Irish TV licence to become a broadcasting charge
In just over a year’s time, from January 1st 2015, the Irish TV licence will be replaced by a new change, the Public Service Broadcasting Charge. This fee, according to Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte, won’t be more than the existing TV licence fee. There are subtle differences to this charge compared with a TV licence, this new charge will apply to every household, irregardless if you have a TV or not. It’s estimated that almost 20% of Irish households currently don’t have a TV licence, but they will now be automatically required to pay the Broadcasting charge, whether they have a TV, radio or computer. There’s no way really avoiding this charge, saying you don’t have a TV is no longer enough to avoid paying it.
This change is estimated to bring in up to €30 million to the exchequer. And the only exception to paying this is if you are in receipt of a household benefits package, otherwise you will be forced to pay up per household. More information can be found here.
One other stipulation in the law for this new charge will be that there will be a specific limit as to how much adverting a station can broadcast per hour.
User feedback
As expected people are generally skeptical about this new charge, one user on twitter posted this
https://twitter.com/tomlowe/status/358187531357011968