Broadcasting royalties

The broadcasting royalties is the name given to the Taxe taken near the Auditeur S and Téléspectateur S being used to finance chains Publique S of Radiodiffusion and Télévision, in certain countries. In the case of the countries of Europe, the practices are not unified. For example:

In Germany

The amount of the German broadcasting royalties in 2005 is of 204 euros (194 euros in 2004). The German radio/public TVS is financed by the taxpayers to a total value of 80 to 85%. This royalty is baptized GEZ in reference in the name of the organism in charge to perceive it, the Gebühreneinzugszentrale DER öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland . A less important sum (in 2005: 5,52 € per month) is perceived near the holders of radios, which do not have television.

See: gez.de, the official site of the “Gez”

In France

In France, the broadcasting royalties is a tax which is collected for the benefit of the chains of the group France Televisions (France 2 (27%) , France 3 (35  %), France 5 (7  %), Network France Overseas (10  %) and France 4), Arte-France (13  %) , of the stations of the group Radio France (22  % of the receipts in 2004, shared between France Inter, France Info, France Culture, France Musics, France Inter Paris, France Blue, Mouv'), Radio France Internationale (RFI) and finally of the National institute of Audio-visual the (INA), which is in charge of the safeguard of the audio-visual files.

An important counterpart of the royalty is that the feature-length films diffused on the chains of the group France Televisions are not the any advertizing cut object.

In 2007, the royalty represents 74  % of the resources of the public service of audio-visual, is more than 2,7 billion euros.
The amount of the tax is fixed in 2007 to 116 euros in Metropolitan France and at 74 euros in the overseas departments. Since 2005, it is added in the Taxe of dwelling, which strongly reduced the possibility of escaping its application by the restive ones and the cost of the collection (41,4 million euros in 2006). Since 2008 only mutilated, invalid the or crippled ones are not fixed there.

With regard to the people who look at television via their screen of Ordinateur, those are not indebted broadcasting royalties, like specifies it the debates of the parliamentary assembly relating to the revision of the mode of imposition. “Article 41 of the finance law for 2005 maintained the operative event of the broadcasting royalties hitherto in force, namely detention of a receiving device of television or a comparable device allowing the reception of television. Thus, the exclusion of the microcomputers equipped to receive the television programs of the field of application of the broadcasting royalties - into force before with the reform and recalled at the time of the debates relating to the tax instituted by article 37 of the finance law for 2004 - was not called into question. Consequently, the persons liable to pay tax of dwelling who take out a subscription Internet high banc including the access to the television programs are not taxable with the broadcasting royalties that if they hold a television set. In the contrary case, they are not taxable.” (Extracted the OJ dating from the 3/28/2006 page: 3425)

In September 2006, Dominique de Villepin declared " It is not question" to found a royalty for the televiewers who receive television thanks to their ordinateur" thus putting term at the speculations launched by the declarations of Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres and Jean-François Cope. (Answer published to the OJ of the 4/10/2007 page: 3557, this declaration can be consulted on the http://questions.assemblee-nationale.fr/ site seek the N°106422 question)

Some dates

  • 1949 : creation of the Parafiscal tax by the government Henri Queuille.
  • 1980 : the royalty on the radios is removed by decree. A few years before the tax special on the Autoradio S, considered as luxury items had been removed, and which lost its direction with the generalization of the portable stations with Transistor S.
  • 1987: TF1 becomes a private channel, the royalty passes from 541 to 506 francs, it will be the only significant decrease of its history.
  • 2000 : The legal time of diffusion of publicities on the public television channels passes from 12 to 8 minute S by hour.
  • 2005 : the amount of the royalty drops by 0,50 euro.

See: does

  • “with what serve the broadcasting royalties? ” (site of the direction of the development of the media)

In the United Kingdom

The first audio-visual tax with the the United Kingdom date of 1949 ( Wireless Telegraphy Act ).
The organization named TV Licensing , currently in charge of this tax, is in fact an authority of BBC, since a law of 1990 ( Broadcast act ) makes the group of public channels responsible for the collection of its budget. The BBC is financed by the taxpayers with approximately 96% - the balance coming from the sale of rights to foreign chains.

In 2005, the amount of the TV Licensing in the United Kingdom east of 121 pounds sterling (three times less for the owners of a television black and white), is approximately 178 €. The payment of this tax is obligatory for any owner of a tele station, of an engraver of DVD, a video tape recorder, a computer material of reception of the televised programs. The owner of a television station which uses this last only like monitor (video games, DVD) can be exempted of tax, after the passage of an agent to check the validity of this declaration.

See:

  • tvlicensing.co.uk, the official site of the tax.

In Swiss

The tax radio-TV is taken on behalf of the Confederation by Billag, a privately held company subsidiary with 100% of Swisscom, heiress of the telecommunication part of the old federal control of the postal and telecommunications authorities which was charged to collect the royalty before its privatization. A fraction of this one is transferred with the local radio and private televisions, whereas the vast majority is transferred with the SR producing the television programs and of radio operator public in the four national languages. The tax is also used to finance the radio operator/tele transmitters public.

The amount of the royalty is fixed by the Swiss Federal council. As an indication, in 2005, the annual level of the royalty for the private individuals is of 168,95 Swiss francs (either approximately 102 €) for a radio station, of 281,40 Swiss francs (~170 €) for a television station, or 450,35 Swiss francs (~272 €) for a television set and a radio. The tariff for a use of material of tele or radio reception on a purely professional basis is approximately 25% expensive.

See: billag.com, the site of the Billag company.

In Quebec

In North America, no formula of royalty exists for television. No tax is taken near the citizens compared to the number of apparatuses which they have at-them.

In Quebec, the public television broadcast stations (Radio-Canada, TV-Quebec) are subsidized directly by the government, of which they obtain the major part of their financing (the other part comes in particular from the sale of publicity).

The television networks private (VAT, TQS, specialized chains) are subsidized indirectly by the State while benefitting from tax credits which refund between 12% and 25% of the expenditure of labor for the production of acceptable emissions (mainly the dramatic ones, cultural emissions, varieties, the documentary ones and emissions for youth). These emissions cannot be produced directly by the chain. VAT and TQS thus have subsidiary companies (respectively JPL Production and Point-Final) which produce the majority of their emissions in order to be acceptable with the tax credits.

The independent producers (companies who produce emissions for diffusers) are also acceptable with the tax credits.

These tax measures are financed directly by the income tax paid by the taxpayers and not by a specific tax.

References

Simple: Television license

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