 in the Isle of Man. The licence fee is used almost entirely to fund

...
domestic radio, television and internet services. The money received from the fee represents approximately 75% of the cost of these services, with most of the remainder coming from the profits of

BBC Studios BBC Studios is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. ...

, a commercial arm of the corporation which markets and distributes its content outside of the United Kingdom, and operates or licences BBC-branded television services and brands. The BBC also receives some funding from the Scottish Government via

MG Alba MG Alba is the operating name of the Gaelic Media Service ( gd, Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gàidhlig). The organisation's remit, under the Communications Act 2003, is to ensure that a wide and diverse range of high quality Gaelic programmes is m ...

to finance the BBC Alba Gaelic-language television service in Scotland. The BBC used to receive a direct government grant from the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ministries of fore ...

to fund television and radio services broadcast to other countries, such as the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

radio and

BBC Arabic Television BBC News Arabic ( ar, بي بي سي نيوز عربي), formerly BBC Arabic Television, is a television news channel broadcast to the Arab World by the BBC. It was launched on 11 March 2008. It is run by the BBC World Service and funded from th ...

. These services run on a non-profit, non-commercial basis. The grant was abolished on 1 April 2014, leaving these services to be funded by the UK licence fee, a move which has caused some controversy. The BBC is not the only public service broadcaster.

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

is also a public television service, but it is funded through advertising. The Welsh language S4C in Wales is funded through a combination of a direct grant from the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

, advertising and receives some of its programming free of charge by the BBC (see above). These other broadcasters are all much smaller than the BBC. In addition to the public broadcasters, the UK has a wide range of commercial television funded by a mixture of advertising and subscription. A television licence is still required of viewers who solely watch such commercial channels, although 74.9% of the population watches

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

in any given week, making it the most popular channel in the country. A similar licence, mandated by the

Wireless Telegraphy Act 1904 Wireless Telegraphy Act is (with its variations) a stock short title used for legislation in the Republic of Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom relating to wireless telegraphy. The Wireless Telegraphy Acts are laws regulating radio commu ...

, existed for radio, but was abolished in 1971.

Television licences in Africa

Ghana

The licence fee in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

is used to fund the

Ghana Broadcasting Corporation The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was established by law in 1968 with a triple mandate as a State Broadcaster, Public Service Broadcaster, and a Commercial Broadcaster in Ghana. Headquartered in the capital city, Accra, it is funded by gra ...

(GBC), and it was reintroduced in 2015. TV users have to pay between GH¢36 and GH¢60 per year for using one or more TVs at home.

Mauritius

The licence fee in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

is Rs 1,800 per year (around €29).(August 2003
''The Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation: A Report''
, Sir Victor Glover, Prime Minister's Office, Republic of Mauritius. Retrieved 21 November 2006 It is collected as part of the electricity bill. The proceeds of the licence fee are used to fund the

Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation The Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is the national public broadcaster of the Republic of Mauritius, that is the islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Agaléga. The headquarters of the MBC is found at Réduit, Moka, it also operates a s ...

. The licence fee makes up 60% of MBC's funding. Most of the remaining 40% comes from television and radio commercials. However, the introduction of private broadcasting in 2002 has put pressure on MBC's decreasing commercial revenues. Furthermore, MBC is affecting the profitability of the private stations that want the government to make MBC commercial free.

Namibia

The licence fee in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

was N$204 (about €23) in 2001. The fee is used to fund the

Namibian Broadcasting Corporation The Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) ( af, Namibiese Uitsaai-Korporasie, ''NUK'') is the public broadcaster of Namibia. It was established in 1979, under the name South West African Broadcasting Corporation (SWABC). History Radio was ori ...

South Africa

The licence fee in South Africa is R265 (about €23) per annum (R312 per year if paid on a monthly basis) for TV. A concessionary rate of R70 is available for those over 70, and disabled persons or war veterans who are on social welfare. The licence fee partially funds the public broadcaster, the

South African Broadcasting Corporation The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

. The SABC, unlike some other public broadcasters, derives much of its income from advertising. Proposals to abolish licensing have been circulating since October 2009. The national carrier hopes to receive funding entirely via state subsidies and commercials. According to IOL.co.za: "Television licence collections for the 2008/09 financial year (April 1, 2008, to March 31, 2009) amounted to R972m." (almost €90m)

Television licences in Asia

Japan

In Japan, the annual licence fee ( ja, 受信料, ''jushin-ryō'', "receiving fee") for terrestrial television broadcasts is ¥14,205. The fee is slightly less if paid by

direct debit A direct debit or direct withdrawal is a financial transaction in which one organisation withdraws funds from a payer's bank account., https://www.directdebit.co.uk/direct-debit-explained/what-is-direct-debit/ Formally, the organisation that calls f ...

and the fee is ¥24,740 for those receiving

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

broadcasts. There is a separate licence for monochrome TV, and fees are slightly less in

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

. The Japanese licence fee pays for the national broadcaster, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK). While every household in Japan with a television set is required to have a licence, it was reported in 2006 that "non-payment adbecome an epidemic" because of a series of scandals involving NHK.Julian Ryall
"Japan Cracking Down On NHK License Fee Nonpayment"
''The Hollywood Reporter'', 15 November 2006. Retrieved 22 December 2016. In 2005, it was reported that, "there is no fine or any other form of sanction for non-payment". The

NHK Party NHK Party ( ja, NHK党, ), self-abbreviated as the NHK (NHK), also known as Anti-NHK Party in English language media, is a populist and single-issue List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan founded on 17 June 2013 by activist ...

, often called the Anti-NHK Party, was founded in 2013 as a single-issue political party to oppose the license fee, with its initial one policy to

encrypt In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can deci ...

NHK's broadcast signal, which would mean that only those who watch NHK pay for it.

Pakistan

The television licence in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

is Rs 420 per year. It is collected as a Rs 35 per month charge to all consumers of electricity. The proceeds of the fee and advertising are used to fund PTV.

South Korea

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, the television licence fee ( ko, 수신료 징수제) is collected for the

Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) () is the national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in February 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters. KBS operates seven radio networks, ten television channels, a ...

and the

Educational Broadcasting System Korea Educational Broadcasting System () or EBS is a South Korean educational public broadcaster and radio network covering South Korean territory, and the only major South Korean radio and television network without a separate regional service ...

. The fee is

₩ The won sign , is a currency symbol. It represents the South Korean won, the North Korean won and, unofficially, the old Korean won. Appearance Its appearance is "W" (the first letter of "Won") with a horizontal strike going through the cent ...

30,000 per year (about €20.67), and is bundled with electricity bills. It has stood at this level since 1981, and now makes up less than 40% of KBS's income and less than 8% of EBS's income. Its purpose is to maintain public broadcasting in South Korea, and to give public broadcasters the resources to do their best to produce and broadcast public interest programs.

Countries where the TV licence has been abolished

The following countries have had television licences, but subsequently abolished them:

Australia

Radio licence fees were introduced in Australia in the 1920s to fund the first privately owned broadcasters, which were not permitted to sell advertising. With the formation of the government-owned

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

in 1932, the licence fees were used to fund ABC broadcasts while the privately-owned stations were permitted to seek revenue from advertising and sponsorship. Television licence fees were also introduced in 1956 when the ABC began TV transmissions. In 1964 a television licence, issued on a

punched card A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

, cost £6 (A$12); the fine for not having a licence was £100 (A$200). All licence fees were abolished in 1974 by the Whitlam government on the basis that the near-universality of television and radio services meant that public funding was a fairer method of providing revenue for government-owned radio and television broadcasters. The ABC has since then been funded by government grants, now totalling around A$1.13 billion a year, and its own commercial activities (merchandising, overseas sale of programmes, etc.).

Belgium

Flemish region and Brussels

The

Flemish region The Flemish Region ( nl, Vlaams Gewest, ),; german: Flämische Region usually simply referred to as Flanders ( nl, link=no, Vlaanderen ) ; german: link=no, Flandern is one of the three regions of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and t ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

abolished its television licence in 2001. The

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

broadcaster VRT is now funded from general taxation.

Walloon region

As of 1 January 2018, the licence fee in the

Walloon region Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

has been abolished. All licences still in effect at this point will remain in effect and payable until the period is up, but will not be renewed after that period (for example, a licence starting 1 April 2017 will still need to be paid until 31 May 2018. After this point, payment for a licence will not be required). The licence fee in Belgium's Walloon region (encompassing the French and German-speaking communities) was €100.00 for a TV and €0.00 for a radio in a vehicle, listed in Article 1 of the Government of Wallonia decree of 1 December 2008. Only one licence was needed for each household with a functional TV receiver regardless of the number, but each car with a radio had to have a separate car radio licence. Household radios did not require a licence. The money raised by the fee was used to fund Belgium's French and German public broadcasters (

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

and BRF respectively). The TV licence fee was paid by people with surnames beginning with a letter between A and J between 1 April and 31 May inclusive; those with surnames beginning with a letter between K to Z paid between 1 October and 30 November inclusive. People with certain disabilities were exempt from paying the television licence fee. Hotels and similar lodging establishments paid an additional fee of €50.00 for each additional functional TV receiver and paid between 1 January and 1 March inclusive.

Bulgaria

Currently, the public broadcasters

Bulgarian National Television The Bulgarian National Television ( Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, ''Balgarska natsionalna televizia'') or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public television broadcaster of Bulgari ...

(BNT) and

Bulgarian National Radio Bulgarian National Radio ( bg, Българско национално радио, ''Bulgarsko natsionalno radio''; abbreviated to БНР, BNR) is Bulgaria's national radio broadcasting organisation. It operates two national and nine regional cha ...

(BNR) are almost entirely financed by the national budget of Bulgaria. After the fall of

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and the introduction of democracy in the 1990s, the topic of financing public television and radio broadcasting was widely discussed. One of the methods to raise funding was by collecting a user's fee from every citizen of Bulgaria.

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

approved and included the fee in the Radio and Television Law; however, the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

imposed a veto on the law and a public discussion on the fairness of the decision started. Critics said that this is unacceptable, as many people will be paying for a service they may not be using. The parliament decided to keep the resolution in the law but imposed a temporary regime of financing the broadcasters through the national budget. The law has not been changed to this day; however, the temporary regime is still in effect and has been constantly prolonged. As a result, there is no fee to pay and the funding comes from the national budget.

Canada

Special Private Receiving Station License 1948-49

Canada eliminated its broadcasting receiver licence in 1953, replacing it with TV equipment excise taxes, shortly after the introduction of a television service."Budget Speech Delivered by Hon. D. C. Abbott, Minister of Finance, in the House of Commons, Thursday, February 19, 1953"
page 21 (gc.ca) The Radiotelegraph Act of 6 June 1913 established the initial Canadian policies for radio communication. Similar to the law in force in Britain, this act required that operation of "any radiotelegraph apparatus" required a licence, issued by the Minister of the Naval Service. This included members of the general public who only possessed a radio receiver and were not making transmissions, who were required to hold an "Amateur Experimental Station" licence, as well as pass the exam needed to receive an "Amateur Experimental Certificate of Proficiency", which required the ability to send and receive Morse code at five words a minute. In January 1922 the government lowered the barrier for individuals merely interested in receiving broadcasts, by introducing a new licence category, Private Receiving Station, that removed the need to qualify for an amateur radio licence. The receiving station licences initially cost $1 and had to be renewed yearly. The licence fee eventually rose to $2.50 per year to provide revenue for both radio and television broadcasts by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, however, it was eliminated effective 1 April 1953. This action exempted broadcast-only receivers from licensing, and the Department of Transport (DOT) was given authority to exempt other receiver types from licensing as it saw fit. DOT exempted all "home-type" receivers capable of receiving any radio communications other than "public correspondence" (defined as "radio transmissions not intended to be received by just anyone but rather by a member of the public who has paid for the message" – examples include ship-to-shore radiotelephone calls or car-phone transmissions). After 1952, licences were required in Canada only for general coverage shortwave receivers with single-sideband capability, and VHF/UHF scanners which could tune to the maritime or land mobile radiotelephone bands. Beginning in 1982, in response to a Canadian court's finding that all unscrambled radio signals imply a forfeiture of the right to privacy, the DOC (Department of Communications) required receiver licensing only in cases where it was necessary to ensure technical compatibility with the transmitter. Regulation SOR-89-253 (published in the 4 February 1989 issue of the ''Canada Gazette'', pages 498–502) removed the licence requirement for all radio and TV receivers. The responsibility for regulating radio spectrum affairs in Canada has devolved to a number of federal departments and agencies. It was under the oversight of the Department of Naval Service from 1913 until 1 July 1922, when it was transferred to civilian control under the Department of Marine and Fisheries, followed by the Department of Transport (from 1935 to 1969), Department of Communications (1969 to 1996) and most recently to Industry Canada (since 1995).

Cyprus

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

used to have an indirect but obligatory tax for

CyBC Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation ( gr, Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου , tr, Kıbrıs Radyo Yayın Kurumu), or CyBC (ΡΙΚ, KRYK), is Cyprus' public broadcasting service. It transmits island-wide on four radio and two domestic ...

, its state-run public broadcasting service. The tax was added to electricity bills, and the amount paid depended on the size of the home. By the late 1990s, it was abolished due to pressure from private commercial radio and TV broadcasters. CyBC is currently funded by advertising and government grants.

Finland

On 1 January 2013,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

replaced its television licence with a direct unconditional income '' public broadcasting tax'' ( fi, yleisradiovero, sv, rundradioskatt) for individual taxpayers. Unlike the previous fee, this tax is progressive, meaning that people will pay up to €163 depending on income. The lowest income recipients, persons under the age of eighteen years, and residents in autonomous

Åland Åland ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1 ...

are exempt from the tax. Before the introduction of the Yle tax, the television fee in

used to be between €244.90 and €253.80 (depending on the interval of payments) per annum for a household with TV (as of 2011). It was the primary source of funding for

Yleisradio Yleisradio Oy (Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founde ...

(Yle), a role which has now been taken over by the Yle tax.

France

In 2022, the broadcasting licence fee () in mainland France &

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

is €138. While in the French

overseas departments The overseas departments and regions of France (french: départements et régions d'outre-mer, ; ''DROM'') are departments of France that are outside metropolitan France, the European part of France. They have exactly the same status as mainlan ...

and collectivities, it is €88. People under the age of 21, under 25 in full education, or those who have a household income below a certain threshold are exempt from the fee. The fee funds services provided by

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety of ...

and

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (former ...

. In the past, public broadcasters in France supplement their licence fee income with revenue from advertising, but changes in the law in 2009, designed to stop public television chasing ratings, have stopped public broadcasters from airing advertising after 20:00. Between 1998 and 2004 the proportion of France Télévision's income that came from advertising declined from around 40% to 30%. To keep the cost of collection low, the licence fee in France is collected as part of local taxes. People who don't own a TV set can opt out in their tax declaration form. In the 2022 presidential elections, the incumbent

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

has said if he is re-elected as president, the fee would be scrapped and instead be funded directly from the French Treasury. His rivals

Valérie Pécresse Valérie Pécresse (; born Roux, 14 July 1967) is a French politician who has served as President of the Regional Council of Île-de-France since 2015. A member of The Republicans (LR), she previously served as Minister of Higher Education and ...

, Marine Le Pen and

Éric Zemmour Éric Justin Léon Zemmour (; born 31 August 1958) is a French far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political ...

have all said they would scrap the licence and privatise the public broadcasters. The television licence fee in France was abolished in 2022.

Gibraltar

It was announced in

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

speech of 23 June 2006 that Gibraltar would abolish its TV licence. The 7,452 TV licence fees were previously used to part fund the

Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation The Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) is Gibraltar's public service broadcaster. It has provided the community with a radio and television service since 1963. History Modelled on the BBC, the Corporation was established in 1963 with ...

(GBC). However, the majority of the GBC's funding came in the form of a grant from the government.

Hungary

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, the licence fees nominally exist, but since 2002 the government has decided to pay them out of the state budget. Effectively, this means that funding for

Magyar Televízió Magyar Televízió (''Hungarian Television'') or MTV is a nationwide public television broadcasting organization in Hungary. Headquartered in Budapest, it is the oldest television broadcaster in Hungary and today airs five channels: M1 HD, M ...

and

Duna TV Duna (English: ''Duna Channel'', formerly: ''Duna Televízió'') is one of Hungary's public television channels. "Duna" is the Hungarian name for the Danube. Duna has been the ''national main channel'' of the public media MTVA since 15 March ...

now comes from the government through taxation. As of spring 2007, commercial units (hotels, bars etc.) have to pay television licence fees again, on a per-TV set basis. Since the parliament decides on the amount of public broadcasters' income, during the 2009 financial crisis it was possible for it to decide to cut their funding by more than 30%. This move was publicly condemned by the EBU. The television licensing scheme has been a problem for Hungarian public broadcasters ever since the initial privatisation changes in 1995, and the public broadcaster MTV has been stuck in a permanent financial crisis for years.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong had a radio and television licence fee imposed by Radio Hong Kong (RHK) and

Rediffusion Television Rediffusion Television (RTV) was the first television station in Hong Kong, making it both the first British colony and the first predominantly ethnically Chinese city to have television.Kitley, Philip. 003(2003). Television, Regulation and ...

. The licence cost $36

Hong Kong dollar The Hong Kong dollar (, currency symbol, sign: HK$; ISO 4217, code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cent (currency), cents or 1000 Mill (currency), mils. The H ...

s per year. Over-the-air radio and television terrestrial broadcasts were always free of charge since 1967, no matter whether they are analogue or digital. There were public television programmes produced by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). RTHK is funded by the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong Special administrative regions of China, ...

, before having its TV channel, it used commercial television channels to broadcast its programmes, and each of the traditional four terrestrial commercial TV channels in Hong Kong (

TVB Jade TVB Jade (), or simply Jade, is a Hong Kong Cantonese-language free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) as its flagship service, alongside its sister network, the English-language TVB Pearl. Br ...

and ATV Home, which carried Cantonese-language broadcasts, and

TVB Pearl TVB Pearl is a terrestrial television channel in Hong Kong owned by Television Broadcasts Limited. Established on 19 November 1967, it shares headquarters with TVB's other properties at TVB City at 77 Chun Choi Street in Tseung Kwan O Industr ...

and

ATV World ATV World, was one of two free-to-air English language television channels in Hong Kong, the other being its arch-rival TVB Pearl. Its sister station, ATV Home, broadcast in Cantonese language. It is owned and operated by Asia Television, a ...

, which carried English-language broadcasts), were required to broadcast 2.5 hours of public television per week. However, there is no such requirement for newer digital channels. As of 2017, RTHK has three digital television channels RTHK 31, RTHK 32 and RTHK 33. RTHK's own programmes will return to RTHK's channels in the future.

Iceland

The TV licence fee for

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

's state broadcaster

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional cent ...

was abolished in 2007. Instead a poll tax of 17,200 kr. is collected from all people who pay income tax, regardless of whether they use television and radio.

India

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

introduced a radio receiver licence system in 1928, for

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

Aakaashavani. With the advent of television broadcasting in 1956–57, television was also licensed. With the spurt in television stations beginning 1971–72, a separate broadcasting company,

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

, was formed. The radio and television licences in question needed to be renewed at the post offices yearly. The annual premium for radio was Rs 15 in the 1970s and 1980s. Radio licence stamps were issued for this purpose. License fees for TV were Rs 50. The wireless licence inspector from the post office was authorized to check every house/shop for a WLB (Wireless License Book) and penalize and even seize the radio or TV. In 1984, the licensing system was withdrawn with both of the Indian national public broadcasters, AIR and Doordarshan, funded instead by the Government of India and by advertising.

Indonesia

The radio tax to supplement RRI funding was introduced in 1947, about two years after its foundation and in height of the

Indonesian National Revolution The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during Aftermath of WWII, postw ...

, initially set at Rp5 per month. The tax was abolished sometime in the 1980s. Possibly shortly after

TVRI TVRI (, Television of the Republic of Indonesia), legally ( Public Broadcasting Institution Television of the Republic of Indonesia) is a public television network and the oldest television network in Indonesia. Its national headquarters is i ...

began broadcasting in 1962, the television fee was introduced. Originally the TVRI Foundation (''Yayasan TVRI'') was assigned to collect the fee, but in 1990 President

Suharto Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...

enacted a presidential statement to give fee collecting authority to Mekatama Raya, a private company run by his son Sigit Harjojudanto and Suharto's cronies, in the name of the foundation starting in 1991. The problems surrounding the fee collection and the public protests making the company no longer collecting the fee a year later. The television fee then slowly disappeared, though in some places the fee still exist, such as

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

as of 1998 and

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

as of 2001. According to Act No. 32 of 2002 on Broadcasting, the newly-transformed RRI and TVRI funding comes from several sources, one of them is the so-called "broadcasting fee" ( id, iuran penyiaran). However, as of today the fee is yet to be implemented. Currently, their funding comes primarily from the annual state budget and "non-tax state revenue", either by advertising or other sources regulated in government regulations.

Israel

Israel's television tax was abolished in September 2015, retroactively to January 2015. The television licence for 2014 in Israel for every household was ₪ 345 (€73) and the radio licence (for car owners only) was ₪ 136 (€29). The licence fee was the primary source of revenue for the

Israel Broadcasting Authority The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017. History The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station ''Kol Yisrael'', which made its first broadcast as an independent st ...

, the state broadcaster, which was closed down and replaced by the

Israeli Broadcasting Corporation The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC; he, תאגיד השידור הישראלי, translit=Ta'agid HaShidur HaYisra'eli, lit=Israeli Broadcasting Corporation; ar, هيئة البث الإسرائيلي, translit=Hayyat al-Bathi al- ...

in May 2017; however, its radio stations carry full advertising and some TV programmes are sponsored by commercial entities and the radio licence (for car owners only) for 2020 is ₪ 164 (€41).

Liechtenstein

To help fund a national cable broadcasting network between 1978 and 1998 under the Law on Radio and television,

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

demanded an annual household broadcasting licence for households that had broadcasting receiving equipment. The annual fee which was last requested in 1998, came to CHF 180. In total, this provided an income of 2.7 million francs of which 1.1 million went the PTT and CHF 250,000 to the Swiss national broadcaster SRG. Since then, the government replaced this with an annual government grant for public media of CHF 1.5 million which is administrated under the supervision of the Mediakommision. The sole radio station of the principality Radio Liechtenstein, was founded as a private commercial music station in 1995. In 2004, it was nationalised by the government under the ownership of Liechtensteinischer Rundfunk, to create a domestic

station broadcasting news and music. The station is funded by commercials and the public broadcasting grant. A commercial television station, 1FLTV, was launched in August 2008. There have been suggestions of reintroducing a public broadcasting fee in Liechtenstein, and in the 2014–2017 government, budget outlined such as a proposal. However, this was rejected in 2015. One possible reason is that two-thirds of the listenership of Radio Liechtenstein is Swiss and they wouldn't pay such a fee.

Malaysia

Until it was discontinued in April 2000, television licence in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

was paid on an annual basis of MYR 24 (MYR 2 per month), one of the lowest fees for television service in the world. Now, RTM is funded by government tax and advertising, whilst Media Prima owned another four more private broadcasting channels of TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9. The other two,

TV Alhijrah TV AlHijrah is a state-owned Malaysian free-to-air Islamic television channel, owned and operated by Al-Hijrah Media Corporation, a company under the purview of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia of the Prime Minister's Department. ...

and WBC are smaller broadcasters.

Astro Astro may refer to: Entertainment and media * Astro (South Korean band), a South Korean boy band * Astro (UB40) (1957–2021), member of the British reggae band UB40 * Astro (Chilean band), a Chilean indie rock band * Astro (Japanese band), ...

is a paid television service, so they operate by the monthly fees given to them by customers, and it is the same thing for

HyppTV Unifi TV (stylized as unifi tv, formerly known as HyppTV prior to January 2018) is an IPTV service operated by Telekom Malaysia (TM). It was launched in 2010 as part of TM's bundled Triple-play service offering of VoIP Telephone, Internet and ...

and

ABNXcess Asian Broadcasting Network (M) Sdn Bhd, DBA ABNxcess, was the sole digital cable television operator in Malaysia, launched on 8 June 2013. The company offers cable television services via the cable network which has been in operation since 2012 ...

Malta

The licence fee in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

was €34.90.(May 2006
Analysis of Responses on Fees for Broadcasting and Fees for Non-Commercial and Passive Services
, Electronic Communications Committee (ECC) within the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT). It was used to fund the television ( TVM) and radio channels (Radio Malta and Radju Parliament) run by

Public Broadcasting Services Public Broadcasting Services Limited (PBS) is the public broadcaster of Malta. PBS is funded by government grants and the sale of commercial airtime. Its TVM channel is Malta's most watched television channel, and its radio station Magic Malta ...

. Approximately two-thirds of TVM's funding came from the licence fee, with much of the remainder coming from commercials. Malta's television licence was abolished in 2011 when the

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

system was discontinued.

Netherlands

Since 1967, advertising has been introduced on public television and radio, but this was only allowed as a small segment before and after news broadcasts. It wasn't until the late 1980s that so-called "floating commercial breaks" were introduced, these breaks are usually segments of multiple commercials with a total duration of 1 to 3 minutes and are placed in-between programmes, to allow programmes themselves to run uninterrupted. At the time, advertising on Sundays still wasn't yet allowed, mainly in part due to the heavy influence of the churches. In 1991, advertising on Sundays slowly began to take place. With the plan to abolish the licence fee in 2000 due to the excessive collection costs and to pay for public television from government funds,

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

was increased in the late 1990s and maximum run time of commercial breaks was extended to 5 and 7 minutes. The

Netherlands Public Broadcasting (; abbreviated to NPO ; literally "Dutch Public Broadcaster") or Dutch Foundation for Public Broadcasting () is a Dutch public broadcasting organisation that administers public broadcasting services in the Netherlands. The NPO is also the owner ...

is now funded by government subsidy and advertising. The amount of time used by commercial breaks may not exceed 15% of the daily available broadcasting time and 10% of the total yearly available time.

New Zealand

Licence fees were first used in New Zealand to fund the radio services of what was to become the

New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) was a publicly owned company of the New Zealand Government founded in 1962. The Broadcasting Act 1976 then reformed NZBC as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ). The corporation was ...

. Television was introduced in 1960 and with it the television licence fee, later known as the public broadcasting fee. This was capped at

NZ$ The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; sign: $, NZ$; code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New ...

100 a year in the 1970s, and the country's two television channels, while still publicly owned, became increasingly reliant on advertising. From 1989, it was collected and disbursed by the Broadcasting Commission (

NZ On Air NZ On Air (NZOA; mi, Irirangi te Motu), formally the Broadcasting Commission, is an autonomous Crown entity and commission of the New Zealand Government responsible for funding support for broadcasting and creative works. The commission oper ...

) on a contestable basis to support local content production. The public broadcasting fee was abolished in July 1999. NZ On Air was then funded by a direct appropriation from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

North Macedonia

As of 19 January 2017, the licence fee was abolished. The licence fee in the

Republic of North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

was around €26 per year. Until 2005 it was collected monthly as part of the electricity bill. The Law on Broadcasting Activity, which was adopted in November 2005, reads that the Public Broadcasting Service – Macedonian Radio and Television (MRT) shall collect the broadcast fee. The funds collected from the broadcasting fee are allocated in the following manner: * 72% for MRT for covering costs for creating and broadcasting programmes; * 4.5% for MRT for technical and technological development; * 16% for MRD (Makedonska Radiodifuzija – Public operator of the transmission networks of the Public Broadcasting Service) for maintenance and use of the public broadcasting network; * 3.5% for MRD for public broadcasting network development and * 4% for the Broadcasting Council for regulating and development of the broadcasting activity in the Republic of North Macedonia. The MRT shall keep 0.5% of the collected funds from the broadcasting fee as a commission fee. However, MRT still has not found an effective mechanism for collection of the broadcast tax, so it has suffered severe underfunding in recent years. The Macedonian Government decided to update the Law on Broadcasting authorizing the Public Revenue Office to be in charge of the collection of the broadcast fee. In addition to broadcast fee funding,

Macedonian Radio-Television Macedonian Radio Television (MRT; mk, Македонска радио-телевизија (МРТ), Makedonska radio-televizija (MRT)), officially National Radio-Television ( mk, Национална Радиотелевизија, Nacionalna ...

(MRT) also takes advertising and sponsorship. The broadcasting fee is paid by hotels and motels are charged one broadcasting fee for every five rooms, legal persons and office space owners are obliged to pay one broadcasting fee to every 20 employees or other persons that use the office space, owners of catering and other public facilities possessing a radio receiver or TV set must pay one broadcasting fee for each receiver/set. The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, upon a proposal of the Broadcasting Council, shall determine which broadcasting fee payers in populated areas that are not covered by the broadcasting signal shall be exempt from payment of the broadcasting fee. The households with a blind person whose vision is impaired over 90% or families with a person whose hearing is impaired with an intensity of over 60 decibels, as determined in compliance with the regulations on disability insurance, were exempt from the duty to pay the broadcasting fee for the household where the family of the person lives. As of 19 January 2017, the licence fee was abolished, citizens are exempt from paying this fee. Macedonian Radio and television, Macedonian Broadcasting and the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services will be financed directly from the Budget of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Norway

The licence fee in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

was abolished in January 2020. Before that, there was a mandatory fee for every household with a TV. The fee was 3000 kr (c. €305) per annum in 2019. The fee was mandatory for any owner of a TV set, and was the primary source of income for

Norsk Rikskringkasting NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

(NRK). The licence fee was charged on a per household basis; therefore, addresses with more than one television receiver generally only required a single licence. An exception was made if the household includes persons living at home who no longer was provided for by the parents, e.g. students living at home. If people not in parental care own a separate television they had to pay the normal fee. Since 2020, funding for NRK now comes through taxation from each individual liable for income taxes in Norway.

Romania

The licence fee in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

was abolished in 2017. In the past, the licence fee in

for a household was 48

RON Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald. Ron or RON may also refer to: Arts and media * Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character * Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character *Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...

(€10.857) per year. Small businesses paid about €45 and large businesses about €150. The licence fee was collected as part of the electricity bill. The licence fee makes up part of

Televiziunea Română Televiziunea Română (), more commonly referred to as TVR , is the short name for Societatea Română de Televiziune ("Romanian Television Society"; SRTV), the Romanian public television. It operates six channels: TVR1, TVR2, TVR3, TVR Info, T ...

's funding, with the rest coming from advertising and government grants. However, some people allege that it is paid twice (both to the electricity bill and the cable or satellite operator indirectly, although cable and satellite providers are claiming they are not). In Romania, people must prove that they don't own a TV receiver in order not to pay the licence fee, but if they own a computer, they will have to pay, as they can watch TVR content online. Some people have criticized this, because, in recent years, TVR lost a lot of their supervisors, and also because with the analogue switch-off on 17 June 2015, it is still not widely available on digital terrestrial, and it is encrypted on satellite TV (a decryption card and a satellite receiver with card reader must be bought). Also, TVR will shift to DVB-T2, and with many sets only being sold with DVB-T, TVR will become unavailable to some users without a digital terrestrial receiver. The fee couldn't be avoided, however, as it was to be part of the electricity bill. In 2016, the Parliament of Romania decided to abolish the fee on 1 January 2017. Since then, TVR's funding mainly comes from government grants and advertising.

Singapore

Residents of Singapore with TVs in their households or TVs and radios in their vehicles were required to acquire the appropriate licences from 1963 to 2010. The cost of the TV licence for a household in Singapore was S$110. Additional licences were required for radios and TVs in vehicles (S$27 and S$110 respectively). The licence fee for television and radio was removed with immediate effect from 1 January 2011. This was announced during Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's budget statement on 18 February 2011. Mr Shanmugaratnam chose to abolish the fees as they were "losing their relevance".

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, until 1961, all radio and TV receivers were required to be registered in local telecommunication offices and subscription fee were to be paid monthly. Compulsory registration and subscription fees were abolished on 18 August 1961, and prices on radio and TV receivers were raised to compensate the lost fees. The fee was not re-introduced in the Russian Federation when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Sweden

On 1 January 2019, the television licence ( sv, TV-avgift, literally ''TV fee'') in Sweden was scrapped and replaced by a "general public service fee" ( sv, allmän public service-avgift), which is a flat income-based public broadcasting tax of 1% per person, capped at (approximately or ) per year. The administration of the fee is done by the Swedish Tax Agency ( sv, Skatteverket), on behalf of the country's three public broadcasters

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...

and

Sveriges Utbildningsradio Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company ( sv, Sveriges Utbildningsradio or ''Utbildningsradion'', UR) is a public-service corporation dedicated to serving the needs of the Swedish general public by providing educational programming on radio and ...

. The fee pays for 5 TV channels, 45 radio channels, and TV and radio on the internet. Previously the television licence was a household-based flat fee; it was last charged in 2018 at per annum. It was payable in monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or annual instalments, to the agency

Radiotjänst i Kiruna Radiotjänst i Kiruna AB (literally, ''"Radio Service in Kiruna"'') was Sweden's TV licensing body. It was a private corporation, formed in 1988 and based in Kiruna, and upon its formation took over the administration and handling of TV licenc ...

, which is jointly owned by SVT, SR and UR. The fee was collected by every household or company containing a TV set, and possession of such a device had to be reported to Radiotjänst as required by law. One fee was collected per household regardless of the number of TV sets either in the home or at alternate locations owned by the household, such as summer houses. Although the fee also paid for radio broadcasting, there is no specific fee for radios, the individual radio licence having been scrapped in 1978. Television licence evasion suspected to be around 11 to 15%. Originally it was referred as the "television licence" ( sv, TV-licens), however it was replaced in the 2000s by term "television fee".

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Between 1959 and the 1970s, all radio and TV receivers in Taiwan were required to have a licence with an annual fee of

NT$ The New Taiwan dollar (code: TWD; symbol: NT$, also abbreviated as NT) is the official currency of Taiwan. The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar, at a rate of 40,000 old dollars ...

60. The practice was to prevent influence from mainland China (the People's Republic of China) by tuning in to its channels.

Countries that have never had a television or broadcasting licence

Andorra

Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra, S.A. (RTVA) (; "Radio and Television of Andorra PLC") is the public television and radio broadcaster in the Principality of Andorra. It operates a television channel, ATV, and two radio stations, RNA and AM, all of ...

, the public broadcaster, is funded by both advertising and government grants, there is no fee.

Brazil

In Brazil, there is no fee or TV licence. The

Padre Anchieta Foundation __NOTOC__ Padre means father in many Romance languages, and it may also refer to: Music * "Padre" (song) People * A military chaplain * A Latin Catholic priest * A member of the San Diego Padres baseball team Places * Padre Island, a barrier i ...

, which manages

TV Cultura TV Cultura or simply Cultura, is a free Brazilian public television network headquartered in São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the mos ...

and the Cultura FM and Cultura Brasil radio stations, is financed through lendings from the State Government of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

and advertisements and cultural fundraising from the private sector. In December 1997, was created the "Education and Culture Tax", a state tax in São Paulo that financed the programming of TV Cultura and Rádio Cultura stations maintained by Padre Anchieta Foundation. The fee was charged monthly through electricity bills and varied according to the consumers' energy consumption. However, the collection of the fee was declared unconstitutional by the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo. The public resources dedicated to TV Cultura (that is, the gross budget of the Foundation) was R$74.7 million in 2006, but of those R$36.2 million were donated from private industry partners and sponsors. The federal company

Empresa Brasil de Comunicação The ''Empresa Brasil de Comunicação'' (EBC; Brazil Communication Company) is a Brazilian public company, created in 2007 to manage the federal government's broadcast network, TV Brasil. The network is responsible for the content and managemen ...

, which manages

TV Brasil TV Brasil is a Brazilian public television network owned by Empresa Brasil de Comunicação. Its main headquarters are in Brasília, DF and Rio de Janeiro, RJ, with owned-and-operated stations in São Paulo, SP and in São Luís, MA, as we ...

and public radio stations (Rádio MEC and Rádio Nacional), is financed from the Federal Budget, besides profit from licensing and production of programs, institutional advertisement, and service rendering to public and private institutions.

China

China has never had a television licence fee to pay for the state broadcaster. The current state broadcaster,

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

(CCTV), established in 1958, is funded almost entirely through the sale of commercial advertising time, although this is supplemented by government funding and a tax of ¥2 per month from all cable television subscribers in the country.

Estonia

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

there are three public TV channels:

Eesti Televisioon Eesti Televisioon (ETV) ( en, Estonian Television) is an Estonian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Estonian Public Broadcasting. It made its first broadcast on 19 July 1955. History Eesti Televisioon (''Estonian Televis ...

ETV, ETV2, and ETV+ (ETV+ was launched on 27 September 2015 and mostly targets people who speak Russian). The funding comes from government

grant-in-aid A grant-in-aid is money coming from a central government for a specific project. Such funding is usually used when the government and the legislature decide that the recipient should be publicly funded but operate with reasonable independence ...

. Around 15% of which was until 2008 funded by the fees paid by Estonian commercial broadcasters in return for their exclusive right to screen

television advertising A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

. Showing commercials in public broadcasting television was stopped in 2002 (after a previous unsuccessful attempt in 1998–1999). One argument was that its low-cost advertising rates were damaging the ability of commercial broadcasters to operate. The introduction of a licence fee system was considered but ultimately rejected in the face of public opposition. ETV is currently one of only a few public television broadcasters in the European Union which has neither advertising nor a licence fee and is solely funded by national government grants. At the moment, only

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española, S.A. (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española or RTVE, is the state-owned public corporation that assumed in 2007 the indirect management of the Spanish public radio and television service know ...

of Spain has a similar model, and from 2013 onwards, Finnish broadcaster

Yle Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...

also followed suit with a similar model. Latvian broadcaster

Latvijas Televīzija Latvijas Televīzija (''Latvian Television'', LTV) is the state-owned public service television broadcaster in Latvia. LTV operates two channels, LTV1 in Latvian and LTV7 (previously called LTV2) in Latvian with selected programming in Russia ...

adopted the same model since 1 January 2021, through funding from the national budget, after previously using a combination of grant-in-aid from the government and advertising.

Iran

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

has never levied television licence fees. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution,

National Iranian Radio and Television National Iranian Radio and Television, or NIRT for short, ( fa, رادیو تلویزیون ملی ایران, ''Radio-ye Telâvisiun-e Mili-ye 'Iran'') was the first Iranian state broadcaster, which was established on June 19, 1971, following the ...

was renamed

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB; fa, صدا و سيمای جمهوری اسلامی ايران, ''Sedā va Sīmā-ye Jomhūri-ye Eslāmi-ye Īrān'', , formerly called National Iranian Radio and Television until the Iranian rev ...

, and it became the state broadcaster. In Iran, private broadcasting is illegal.

Latvia

The

Public Broadcasting of Latvia Public Broadcasting of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas sabiedriskais medijs, lit=Latvian Public Media – LSM) is a publicly funded radio and television organization operated by both of Latvia's public broadcasters – Latvian Television and Radio Latvi ...

is a consortium of the public radio broadcaster

Latvijas Radio Latvijas Radio (shortened LR; literally "Latvia's Radio") is Latvia's national public-service radio broadcasting network. It began broadcasting on 1 November 1925, and has its headquarters in the Latvian capital, Riga. Latvijas Radio broadcasts ...

and the public TV broadcaster

, which operates the LTV1 and LTV7 channels. After years of debate, the public broadcasters ceased airing commercial advertising from January 1, 2021, and became fully government-funded by the national budget. The introduction of a television licence has been previously debated, but this was opposed by the government.

Luxembourg

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

has never had a television licence requirement; this is because, until 1993, the country has never had its own national public broadcaster. The country's first and main broadcaster,

RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg is the main television channel in Luxembourg, broadcasting in Luxembourgish. It is part of RTL Group. History The small television market in Luxembourg led to a unique system in Europe: Luxembourg was the only country in t ...

, is a commercial network financed by advertising, and the only other national broadcaster is the public radio station

Radio 100,7 radio 100,7 is a public service radio station in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Broadcasting in the Luxembourgish language, the station's principal focus is on culture and information, although entertainment – in the form of a relatively wi ...

, a small radio station funded by the country's Ministry of Culture and sponsorships. The majority of television channels based in Luxembourg are owned by the

RTL Group RTL Group (for "Radio Television Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate centre in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 68 television channels and 31 radio stations in Germany, France and ...

and include both channels serving Luxembourg itself, as well as channels serving nearby countries such as Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, but nominally operating out of and available in Luxembourg.

Monaco

Monaco has never had any kind of listener or viewer broadcasting licence fee. Since the establishment of both

Radio Monte-Carlo Radio Monte Carlo (RMC) is the name of radio stations owned and managed by several different entities: * RMC (France) is a French-speaking station, broadcasting in France and Monaco owned by NextRadioTV. **RMC Sport, a French bouquet of paid TV ...

in 1943 and Télévision Monte-Carlo in 1954, there has never been a charge to pay for receiving the stations as both were entirely funded on a commercial basis.

Nigeria

Television licences are not used in Nigeria, except in the sense of ''broadcasting licences'' granted to private networks. The federal government's television station, NTA (

Nigerian Television Authority The Nigerian Television Authority or NTA is a Nigerian government-owned and partly commercial broadcast station. Originally known as Nigerian Television (NTV), it was inaugurated in 1977 with a monopoly on national television broadcasting, after ...

), has two broadcast networks – NTA 1 and NTA 2. NTA 1 is partly funded by the central government and partly by advertising revenue, while NTA 2 is wholly funded by advertisements. Almost all of the thirty-six states have their own television stations funded wholly or substantially by their respective governments.

Spain

, the public broadcaster, had been funded by government grants and advertising incomes since it launched its radio services in 1937 and television services in 1956. Although the state-owned national radio stations removed all its advertising in 1986, its public nationwide TV channels continued broadcasting commercial breaks until 2009. Since 2010, the public broadcaster is funded by government grants and taxes paid by private nationwide TV broadcasters and telecommunications companies.

United States

In the United States, historically, privately owned commercial radio stations selling advertising quickly proved to be commercially viable enterprises during the first half of the 20th century; though a few governments owned non-commercial radio stations (such as

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...

, owned by New York City from 1922 to 1997), most were owned by charitable organizations and supported by donations. The pattern repeated itself with television in the second half of that century, except that some governments, mostly states, also established

educational television Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable telev ...

stations alongside the privately-owned stations. The United States created the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

(CPB) in 1967, which eventually led to the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

(PBS) and

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

(NPR); however, those are loose networks of

non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was or ...

(NCE) stations owned by state and local governments,

educational institutions An educational institution is a place where people of different ages gain an education, including preschools, childcare, primary-elementary schools, secondary-high schools, and universities. They provide a large variety of learning environments an ...

, or non-profit organizations, more like U.S. commercial networks (though there are some differences) than European public broadcasters. The CPB and virtually all government-owned stations are funded through general taxes, and donations from individual persons (usually in the form of "memberships") and charitable organizations. Individual programs on public broadcasters may also be supported by

underwriting spot An underwriting spot, known as sponsor credit ( ja, 提供クレジット, Teikyō kurejitto) in Japan, is an announcement made on public broadcasting outlets, especially in the United States, in exchange for funding. These spots usually men ...

s paid for by sponsors; typically, these spots are presented at the beginning and conclusion of the program. Because between 53 and 60 percent of public television's revenues come from private membership donations and

grants Grant or Grants may refer to: Places * Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama *Grant, Inyo County, ...

, most stations solicit individual donations by methods including

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

pledge drive A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise that a contributor makes to send in funding at regular interval ...

s or

telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...

s which can disrupt regularly scheduled programming. Normal programming can be replaced with specials aimed at a wider audience to solicit new members and donations. The annual funding for

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

in the United States was US$445.5 million in 2014 (including interest revenue). In some rural portions of the United States,

broadcast translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

districts exist, which are funded by an

ad valorem An ''ad valorem'' tax (Latin for "according to value") is a tax whose amount is based on the value of a transaction or of property. It is typically imposed at the time of a transaction, as in the case of a sales tax or value-added tax (VAT). An ...

property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inheri ...

on all property within the district, or a parcel tax on each dwelling unit within the district. Failure to pay the TV translator tax has the same repercussions as failing to pay any other property tax, including a

lien A lien ( or ) is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation. The owner of the property, who grants the lien, is referred to as the ''lienee'' and the pers ...

placed on the property and eventual seizure. In addition, fines can be levied on viewers who watch TV from the signals from the translator without paying the fee. As the Federal Communications Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over broadcast stations, whether a local authority can legally impose a fee merely to watch an over-the-air broadcast station is questionable. Depending on the jurisdiction, the tax may be charged regardless of whether the resident watches TV from the translator or instead watches it via cable TV or

, or the property owner may certify that they do not use the translator district's services and get a waiver. Another substitute for TV licences comes through

cable television franchise fee In the United States cable television industry, a cable television franchise fee is an annual fee charged by a local government to a private cable television company as compensation for using public property it owns as right-of-way for its cable ...

agreements. The itemized fee on customers' bills is included or added to the cable TV operator's gross income to fund

public, educational, and government access Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was crea ...

(PEG) television for the municipality that granted the franchise agreement. State governments also may add their own taxes. These taxes generate controversy since these taxes sometimes go into the general fund of governmental entities or there is double taxation (e.g., tax funds

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

, but the cable TV operator must pay for the equipment or facilities out of its own pocket anyway, or the cable TV operator must pay for earmark projects of the local municipality that are not related to television).

Uruguay

Uruguay does not have a fee or TV license. Canal 5 and RNU, the two public broadcasters in the country, are funded by government grants.

Vietnam

Vietnam has never had a television licence fee. Advertising was introduced in the early 1990s as a way to generate revenue for television stations. The current state broadcaster,

Vietnam Television Vietnam Television ( vi, Đài Truyền hình Việt Nam), or VTV, is the national television broadcaster of Vietnam. As the state broadcaster under the direction of the government of Vietnam, VTV is tasked with "propagating the views of the ...

, receives the majority of its funds through advertising and partly from government subsidies. Local television stations in Vietnam are also operated in a similar way.

Detection of evasion of television licences

In many jurisdictions, television licences are enforced. Besides claims of sophisticated technological methods for the detection of operating televisions, detection of illegal television sets can be as simple as the observation of the lights and sounds of an illegally used television in a user's home at night.

United Kingdom

Detection is a fairly simple matter because nearly all homes are licensed, so only those homes that do not have a licence need to be checked. The BBC claims that "television detector vans" are employed by TV Licensing in the UK, although these claims are unverified by any independent source. An effort to compel the BBC to release key information about the television detection vans (and possible handheld equivalents) based on the

Freedom of Information Act 2000 The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation ...

was rejected. The BBC has stated on record "... detection equipment is complex to deploy as its use is strictly governed by the

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 ( c.23) (RIP or RIPA) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of comm ...

(RIPA) and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (British Broadcasting Corporation) Order 2001. RIPA and the Order outline how the relevant investigatory powers are to be used by the BBC and ensure compliance with human rights." The BBC has also resisted

requests seeking data on the estimated evasion rate for each of the nations of the UK.

Opinions of television licensing systems

Advocates argue that one of the main advantages of television fully funded by a licence fee is that programming can be enjoyed without interruptions for advertisements. Television funded by advertising is not truly free of cost to the viewer, since the advertising is used mostly to sell mass-market items, and the cost of mass-market goods includes the cost of TV advertising, such that viewers effectively pay for TV when they purchase those products. Viewers also pay in time lost watching advertising. Europeans tend to watch TV one hour less per day than North Americans. but in practice may be enjoying the same amount of television but gaining extra leisure time by not watching advertisements. Even the channels in Europe that do carry advertising carry about 25% less advertising per hour than their North American counterparts. Critics of receiver licensing point out that a licence is a regressive form of taxation, because poor people pay more for the service in relation to income. In contrast, the advertisement model implies that costs are covered in proportion to the consumption of mass-market goods, particularly luxury goods, so the poorer the viewer, the greater the subsidy. The experience with broadcast deregulation in Europe suggests that demand for commercial-free content is not as high as once thought. The third option, voluntary funding of public television via subscriptions, requires a subscription level higher than the licence fee (because not all people that currently pay the licence would voluntarily pay a subscription) if quality and/or output volume are not to decline. These higher fees would deter even more people from subscribing, leading to further hikes in subscription levels. In time, if public subscription television were subject to encryption to deny access to non-subscribers, the poorest in society would be denied access to the well-funded programmes that public broadcasters produce today in exchange for the relatively lower cost of the licence. In 2004, the UK government's

, as part of its BBC Charter review, asked the public what it thought of various funding alternatives. Fifty-nine per cent of respondents agreed with the statement "Advertising would interfere with my enjoyment of programmes", while 31 per cent disagreed; 71 per cent agreed with the statement "subscription funding would be unfair to those that could not pay", while 16 per cent disagreed. An independent study showed that more than two-thirds of people polled thought that, due to TV subscriptions such as satellite television, the licence fee should be dropped. Regardless of this however the Department concluded that the licence fee was "the least worse option". Another problem, governments use tax money pay for content and content should become public domain but governments give public companies like the British Broadcasting Corporation content monopoly against the public (companies copyright content, people can't resale, remix, or reuse content from their tax money). In 2005, the British government described the licence fee system as "the best (and most widely supported) funding model, even though it is not perfect". That is, they believe that the disadvantages of having a licence fee are less than the disadvantages of all other methods. In fact, the disadvantages of other methods have led to some countries, especially those in the former

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

, to consider the introduction of a TV licence. Both

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

have attempted to legislate to introduce a television licence. In Bulgaria, a fee is specified in the broadcasting law, but it has never been implemented in practice.

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

and

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

have also long debated the introduction of a licence fee but so far made little progress on legislating for one. In the case of Latvia, some analysts believe this is partly because the government is unwilling to relinquish the control of

that funding from general taxation gives it. The Czech Republic(May 2006
Česká Televize 2006
, Czech Television External Relations. has increased the proportion of funding that the public broadcaster gets from licence fees, justifying the move with the argument that the existing public service broadcasters cannot compete with commercial broadcasters for advertising revenues.

Internet-based broadcast access

The development of the global Internet has created the ability for television and radio programming to be easily accessed outside of its country of origin, with little technological investment needed to implement the capability. Before the development of the Internet, this would have required specially-acquired

relaying and/or local terrestrial rebroadcasting of the international content, at considerable cost to the international viewer. This access can now instead be readily facilitated using

off-the-shelf Off-the-shelf may refer to: * Commercial off-the-shelf, a phrase in computing and industrial supply terminology * Government off-the-shelf * Ready-to-wear * Shelf corporation, a type of company * Off the Shelf Festival, a festival of writing and r ...

video encoding and streaming equipment, using broadband services within the country of origin. In some cases, no additional technology is needed for international program access via the Internet, if the national broadcaster already has a broadband streaming service established for citizens of their own country. However, countries with TV licensing systems often do not have a way to accommodate international access via the Internet, and instead work to actively block and prevent access because their national licensing rules have not evolved fast enough to adapt to the ever-expanding potential global audience for their material. For example, it is not possible for a resident of the United States to pay for a British TV Licence to watch all of the BBC's programming, streamed live over the Internet in its original format.

References

External links

TV licensing authorities

Broadcasting Fee Association
– international organisation for television licence fee collecting organisations

* ttp://www.billag.ch Billag (Switzerland)
Serafe (Switzerland)

Licenskontoret (Denmark)

PEMRA (Pakistan)

Beitragsservice (Germany)

ORF-GIS (Austria)

Radiotjänst (Sweden)

TV Licences (South Africa)

TV Licensing (United Kingdom)

TV-maksuhallinto (Finland)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Television Licence Licenses Television terminology Broadcast law Tax

History

Television licences in Europe

Albania

Austria

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Croatia

Czech Republic

Denmark

Germany

Greece

Ireland

Italy

Montenegro

Poland

Portugal

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Switzerland

Turkey

United Kingdom

Television licences in Africa

Ghana

Mauritius

Namibia

South Africa

Television licences in Asia

Japan

Pakistan

South Korea

Countries where the TV licence has been abolished

Australia

Belgium

Flemish region and Brussels

Walloon region

Bulgaria

Canada

Cyprus

Finland

France

Gibraltar

Hungary

Hong Kong

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Israel

Liechtenstein

Malaysia

Malta

Netherlands

New Zealand

North Macedonia

Norway

Romania

Singapore

Soviet Union

Sweden

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Countries that have never had a television or broadcasting licence

Andorra

Brazil

China

Estonia

Iran

Latvia

Luxembourg

Monaco

Nigeria

Spain

United States

Uruguay

Vietnam

Detection of evasion of television licences

United Kingdom

Opinions of television licensing systems

Internet-based broadcast access

See also

References

External links