The TV licence fee is not expected to be broadened into an expanded household charge for homes without a television set in the Government’s new funding model for RTÉ.
The Government is set to sign off on a plan to fund RTÉ through a combination of the licence fee and multiannual exchequer funding, which is to go to Cabinet on Wednesday.
There had been speculation that the €160 annual licence fee, which is only payable by households who have a television, could be broadened to include a device-neutral charge, taking more households into the payment net.
However, that would risk a political blowback for the Government in the run-in to a general election, and three sources familiar with the new funding model said on Friday they did not expect a household-type charge to feature in the plan for Cabinet next week.
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The charge will remain the same amount.
Instead, there will be an emphasis on optimising the current collection system rather than replacing it. An Post will be given extra support in this process, Coalition sources said, with an emphasis on data gathering and yet another push to drive down evasion rates.
Sources also suggested that within the new funding model, RTÉ itself will be given latitude to raise more funds in ways that are commercially appropriate and can be done without Government approval.
In the United Kingdom, a TV licence is a legal requirement to use the BBC iPlayer service. Compliance is monitored by asking users to confirm they have a licence, rather than through a verified login system.
However, an RTÉ source said the broadcaster did not plan to introduce restricted access for the station’s online streaming service, and that plans being developed to introduce a sign-in for the online player were to aid with optimisation and targeting particular content at users.
While the decision not to broaden the charge away from a device-dependent model such as reliance on television set ownership to be eligible may be politically expedient, the Coalition will likely face criticism for not proceeding with a wider reform of the licence fee.
In its 2022 report, the Future of Media Commission – which recommended a shift to an entirely taxpayer-funded model for RTÉ – argued that a “particular problem with the licence fee is the device-specific nature of the charge, which is at odds with how, in the digital age, people tend to access content not only through TV sets, but also through mobiles and PCs”.
It outlined that a decisive shift in advertising revenues away from legacy media was compounded for print outlets by declining circulation revenues and for public service media “by the increasing unsustainability of TV licence fees as a source of public funding”.
It also pointed out that declines in TV licence compliance – at the time relatively moderate, but which accelerated during the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal last year – were continuing “and show no signs of being reversed in future”.
Research undertaken for the commission showed just 29 per cent of respondents believed the fee was good value for money, with a slim majority of 52 per cent saying it was not good value for money.
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