4 ms·

The Germans kind of have that (formerly called GEZ) and people complain about that, too! It pays for the wrong content! And the private news sites hate it, too

by lysium 8y ago

The Germans kind of have that (formerly called GEZ) and people complain about that, too! It pays for the wrong content! And the private news sites hate it, too! It’s an unfair advantage! I don’t think it will make a difference if a private company collects the cash, but who knows?

olex 8y ago
People who complain about the GEZ/Rundfunkgebühr complain about the fact that it is compulsory, even though the content and media being offered is irrelevant for many people (who don't watch TV or listen to the radio). Also there's significant issues with the way the pricing model is designed, putting very unequal load on singles living alone vs. families or shared apartments.
tannhaeuser 8y ago
I'm not sure compulsary payment a la GEZ and culture flat rates is the way forward, to say the least. With the recent cut-backs, public TV broadcasters have become outlets for low-quality pseudo-scandinavian crime series and similar palliative care. Also, they've lost any public opinion leadership they had with their media blackout towards the new populist parties. The only asset left are their talk-radio pearls.
Moru 8y ago
Sweden have something similar for allowing private copying of media. For all empty media we buy (cd, usb, harddrives, cassette tapes, vhs and so on) we pay a small tax that is collected by STIM. STIM distributes it to media creators according to their own payment model. The problem here is that STIM is a private company handing taxes and payout. It is commonly argued that they are paying the wrong artists and has no real track on what is popular. The industry can easily game the system by making their own music popular (formerly pushing it out to all radio stations, not sure what they do now). Micro transactions might just end up with a botfarm in china clicking articles to generate income for the newspapers. Or even more clickbaity headlines to click. A lot of problems to solve and no solution in sight yet?

by lysium 8y ago

olex 8y ago

People who complain about the GEZ/Rundfunkgebühr complain about the fact that it is compulsory, even though the content and media being offered is irrelevant for many people (who don't watch TV or listen to the radio). Also there's significant issues with the way the pricing model is designed, putting very unequal load on singles living alone vs. families or shared apartments.

tannhaeuser 8y ago

I'm not sure compulsary payment a la GEZ and culture flat rates is the way forward, to say the least. With the recent cut-backs, public TV broadcasters have become outlets for low-quality pseudo-scandinavian crime series and similar palliative care. Also, they've lost any public opinion leadership they had with their media blackout towards the new populist parties. The only asset left are their talk-radio pearls.

Moru 8y ago

Sweden have something similar for allowing private copying of media. For all empty media we buy (cd, usb, harddrives, cassette tapes, vhs and so on) we pay a small tax that is collected by STIM. STIM distributes it to media creators according to their own payment model. The problem here is that STIM is a private company handing taxes and payout. It is commonly argued that they are paying the wrong artists and has no real track on what is popular. The industry can easily game the system by making their own music popular (formerly pushing it out to all radio stations, not sure what they do now). Micro transactions might just end up with a botfarm in china clicking articles to generate income for the newspapers. Or even more clickbaity headlines to click. A lot of problems to solve and no solution in sight yet?