Germany’s Version of British TV Licensing

North Americans newly arrived in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland are surprised to learn that they have to pay an annual fee to receive public broadcasting radio and television plus internet video streaming. Even if you don’t have a television set and never watch or listen to public broadcasting, your household is legally required to pay what is euphemistically called the “broadcast contribution” (Rundfunkbeitrag). In fact this “contribution” is a tax paid by almost every household and business in Germany. Since the payment is made (indirectly) to the government, and it’s not voluntary, it’s a form of taxation that ranges from 210.00 euros ($256 USD) annually in Germany to 335.14 euros ($409 USD) in Austria. In Switzerland, as of 2021, it costs 335 Swiss francs (CHF, $374 USD) per year for TV and radio for a single household.

The nightly German newscast, TAGESSCHAU, has its primary broadcast at 8:00 p.m. weeknights. PHOTO: ARD/Das Erste

The BBC TV Licence Fee
The German system basically follows the BBC model. The “TV Licence Fee” (British spelling) in the British Isles is a fee charged for the right to watch or record live television broadcasts from the British Broadcasting Corporation. The German system is almost exactly the same as the BBC’s, except for (1) the German fee is also for radio, (2) the BBC admits the fee is a tax, and (3) the cost in Britain is slightly lower than in Germany. Since April 2021, the annual cost per household in the UK is £159.00 for a color license and £53.00 for a black-and-white license. (B&W TV? Really?) Converted from British pounds (GBP), the normal BBC TV Licence costs $226.00 USD or €185.00 EUR per year, cheaper than in any of the German-speaking countries – despite the fact that Germany’s population (83 million) is larger than the UK’s (68 million). There is some sentiment in Britain to do away with the TV Licence Fee, but any major change is unlikely.

In the United States and most of North and South America, there is no such thing as a broadcast fee, and there never has been. (Canada did briefly have something similar to Britain, but it was only for radio, and was abolished in 1953.) Several nations in Europe and elsewhere have recently abolished radio and television fees, including Finland (in 2013), Iceland (2007), Israel (2015; only a car radio fee now), the Netherlands (2000), Norway (2020), Sweden (2019), and New Zealand (1999). Australia got rid of its license fee way back in 1974. But in most countries where the TV fee was eliminated, there was an increase in the income tax or some other tax to help fund public radio and/or TV – confirming that the fee is indeed a tax. In Germany the radio/TV fee has not gone away, although many Germans fervently wish it would vanish.

The German fee/tax is intended to help finance the news and entertainment programing provided by Germany’s public broadcasters: ARD, ZDF, and Deutschlandradio. ARD (Das Erste, “The First”) is an association of public radio and TV broadcasters, including regional channels. It was once Germany’s only TV channel (“the first channel”) before the second one (ZDF, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) came along as a TV-only network. The nine regional TV broadcasters are known as the “third channel.” Deutschlandradio (DLR), headquartered in Cologne, is a national radio broadcaster with four national networks producing news and cultural programing.

Deutsche Welle (DW), the German multilingual international television and text news service, does not fall under the Rundfunkbeitrag. DW is funded directly by the German government.

Public Radio and TV in the US
In the United States, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television are funded in part by a method that is unheard of in Germany and Europe: voluntary subscriptions, donations, and philanthropic foundations. NPR has about 700 local member radio stations, often connected to a college or university. The US-American local, not-for-profit approach is also seen in PBS’s 350+ public TV stations located in all 50 states. The first PBS TV broadcasts began in October 1970. Federal and state government funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has never been a major source of income, but it does make up about 14 percent of the total. Membership dues comprise about 30 percent. Unlike public TV elsewhere, PBS focuses primarily on arts and culture, and to some degree on news and information. NPR had an affiliate station in Berlin: KCRW Berlin 104.1 FM. It now has gone to a podcast (“Common Ground”).

Germany’s commercial, private TV broadcasters (ProSieben, n-tv, RTL, Sat.1, Sky Deutschland, etc.) are businesses that operate just like those in the US, financed by advertisers and cable/satellite/pay-TV fees. Viewers in Germany have to pay to subscribe to these cable/satellite channels, just as anywhere else, but that’s a voluntary choice. Amazingly, with the arrival of terrestrial digital HDTV (far later than in the US), German viewers now even have to pay extra for descrambling the encrypted signal of over-the-air commercial television! But about 90 percent of Germans receive TV via cable or satellite. (See the GW article Radio and Television in Germany for more about the German TV and radio broadcasting system.)

The German TV Fee Debate Heats Up

A recent proposal to increase the Rundfunkbeitrag in Germany caused the long-simmering debate about the TV license fee to heat up again. At bottom Germans are asking this basic question: What do I get for my money?

But first, who collects that money? Since 2013 that is the Beitragsservice von ARD, ZDF und Deutschlandradio (Contribution Service of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio). Commonly referred to simply as the Beitragsservice, the Contribution Service replaced the earlier GEZ agency that had an even longer name: Gebühreneinzugszentrale der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Fee Collection Center of the Public Broadcasting Companies in the Federal Republic of Germany).

Along with the name change came a new approach, and a new set of fee rules. Now, instead of the old pay-per-TV or radio system, the new rules took the internet age more into account. Following the BBC model, as mentioned above, now each household or business pays a flat fee to cover a bundle of radio, TV, and internet services (“new media”) provided by ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio. Considering that almost everyone in a household today uses electronic devices to listen to, watch, or read information and entertainment, it seems to be a bit more fair and simpler to manage than the old GEZ model. Simpler because it no longer matters whether you even own a TV set, a radio, or a computer. It’s a flat household or business fee.

The Beitragsservice collects the fees and then distributes the funds directly to the broadcasters (ARD, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk). The money never goes to normal government institutions, and is kept separate from any tax revenues. This is supposed to ensure that the government has little or no influence on programing, and can’t exert pressure of any kind on broadcasters. It also allows the German federal government to claim (falsely) that the TV fee is not a tax. In the UK, on the other hand, they are much more honest about that. Since 2006 the British have designated it a “hypothecated tax” because, unlike normal taxes, the British TV tax goes to a specific defined purpose, and not to any general fund. But it IS a tax.

Meanwhile in Germany, in 2018 the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Germany’s highest court) in Karlsruhe, responding to lawsuits brought by people opposed to the TV tax, ruled that the Rundfunkbeitrag is NOT a tax – even though everyone else in Germany knows that it is. I am not the only person who considers the high court’s reasoning flawed and illogical, but for now, legally, the German TV tax is not a tax. However, at the same time the court also ruled against the Beitragsservice’s practice of double-charging owners of a second dwelling – but they still have to apply for the exemption! It’s not automatic. (For more, see The Licence Fee at the Rundfunkbeitrag site, in English.)

More recently, in December 2020, the same court prevented the first proposed increase in the TV tax since 2009. The fee was supposed to go from the current €17.50 monthly rate to €18.36, an increase of 86 eurocents ($1.05). The court delayed any increase until it could make a more definitive ruling on the matter, and the states could agree on a joint proposal. The state of Saxony-Anhalt had requested an expedited ruling, but the court refused. For now the €17.50 monthly rate remains – as does the ongoing debate.

Resistance to the TV Fee

The case against the fee/tax involves several aspects. At the top of the list is the low quality of German public television, and an objection to paying good money for mediocre programing. The fact that ARD and ZDF were asking for more money, with no improvements in programing, bothered many German TV viewers. On top of that, some regional ARD TV channels (NDR and RBB among them) announced cutbacks to existing programing with reductions in onscreen and offscreen talent, without any cuts to fairly high management salaries. Top managers at the nine regional ARD networks earn between 250K and 395K per year. Their salaries are a matter of public record. The top ZDF Intendant (director) earns €369K annually.

And yet, in 2020 the public TV channels still had the largest share of the German TV viewing market: ZDF with 13.6% and ARD/Das Erste with 11.3%. The two leading commercial channels, RTL (8.1%) and SAT.1 (5.7%), were far behind. But if you’ve ever watched the German commercial TV channels, you know how bad they are, offering little innovation and far less original programing in recent years, with a constant barrage of commercials.

But one thing is undeniable: ARD and ZDF are not the BBC. As much as Brits like to complain about the Beeb, the quality of the BBC’s TV series, dramas and documentaries is far superior to what Germany has to offer. Although Germany does produce a few quality shows (some of which can be viewed on Netflix or Amazon in the US), the quality and quantity is not up to what the Brits turn out. Yet annually British TV viewers pay about $30 USD less for the BBC TV tax than the Germans do for theirs.

Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in Germany (VoD)
Then there is the new streaming video-on-demand (VoD) competition, which only increased during the Covid pandemic. Apple TV+, Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Sky Go, and other services in Germany offer more bang for the buck (or euro) when it comes to pure entertainment. Amazon Prime Video has an estimated 10.3 million subscribers in Germany, a 47 percent market share, while Netflix has an estimated 8.1 million subscribers, a 36 percent share of the VoD market in Germany. A Netflix subscription in Germany costs between €11.99 and €15.99, with three tiers. In terms of daily usage, Netflix leads with a 59-percent share compared to Amazon with 36 percent. That just further exposes the weakness of the public broadcasters’ programing (and German broadcast TV in general). But German public TV will never be able to match the budget of an Amazon or a Netflix. [Data source: filmtake.com]

Sascha Hingst is one of several alternating hosts for Berlin’s nightly ABENDSCHAU newscast from RBB. PHOTO: RBB

Arguments for Eliminating the TV Fee

Why can’t Germany do what other European countries have done? Just admit that the TV tax is a tax and fund public television adequately from other tax income. That would also eliminate the waste caused by the cost of collecting the “broadcast contribution,” which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

Yes, there is an argument to be made against using general tax revenues. I can hear it already: “But then there would be too much political influence on public TV programing.” But this argument ignores the fact that even under the current TV tax system, there is already indirect political influence.

The Cost of Collection
In the countries where the radio/TV fee has been eliminated, one of the main arguments for doing so has been the cost of collection. The German Contribution Service takes in a little over 8 billion euros ($9.75 billion USD) per year, and the public broadcasters say that’s not enough. They have asked for a 3-billion-euro increase that is now pending.

To do its work, the Contribution Service employs nearly 950 people to help collect the TV tax from about 46 million contributor accounts – at a cost of some 174 million euros (2019 figures from the Beitragsservice [PDF], the latest available), or about 2.16% of the total fees collected. In 2016 that figure was only 168 million euros for about the same 8 billion euros total collected.

By just eliminating the Contribution Service, taxpayers would save the 174 million euros it cost in 2019, and probably more when all the overhead costs are taken into account. This is the main reason other countries have eliminated their separate TV fees/taxes and the agency that collected them.

Another argument for elimination relates to people with disabilities. Germany has a less than stellar reputation for accommodating people with disabilities in general. In the electronic media it’s even worse. Under the old GEZ system, deaf/hearing-disabled or blind/partially-sighted people were exempt. Since 2015 the fee for people with disabilities is now one-third of the normal fee, but the public broadcasters still offer relatively few hours of TV programing with closed-captioning. The nightly TV news with sign language is offered on a special channel, or as an online option. For the blind, descriptive audio (Audiodeskription) for films and TV series is extremely rare on German TV.

Database and Privacy Concerns
In its constant effort to detect fee evaders, the Contribution Service has the legal right to access databases that reveal who has recently moved or bought/rented a flat. Germans, who are notoriously obsessive over their privacy, have tried to use the privacy argument against the Beitragsservice, saying it goes too far by accessing databases that should remain private. However, German judges have consistently ruled in favor of the Contribution Service whenever private citizens file suit.

Merge ARD and ZDF?
Lately, with the ongoing budget crisis spurred by the Coronavirus crisis, some people have proposed merging ARD and ZDF into one broadcast network. It would probably save money, but adding the second ZDF TV network in the first place was an effort to offer TV viewers more choices. A merger would probably reduce viewing options and programing variety. And a merger does not really address the Contribution Service problem unless…

…as has been proposed in Britain, a subscription model for streaming content were introduced, offering more choices and dropping the Contribution Service in Germany. But would a subscription model work at all in Germany? Would Germans accept it if they heard, “Hier ist Netflix mit der Tagesschau.” (“This is Netflix with the nightly newscast.”) That doesn’t seem very likely to me, but the audience for public TV news has only grown older over the years, as in the US. Germans under the age of 30 rarely turn on their TV for the nightly “Tagesschau” (ARD) or “Heute” (ZDF) TV newscasts, or watch it via internet streaming. German TV news is pretty straight-laced and unexciting, but making the news more like entertainment in the US has not increased its audience significantly.

Do Expats and International Students Have to Pay the Broadcast Fee?

Yes. The minute you file your Anmeldung (address registration), which is a legal and a practical necessity for living in Germany, you pop up on the Rundfunkbeitrag radar. Unless you qualify for one of the few exemptions/reductions, you’ll have to pay your full Broadcast Contribution. Most people set up quarterly payments, but you have the option of paying semiannually or annually. The fee amount will be directly withdrawn as an autopay Überweisung (electronic transfer) from your bank account.

The Contribution Service is notorious for going after people who try to avoid paying the TV tax. People who have tried to avoid paying have had their lives made very unpleasant by the Beitragsservice, which has powers similar to the IRS in the US or the British HM Revenue & Customs. Penalties for nonpayment include fines and even imprisonment.

Maybe at some point in the future Germany will abolish the Broadcast Contribution, but for now you have no choice in the matter.

Your Opinion
How do you feel about the Broadcast Contribution in Germany? Do you have a better idea? What might work better? Or are you okay with the current system? Please let us know. (If you’re not already a registered German Way user, you can register for free below.)

– HF