Just a sidenote.
The fact that it's a fee instead of tax means that the government cannot change how much money SVT should receive.
This means that journalists are not controlled by neither politicians or companies.
This means that we have real journalism and free media.
And I find that awesome =)
Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
51–60 of 75 posts
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#52You are forced to fund a propaganda box. Dear god. And some people consider this a norm(and even a good thing). Of course entity that is dependent on public funding will protect its image, will fight for its long lasting survivability and lobby to enforce its funding by law. ze irony.
On the other hand: TV programs break off every 15 minutes (or more) for various corporations to assault your eyes and ears with messages crafted to make you want to buy their rubbish. And many people consider this a norm.
Of course, an entity that is dependent on these commercial interests won't want to upset them too much, in case they take their advertising elsewhere.
Brit here: having a publicly funded broadcaster (that's required to act impartially) in addition to commercial media is very much a good thing.
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's already law in the UK for live channels. If you have no TV but only watch BBC1 live through iPlayer, you must have a TV license. However, you don't need a TV license to watch time delayed programs (so anything from the iPlayer archive), so perhaps this is an area where the law will change, although it never has for TV.
The question is if you watch BBC1 streaming but 5 min behind, and hence watching a recording, are you required to have a TV license? We had a debate about this at work while the Olympics were on. Interestingly you can watch live tv at work on a laptop that is not plugged in and on wifi if they don't have a tv license but you do at home. You break the law the minute you plug the laptop in.
I didn't think so but the BBC iPlayer's page about requiring a TV license claims so.
If you are using the live rewind function to either restart the current live programme or to rewind any live stream for up to 2 hours, a television license is required as you are still accessing the live simulcasts.
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/...
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#54You must pay for the right to receive electromagnetic waves which are passing through your body 24/7, whether you like it or not. Seems legit.
Swede here. The money goes towards radio and television that is free from political influence, and also free from ads. It is like a tax for something most people benefit greatly from. It has nothing to do with the medium it is broadcasted through.
> The money goes towards radio and television that is free from political influence [...]
The public TV stations depend more on politicians than any commercial media company, because it's the politicians that write the laws that dictate how much money they get, or if they should even receive any money in the first place.
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#55It's not a tax. It's a fee, required to pay by law to fund independent channels of opinion free from government and/or private funded influence. 200 eur a year is quite cheap for what you get. http://www.radiotjanst.se/en/Radio-and-TV-fee/
>It's not a tax. It's a fee, required to pay by law to fund independent channels of opinion free from government and/or private funded influence. Distinction without a difference. Would I be wrong if I tried to argue that an income tax is not a tax, but rather, a fee required by law to fund public schools, bureaucrats, and roads?
A fee is appropriated, a tax is not. Your government can do what it wants with taxes (e.g. fund wars instead of building roads) but it cannot decide that the radio/television fee will be used for road building (without changing the law).
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's already law in the UK for live channels. If you have no TV but only watch BBC1 live through iPlayer, you must have a TV license. However, you don't need a TV license to watch time delayed programs (so anything from the iPlayer archive), so perhaps this is an area where the law will change, although it never has for TV.
The question is if you watch BBC1 streaming but 5 min behind, and hence watching a recording, are you required to have a TV license? We had a debate about this at work while the Olympics were on. Interestingly you can watch live tv at work on a laptop that is not plugged in and on wifi if they don't have a tv license but you do at home. You break the law the minute you plug the laptop in.
The usual wording is that it applies to devices that display or record something as it is being broadcast. So if you're delaying the stream yourself, that's recording a live broadcast. And a third party delaying and rebroadcasting the stream would be copyright infringement.
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#57It's not a tax. It's a fee, required to pay by law to fund independent channels of opinion free from government and/or private funded influence. 200 eur a year is quite cheap for what you get. http://www.radiotjanst.se/en/Radio-and-TV-fee/
In Denmark the price is around €320. So that's around €25 per month for a service I don't use.
How can you say that public broadcasting is "free from government", when this is the very entity that chooses whether to uphold the laws that provide funding for these stations? For public broadcasting, offending the government is quite literally biting the hands that feeds you.
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point is that you in theory (!!!) get media this way that do not depend on advertisement and are thus more independent from industry influence. This in turn leads to you being able to profit from this even if you do not watch the programs and/or listen to the radio, simply because this injects a different kind of media into the media landscape which in turn other media interact with (newspapers, websites, blogs e…
In theory yes. What you get in reality is a left-wing group of journalists concentrated in a very small well-off area in Stockholm that does not in any way represent the population at large. Keep in mind that the employees of SVT are even more leftist than the average journalist. Which is fine, as long as I don't have to pay for it. This means that I can't trust SVT to deliver "independent" news more than I can trust…
Just because they lean left does not mean they are not independent. Independence does not necessitate impartiality. The point still stands that even a left-leaning media adds value to the overall media system by balancing the overall media system. That does not mean every single media outlet has to be balanced.
Just because the given media outlet's political views do not coincide with yours does not negate its cultural function.
I certainly disagree with the BBC regarding a number of political issues, yet I am still glad it exists.
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It's not a tax. It's a fee, required to pay by law to fund independent channels of opinion free from government and/or private funded influence. Distinction without a difference. Would I be wrong if I tried to argue that an income tax is not a tax, but rather, a fee required by law to fund public schools, bureaucrats, and roads?
A fee is appropriated, a tax is not. Your government can do what it wants with taxes (e.g. fund wars instead of building roads) but it cannot decide that the radio/television fee will be used for road building (without changing the law).
Whether the term used is "tax" or a "fee", it won't make a difference to the pocket that just got picked. If the difference between those terms comes down to the whim of government and its laws, then it remains out of your hands anyway.
Re: Sweden To Charge TV Tax For Anyone With A Computer or Tablet
#60You are forced to fund a propaganda box. Dear god. And some people consider this a norm(and even a good thing). Of course entity that is dependent on public funding will protect its image, will fight for its long lasting survivability and lobby to enforce its funding by law. ze irony.
On the other hand: TV programs break off every 15 minutes (or more) for various corporations to assault your eyes and ears with messages crafted to make you want to buy their rubbish. And many people consider this a norm. Of course, an entity that is dependent on these commercial interests won't want to upset them too much, in case they take their advertising elsewhere. Brit here: having a publicly funded broadcaster…
All of that advertising still boils down to choice. I can refuse to purchase the goods that they're constantly peddling. The system is voluntary. Meanwhile, I cannot refuse the taxes/fees that the government decides to levy. In my own country (Canada), I am taxed for CBC whether I wish to watch/listen or not.