Comments on: Media fee replacing TV-fee in Finland

By: » Marita Liulia Mammals of the Indiana Dunes

» Marita Liulia Mammals of the Indiana Dunes — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:36:37 +0000

[...] You can always change this. » Blog Archive » Media fee replacing … [...]

By: Ilkka

Ilkka — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:34:04 +0000

Well.. let me try to explain why I think that the fixed media fee is better over the tax-based scheme. First I have to say that I have no idea how much this tax rate could be, but if it was, let’s say, 0,5%, then we can make some calculations how much it would be for a family / household if there were two taxpayers with an average salary of 2700 eur / month (I think this was some sort of average in Finland). The final result of 324 eur / year is in my opinion way too much, even for this sort of service. Now, the proposed 175 eur / household is less than the current television fee – also for those who have a household of a single person (and should have the TV fee paid if they use television).

Definitely the *best* (but at this point an impossible) option, which also takes into account those who don’t own television, could be some sort of paycard system. So, one could buy a card which has grants for YLE and (at the moment) open commercial channels. This is unfortunately impossible at this point time, because we’ve just moved to digital television and there are no way that people are willing to renew their digital tv receivers to support this sort of card game. Let’s see what will happen when HD television arrives to Finland. The current devices can’t handle that anyway, so there might be some opportunities for this sort of changes. Furthermore, this card game could be applicable only for a television. It’s hard for me to think that I could get this working with the old cottage radio, which runs only in batteries…

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:36:37 +0000

If this is the only reasonable way to fund YLE, then the game is over for YLE. This is not reasonable at all. I guess I’d better not even start an issue with “the poor should pay bigger percentage of their income” argument above…

It’s as simple as this: If people aren’t ready to pay for quality media, then they shouldn’t get quality media. Give them their BB and reality shows. I haven’t owned a TV for a long long time, and I don’t listen to YLE radio. Don’t make me pay for stuff I don’t need or care about. Wait, do I have to pay even when I’m abroad?

By: Ilkka

Ilkka — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:59:06 +0000

I think this is, after all, the only reasonable way to make this. Another possible scheme could be collecting the fees through the normal taxation, but due to the progressive nature of the Finnish tax model, it would be definitely more inequal (another way around, though…) than the proposed fixed-sum “tax”.

Another issue, which requires still more discussion, is the role of YLE in the Finnish media venue. There are of course some duties defined by law, but in general YLE, should produce program and content that commercial players in the field are not interested in or capable to produce. YLE servers also very important role in the regional media production, being basically the only reliable and constant news and content producer for radio and television for example in this area. Thus, the role of these regional resources should be preserved, no matter what funding scheme will be utilised. Yes, this opinion is definitely biased for some very practical reasons… :)