Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

Votes 72% in favour of retention. I understand from previous research done in the UK it's about the same here although I would expect a lower level of support from members of a cable TV forum such as Cable Forum. Anyway, interesting to see the support despite living in an era of Netflix.
https://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2018...s-reform-plan/

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

And the Swiss TV licence is £348 a year ! We don't know when we're well off and getting value for money.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

The grass ain't always greener on the other side..

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

I wonder if the Swiss gets repeats after repeats and shows like Strictly Come Dancing though.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

You're right we don't know because I'm not getting value for money and paying them for something I don't want or use is not making me well of.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

If it came to a vote here i would vote to scrap it .

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

The cost of living is far higher in Switzerland, but so are their wages, therefore a higher TV tax is inevitable.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

Wages aren't more than double though, and the UK tv licence is £150.50 v £348 in Switzerland. I think the smaller population size of the country is a key factor as there are a lot of fixed costs involved in broadcasting and production.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

Same here

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

I think the thought of increasing the TV licence fee is a disgrace.

If you think that most of the shows that we see are REPEATS. And most of the stars that work for the beeb. Are on a 6 figures fees.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

I cannot remember the last time we watched any bbc output so I can't comment on their scheduling but just because the swiss are in favour of something doesn't mean we have too though i know for many these days copying others and being told what to do and how to think is all the rage. If as some say the bbc is so beloved and supported then let that segment pay for it and for those of us who don't use any of it's so called services allow us to opt out with appropriate blocks on the content if they don't believe us.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

What are the reasonable alternatives to a licence fee, that would be fairer to services that are not licence fee funded, but are dependent on having a licence?

1. Adverts - would compromise independence and probably impact ad revenue on other channels.
2. Subscription ... you pay, you get - you don't pay, you don't get... Undeniably fairer but would make obsolete any equipment lacking paid service handling.
3. A small public service operation from general taxation

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

If a service doesn't have the audience to support it then it goes under just as that applies to businesses that don't get funded by the licence fee that isn't an argument to maintain a general licence fee paid by everyone despite growing numbers not utilising any of the services.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

We stopped subsidising industry out of compulsary taxes decades ago, there's no excuse to continue the same failed policies with broadcasting particularly when the BBC is just chasing ratings and making far to many "me too" programmes.

There might be a case for a small broadcasting unit, one TV channel, one radio station (Like R4) with a strict public service remit funded from general taxation or even the lottery.

Filling the gaps that commercial broadcasters find un-economic to make progamming for.

Re: Switzerland votes on its TV licence fee
 

There are other alternatives too, but I would favour the subscription model. There are currently issues about ensuring payment is made when you can receive these channels free to air, but we have that problem anyway wiith the licence fee. Ideally, this money would be collected by the pay tv operators, but it does leave a lot of people who don't have pay tv, although the task of checking that a subscription was being paid would be made a lot easier.

One possible solution would be for the free to air version of the channel to be funded by commercials. Those with pay tv would get the BBC channels free of ads. By the time the licence fee comes up for renewal again, the BBC will be well on the way to converting its channels to 'on demand/streaming' only, so that would make the two versions of BBC channels more straight forward to implement.

I wouldn't worry about the impact of ads on the Beeb impacting on other channels. If the predictions are correct, there will be fewer of these anyway in a decade's time.