I just got my bill from "Radiotjänst", the company that collects the fee for the Public service in Sweden. Or that is how I would like to put it, although Radiotjänst on the other hand actually always just ask you if you have a “television” when they are calling you to see if you are paying this fee or not. Even though the actual name of the company includes the word "Radio" and not "Television" and also that the fee got nothing to do with an actual “television”, as a lot of people today just have a "television" as a bigger screen to watch movies (which they by the way probably didn't pay for anyway) transferred from their computers. However, that's another discussion although it might be interesting to think about. Maybe they should change their approach so that we will start paying for Public service instead of a furniture? At least to me, the whole idea seems a bit old-fashioned.
Anyway, the bill itself is kind of special. You can choose when and how much you want to pay, although in the end it will always reach the sum of 2076 SEK a year. And that made me wonder, am I willing to pay that much to keep our Swedish Public service? I mean, basically that amount is the same as what you pay for a Spotify premium membership where you get to choose the music yourself. I think this is something to think about when we start our projects. What's actually worth paying for?
I hardly watch any TV at all, but my children watch the children's channel.
ReplyDeleteI don't listen to radio at all, but I listen to a large number of podcasts, including SR's.
My willingness to pay the license fee has increased since I started to download/subscribe to SR's podcasts a few years ago. I probably listen to at least one SR radio program in the form of a podcast per day, and that goes a long way towards personally feeling that the license money is used in an OK way.
The same goes for children's TV. It's worth a lot to me to have children's programs without ads. That saves me money (toys) as well as avoiding many arguments, discussions, yelling and children's tears...
I actually wrote a longer entry about this at my personal blog after this, and I totally agree on that I also would like to pay for what I use. But I think it's worth considering how one can put a price on entertainment. I love Swedish Public service and am very much indeed willing to pay for it, but I'm sceptiv to how much it actually cost compared to Spotify and that it is the same price no matter if you're a student, unemployeed or a wealthy business man. :)
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ReplyDeleteYes, not to mention that a whole family pays as much as a single person. Perhaps paying for public service through the taxes would be preferable? But then the programming might come under harder pressures from politicians...
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