
Ireland on the verge of extending TV licence to cover Internet - nickb
http://www.samknows.com/broadband/news/ireland-extending-tv-licence-to-cover-internet-593.html
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anigbrowl
WTF. If they're not supplying the broadband (which they're not) then they
don't get to collect for it. This is so irritating - it's this sort of thing
which casued me to leave the country. The Irish government figures that since
it's an island, they can just use the geography to squeeze people for
anything, especially when times are tough.

Be interesting to see how this would stack up against the recent EU decision
to make internet access a legal right (not free as in beer). I'm guessing EU
law would trump this transparent attempt at a shakedown.

~~~
wheels
Like it or not, I think this will be common in countries that have publicly
funded programming. Germany (where I live) has had this for a while.

~~~
anigbrowl
A TV license, or the need to buy one for having your computer connected to the
internet? Being Irish, I have a particular problem with the way it's
implemented at home because the license fee is onerous but you have to put up
with ads as well, so you get the worst of both worlds. I'm in favor of public
broadcasting but I feel it should offer value for money.

I lived without television for quite a long time, and would be quite happy to
do so again, since the main benefit of a large screen to me is the ability to
watch movies (on DVD). So I am rather hostile to the idea of having someone
come to the house and insist on looking around to see whether I have a
television or the not. Collecting a license even if I don't own a TV is just
insufferable.

~~~
wheels
The German version:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebühreneinzugszentrale#Charges...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebühreneinzugszentrale#Charges_for_using_the_Internet)

I don't like it because I don't watch any TV programming, but it makes perfect
sense to me. People that were watching things on TV are now watching them
online. Many young people don't have televisions. So either public programming
goes or it gets collected based on internet usage.

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kailoa
In Tokyo, they hire an army of people to canvas houses and apartments and
collect a modest fee (about 10-20 dollars) per household to support public TV.
The general population just pays, but many expats make up some excuse or feign
ignorance until they go away.

If Ireland really needs the TV license revenue, they will have to start
charging per head, rather than per device. Per device sales, just mean that
companies will stop selling neat things in your country and the black/grey
market will thrive, at the expense of consumers.

~~~
mooism2
Irish TV licenses are charged per address, at least for domestic TVs:
[http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-
affair...](http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-
affairs/media/tv_licences)

Certainly that's how it's done in the UK: one TV licence covers up to 7 (I
think) TVs at one domestic address.

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m0nty
"Last month the BBC Internet Blog said that if, in the future, 'some people
stopped receiving live broadcasts at all, stopped paying their licence fee,
but continued to consume television programmes, solely on-demand' then they
would consider having the Government extend its TV licence fee to cover
Internet access too."

This is basically what's behind the iPlayer, IMO. It's not wildly useful for
TV (I use it for radio mostly) because the quality and speed are often flaky.
But it does give the BBC the opportunity to say "people are receiving our
shows without paying the licence fee, and that's not fair, etc". It just won't
wash to say "people are using YouTube and we're not getting a cut" or "more
people are using online video rental in preference to our output and refusing
to get a licence" so this gives them the "in" they require.

I wouldn't mind if the BBC's output wasn't so poor. They have nothing of the
quality of The Wire, The Sopranos, BSG, etc. Cheesy soap operas and reality
shows seem to be the kind of "high quality original output" the BBC aspires
to. I'd almost prefer to do without broadband than pay them for that crap.

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sharpn
The contentious point will come if/when people start being charged for TV
content for using a device that _can_ receive streamed TV - eg businesses
being charged a licence fee for each pc/blackberry/ipod. I'll be interested to
see how this goes.

~~~
randomtask
Mobile phones are thankfully not included.

[http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/mobiles-exempt-
from...](http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/mobiles-exempt-from-tv-
licence-58838.html)

~~~
sharpn
That makes sense - thanks for the clarification. Assuming there is a similar
exclusion for business pcs then it might not be too bad. I suspect the end
result will focus on residential homes with a TV or internet access.

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babyboy808
As a person from Ireland, I feel sick at how much we're being taken for every
single day. This is just another scam that we will accept and pay for if
approved. UK here I come

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dfranke
You have no idea how good you have it. I spent a week on vacation in Ireland
last year and spent some time studying your politics and listening to your
talk radio. The political astuteness of your median Irishman is lightyears
beyond the norm here in the States. The things that still pass as an outrage
in Ireland wouldn't even be worth a mention here or in most of the world.

~~~
TheSOB88
Hey man, got any examples? This seems to me a pretty interesting topic.

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uninverted
What the hell? Is the RTE part of the government? If so, why don't they just
be honest and raise taxes?

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handelaar
a) Duplicate post and b) Completely incorrect anyway

I hoped we'd put this one to rest last time -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=598513>

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abrahamsen
Denmark did that recently. It is really just a poll tax.

