Germany's New Internet License Fee

PapayaSF writes "Beginning January 1st, Germany will require payment of a license fee of 5.52 euros a month on computers and mobile phones that can access TV and radio programs over the Internet. Like the current TV and radio license fees, the money will support national and local public TV and radio stations. German companies with many computers are predictably upset." I'm not sure if this is the same story we discussed in 2004. Did this original fee go through, and this is another fee on top of the original?

Comments

"Net Neutrality" bill

[macadamia_harold]

Beginning January 1st, Germany will require payment of a license fee of 5.52 euros a month on computers and mobile phones that can access TV and radio programs over the Internet. They're working on something like that in America. Except instead of the fee going to the government, you pay it to Verizon corporation.

quick impact analysis

[Tom]

The fee is, in fact, not only the same as the one of 2004, it is also the same as the standard radio fee.

Which means that anyone who already owns a radio won't pay anything in addition.

The fee affects two groups of people:

a) Those who have neither radio nor television, but a PC or mobile.
b) companies, which usually fall into group a) if you want to be nitpicking.

Since I fall in group a) I will be engaging in civil disobedience next year. Many others will, too. It'll be interesting to see how that goes, because despite their advertisement, the GEZ (the company that collects the fees) does not, in fact, have any powers to actually do their job. They can send you nasty letters and that's about it. They can't enter your house if you don't let them in, for example. They can't return with police to force their way in, even if they claim they can.

Re:It's the same fee..

[Sircus]

It's definitely better (the commercial broadcasters are categorically awful), while still not being very good at all. I've been living in Germany for six years now, having come from England. I don't pay GEZ fees for a number of reasons:

  - They want money, but they still show (on the radio, play) ads. One or the other. If I'm going to pay a fee, I don't want ads. It's the ads that end up dragging state TV/radio down toward the lowest common denominator that the private broadcasters serve - they're competing for the same ad money.

  - Their enforcement methods stink. Sending threat letters warning of "serious consequences", visiting people at home and pretending they have some right to come in and look for TVs (they don't), ringing people's door intercoms and pretending to be the postman/mailman so that people let them in. If you're trying to be the "civilised" state broadcaster, act like it.

  - The lack of relation between the price and the quality. For a radio and TV, the GEZ wants EUR204.36 (GBP136.91, USD257.81). A colour TV license in the UK costs GBP131.50 (EUR196.28, USD247.62. There are no additional charges for radio). For my GEZ money, I get a few poor TV channels (with ads), a few (mostly poor) radio channels (with ads) and little original programme-making of any consequence. Were I still in England, I'd be getting from the BBC (at the last count) eight TV channels, eleven national radio channels and numerous local radio channels along with programme-making of international repute. (When was the last time you saw something from the BBC on TV, wherever you are? And when did you last see something from German TV?) The GEZ wants more money than the BBC, but provides significantly less service.

  - This latest silliness. If you want money from people who use PCs to watch your service, issue each person who pays the GEZ with a subscription number, have them type it in before providing access.

As it stands, I'll keep ignoring the German state TV/Radio offerings and listening to the BBC services online and via longwave radio. If the BBC offers me an option to subscribe to receive a fuller range of their services via internet, I'll be happy to do so. (In case anyone gets the wrong impression, there are lots of things I like about Germany - their state TV and Radio just happen to be one of those that I very much dislike.)

Re:Still payable if TV/Radio streams firewalled?

[Jesus_666]

That's not possible in Germany because a fee that every citizen has to pay is a tax and only the states can raise taxes - however, the states may not raise the fees for the public broadcasters because if they would they'd be able to influence them, which is not desired. (And I think it's rather obvious why we want the public broadcasters to be as independent as possible.) Thus the public broadcasters have their own organisation, the GEZ (Gebühreneinzugszentrale; "fee collection center"), which attempts to get money for as many kinds of telecommunication as possible to finance them.
Of course by now the entire thing has devolved into a question of semantics as the GEZ can more or less get money out of everyone so the TV fee is more or less a tax.

Oh, and note that while the private broadcasters are usually financed solely through advertisement (pay-per-view and subscription channels are uncommon in Germany) that doesn't mean that the public broadcasters can't show ads in addition to being financed through the GEZ. They are restricted to not showing any ads before 20:00, though, IIRC. But still one onders how much they are independent from their sponsors anymore...

The real hoot, of course, is that while we have to pay a broadcasting fee for our internet access there is actually little broadcasting done by the public broadcasters on the 'net. The only thing that would qualify as broadcasting would be live streams; websites and MP3s are not broadcasting. Live streams, however, are rarely available and when they are they tend to perform poorly as the public broadcasters' servers and pipes can't handle many connections. Thus the internet GEZ fee is mainly for something that doesn't exist.