Avoiding Rundfunkgebuhren

Im sure I read on the Britboard a few months ago about ways to avoid paying your tv license. Have done a search but have not found the post

For the last 2 years I have had to put up with watching German TV as our landlord wont allow us to put up a satellite dish. Now that we are moving into a house in Feb I plan to install a dish and buy a receiver.

Does anyone else not pay the tv license as you only watch UK tv?

If you want to continue this state of affairs, you should be aware that the GEZ subscribes to all the address lists it can get its hands on. So be careful if you want to subscribe to magazines or buy things via Internet!

If have a radio in the car you are supposed to have a licence, I just got a letter in a green envelope reminding me of this.

nmonger2

There is a simple way to avoid paying GEZ fees... dump your telly & radio.

Or do you think its big and clever that others pay their licence fees while you think its perfectly okay to pick up TV signals for "free"?

shame on you.

It doesn't even cost that much, just pay it and ythen you won't be bothered by the knock at the door. Some things aren't worth avoiding. If you live here and you've got a telly you have to pay, just like back home. They will find you eventually!!

Big and clever no, but I dont like paying for things that I will never use!

I only asked as I am sure I saw somewhere on the board that people were "excused" from paying the fee if they proved that they did not watch german tv - I may have been mistaken

The only ones exempt are US military. They have an agreement with the GEZ. I have never heard of anyone else being exempt.

You should at least pay for a radio, as you have one in your car, and do listn to traffic news... Telly is a different kettle of fish. There are brits that officially don't pay, but there are not many around.

If you are caught, you my be lucky, or not. The worst case is , that you will have to pay x-months fee as a penalty... If they come round, be friendly, let them in, show them you SKY dish, and tell them that you dont understand the Language, and thus do not understand their programmes.

Worked for me...

[QUOTE]If you are caught, you my be lucky, or not. The worst case is , that you will have to pay x-months fee as a penalty... If they come round, be friendly, let them in, show them you SKY dish, and tell them that you dont understand the Language, and thus do not understand their programmes.

Worked for me...

Lucky you!

As long as you keep a radio or TV set which itself is fit for reception (no matter
whether it's connected to a dish, aerial or cable), you must pay GEZ. Can lead to crazy situtations: the other I day I saw a report from a museum, which showed
demonstration videos on crafts. The TV set was only used for that, it had no
connections to aerials etc whatsoever, only to the VCR.
The GEZ-man wouldn't go for that, and the museum got a hefty bill. Now they try to get "mercy" from the regional German TV station. Yes, once again: that's
Germany to you!

I understand that the German rules on this are similar to those in the UK i.e. If you have something that could possibly receive TV, then you have to have a license. It doesn't matter if you only watch foreign programming - even if you can ONLY watch foreign programming. Of course, the Germans have the added dimension of radio.

If you only have a monitor and a DVD player, then you would not be liable as you cannot receive any broadcast signals with these. Anything which has a tuner in it would make you liable for a license: TV, VCR, radio, clock-radio, car radio.

You will have to pay GEZ even if you disable your TV from receiving German programs. But other than in the UK you don't need to let the GEZ-Schergen into your house/ flat. It's only a Ordnungswidrigkeit and they will not get a richterlichen Durchsuchungsbeschluß for that. When those buggers rang at my door I always stated I had neither TV nor Radio (not even in my car) and erteilte ihnen Haus- und Grundstücksverbot. When they bother you again thereafter you can call the police and sue them for Hausfriedensbruch. This nasty bunch of snoopers doesn't deserve any sort of friendliness

http://www.lustigestories.de/stories/gez.php

@Aggregat 4: you are right. You are not obliged to let them in. And you shouldn't!! But: if they eventually find out that you have a telly etc. they'll start bombarding you with bills, Mahnungen, Mahnbescheiden etc. Not worth it. Just more and more expensive. Pay for at least one telly or radio set. They'll problably leave you alone from then on. Abzocker!!

I just stumbled over an interesting and funny german article about the "GEZtapo", look at this:

http://www.zyn.de/geztapo/804084.html

I've never really understood what the GEZ is for because, unless I'm very much mistaken, don't ALL the channels here have advertising? So surely they're already being financed (and probably making profit!) that way.

I was always under the impression that the TV licence in the UK was something to do with BBC (actually just looked it up and yes, it is indeed something to do with the BBC - they get all the money) and was more of a cursory amount ie. it obviously costs a hell of a lot more to run the BBC the what they get in licence fees, but most of it comes from...hmm...taxes? moneytrees? fairies? buggered if I know!

ARD, ZDF and the 3rd channel programmes don't have advertising. At least definately not in the evening.

Not in the morning but in the afternoon.
Advertising for the GEZ-channels has been in fact extended after a request of those channels a few years ago.
They even went to court for increasing the "Rundfunkgebühren".

The court just denied their request to continue advertising after 20:00.

The funny thing is, just because you are able to recieve the channels you have to pay the "Rundfunkgebühren", even if you just want to watch channels like "RTL", "Pro7" etc. which are filled with advertising but free.

no ! you're wrong there Bombi ! ...they most certainly do advertise ...you can see the price list and time slots here as usual ARD/ZDF etc want to have their cake and to eat it too ...at least the BBC hasn't plumbed to those depths yet.

oh, ok, I take it all back.

Would be a deep fall, wouldn`t it ? ...from one of the top posters to a newbie

You wish!

A lot of channels channels have advertising, and some dont.

Arte & 3Sat don't carry adverts, and as far as I am aware [please correct me if I am wrong] none of the regional channel 3's have any advertising either.

Sadly, in the case of ARD & ZDF, advertising is permitted before 8pm in the evening - me reckons that that regulation was slipped in as an alternative to a rise in the licence fee many moons ago.
The practice of dual-funded public television in europe is however not limited to Germany. RTÉ in Ireland also has advertising [with the exception of Christmas day] and takes a licence fee of 152 euro a year on top of that...

BTW, did anyone know that you can still buy a licence for a black & white telly in the UK? good value at only £42!!

Well you can buy a licence for just radios here.

Well I`m sure you`d be back to your current status in no time

Bombi said, no adverts, at least not in the evening. What's wrong about this?
Maybe she does not watch ZDF or ARD before 20:00 h? (right Bombi??)

I usually start watching ARD at 19.20 when Jörg Pilawa *swoon, swoon* comes on. There is even a commercial break of 20 seconds in that. Ok, I stand corrected! Hubbi watches the "Krimi" at 6pm on ZDF and there are adverts before, during and after that.

One should think before one writes! :$ I don't recall seeing any adverts on WDR though and I watch that every afternoon / evening.. :$

sounds telly-addicted

One of us are - tip - it's not me!

I'm addicted to the Britboard... :$

We noticed

hmmm sounds like Hubbi and Mrs Neil are made for each other

...I have to put up with that too ...'wouldn't be too bad
but it's always the bloody same

That's the point where I go and do something else, the washing up, BBing or some other more exciting thing. They get very boring and you never have enough info to work out who the murderer is - not very Miss Marple!

Have I missed anything ?
What is ARD WDR and ZDF ??
Sounds like a load of mumbo Jumbo to me ...

They are the channels we mostly watch actually!

What channel numbers are they on ??
I have gone through all of the digibox channels, and couldn't find them !

The monies collected by the GEZ has exactly the same function as the TV licensing in the UK, it is used to finance the public television/radio system.

In the bleak days before 1984, when private television was first permitted in Germany, there was no other form of television other than ARD, ZDF and the various 3rd programmes. Unless you lived near a border, or within the catchment area of a forces broadcaster (BFBS, AFN - and had appropriate reception equipment, as the "normal" german market TVs couldn't handle those).

ARD and ZDF were initially permitted to carry limited advertising, to give companies the opportunity to advertise on TV, and the TV networks some extra revenue. This advertising is still limited to the time before 20:00 (although individual programme sponsoring is now allowed after that). The German TV regs still require that adverts are recognisable as such - i.e. An advertising block must be preceded and concluded with an appropriate notification, or have the word "Werbesendung" visible on screen. These regulations are also valid for private transmitters.


General BBC programming is mainly funded from the license fees, and any rights sales from that programming. There is also income from TV Times and other publications related to their programmes, such as books and record, CD, video and DVD recordings.

By charter, the BBC is not allowed to receive direct government funding for its general programming, to maintain its independence. The only exception to this is the world service programming, which is funded by the foreign office.

http://www.lustigestories.de/stories/gez.php
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ohh yes...very nice...

We got out of paying for ours for about 2 years when we first came

But eventually we did get a letter, which I ignored and which bought me another 3 months or so, after the second letter I asked someone what to sign up for and they suggested 1 TV and 1 Radio. I noticed the amount just jumped recently from 48 quarterly to 50 and change