Television licence
In some countries, this was achieved via advertising, while others adopted a compulsory subscription model with households that owned a radio set being required to purchase a licence.
Faced with licence fee evasion, some countries chose to fund public broadcasters directly from taxation or via methods such as a co-payment with electricity billing.
[21] This makes up part of RTSH's funding: 58 per cent comes directly from the government through taxes with the remainder from commercials and the licence fee.
Under Austria's TV and Radio Licence Law (Fernseh- und Hörfunklizenzrecht), all operational broadcast reception equipment must be registered.
Germany's international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, is fully funded by the German federal government, though much of its new content is provided by the ARD.
[31] 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.
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.
[36] The licence fee makes up 50 per cent of the revenue of RTÉ, the national broadcaster with the rest coming from radio and television advertisements.
Five per cent of the licence fee goes to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland's "Sound and Vision Scheme", which provides funds for programme production and restoration of archive material.
[41] Sixty-six per cent of RAI's income comes from the licence fee (up from about half of total income seven years ago), with another twenty-five per cent from advertising,[42] which is aired pretty regularly every 20 minutes or so, with very few exceptions (football matches, special events, Eurovision Song Contest) Under the Broadcasting Law of December 2002, each household and legal entity in Montenegro able to receive radio or television programmes is required to pay a broadcasting subscription fee.
[52] Any household that receives radio or television programs from the Swiss national public broadcaster SRG SSR must be registered and pay licence fees.
[70] The Welsh language S4C is funded through a combination of a direct grant from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and advertising, and receives some programming free of charge from the BBC.
All licence fees were abolished on 18 September 1974 by the Whitlam government on the basis that the near-universality of television and radio use meant that public funding was fairer.
[85] Since then, the ABC has been funded by government grants, now totalling around A$1.13 billion per year, plus its own commercial activities (merchandising, overseas sale of programmes, etc.).
The licence fee was abolished in 1953 and replaced with a 15% excise tax on television equipment (including sets, picture tubes, and parts) to fund the CBC.
Cyprus had an indirect tax for CyBC, its state-run public broadcasting service, paid through electricity bills dependent on home size.
MRT, Macedonian Broadcasting and the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services are now financed directly from the Budget of the Republic of North Macedonia.
[18] Until 1961, all radio and television receivers in the Soviet Union were required to be registered in local telecommunication offices and a subscription fee was to be paid monthly.
[147] It was payable in monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or annual instalments,[148] to the agency Radiotjänst i Kiruna, which was jointly owned by SVT, SR and UR.
[158] The state-owned Chilean television broadcaster, Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), founded in 1969, is financed by advertising, which can air between programs.
[159] Its educational subchannel, NTV, is instead state-financed through a unique provision of funds courtesy of the Finance Ministry of Chile, and therefore cannot air advertisements, as well as have any commercial links.
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.
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 state-owned television (PTV and IBC) and radio (PBS) stations have been funded directly by the government's annual budget and by advertising.
Since 2010, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) –the corporation that absorbed the management of RNE and TVE in 2007– is funded by government grants and taxes paid by private nationwide television broadcasters and telecommunications companies.
[165] The CPB, and virtually all government-owned stations, are funded through general taxes, donations from individuals (usually in the form of "memberships"), and charitable organizations.
[172] Advocates argue that a main advantage of television fully funded by a licence fee is that programming can be enjoyed without interruptions for advertisements.
[citation needed] In 2004, the UK government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport asked the public what it thought of various funding alternatives.
An independent study showed that more than two-thirds of people polled thought that the licence fee should be dropped due to other subscription television services.
In the case of Latvia, some analysts believe this is partly because the government is unwilling to relinquish control of Latvijas Televīzija, which it gains from directly funding the service.[who?
