Christian Pernegger Wrote: > In Austria "we" have to pay a certain > small amount quarterly if we own a device that could conceivably > receive the government funded radio (or TV) stations. So "we" are in > fact paying for radio, nothing wrong with it. :)
In Britain we also pay a relatively small (a great deal less than a satellite, cable or newspaper subscription) 'licence fee' to have a TV in the house capable of broadcast reception. This is how the BBC (both radio and TV) is funded; the licence fee is not a tax, so it is not under direct government control, thus largely separating the funding of our public broadcaster - still one of the best in the world in my view - from political influence except when the BBC's Royal Charter comes up for review. There are problems with the mechanism, but nobody has come up with a better idea (that maintains the BBC's existence and independence, commercial-free) since its inception in the 1920s. In many people's view, including mine, it's worth the money. --Richard E -- relen _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
