Where your TV licence fee goes

[The Local 492]

Since January, German households have had to pay a monthly broadcasting license fee of €17.98, regardless of whether they own a television or radio. Now public broadcasters ARD and ZDF have revealed where that money goes.

 

ARD gets €12.81 of the fee from each household, while ZDF gets €4.37, Deutschland Radio €0.46 and other outlets €0.34.

 

Fans of Germany's flagship detective show, Tatort will be pleased to know that 15 cents of their monthly contribution goes towards producing their Sunday night staple.

 

ARD's big-name talk show hosts, Jausch, Plasberg and Maischberger get 10 cents for their programmes from every household while the Tagesschau and Tagesthemen daily news shows get 26 cents.

 

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[fuzzytony 4,969]

And for those who don't watch Tatort, tough sh*t. You still gotta pay. :angry:

[Perfect Poise 3,099]

I find it incredible how many talk shows there are on German televison. Just a bunch of boring individuals getting red-faced and flustered with one other and saying "stimmt nicht" and "das sehe ich nicht so" repeatedly for an hour or more.

 

Surely this has got to be the lowest cost type of television there is. And yet the fees are so high AND mandated. Obviously someone is getting rich off the back of this.

[Small Town Boy 6,671]

 

And for those who don't watch Tatort, tough sh*t. You still gotta pay.

 

I don't have any children but still pay taxes towards kindergardens and shit like that. That's part of life. A quick look at American television shows that the concept of the licence fee is a good one. The problems in Germany are, firstly, value for money (the licence fee in Germany is higher than in the UK, something not explained by the quality of the output) and secondly the unfairness of the new payment system (having to pay even if you have no television).