YOU will no longer be able to skip paying for a TV licence if you watch telly on a laptop thanks to a new amended Broadcasting Bill.

The “outdated” traditional TV licence fee is to be scrapped and replaced with a new “device independent” charge that will take into account technological changes, according to The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Richard Bruton.

1 Minister Richard Bruton says the 'outdated' traditional TV licence fee is to be scrapped and replaced with a new 'device independent' charge that will take into account technological changes Credit: Joe Giddens

It is all part of a major reform of the TV licence fee system.

Here is all we know:



WHAT IS HAPPENING? WILL THE COST GO UP?

A new five-year contract for the collection of the licence fee is being put out to tender later this year.

At the end of that period the Government has agreed that the current fee should be replaced by a new “device independent broadcasting charge”.

The Government will decide the amount of the charge, with funds to be allocated to broadcasters by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Minister Bruton said the changes are designed to ensure sustainable funding of public service broadcasting.

EVERYONE WILL HAVE TO PAY

Watching telly on any device will incur a charge – but they are not sure how to future proof this.

Mr Bruton said: “The dependence on the ownership of a television is becoming outdated and we need to move to a device independent basis for levelling the broadcasting licence fee.”

He added that it was clearly a “challenge” to develop and construct a new system that would take account of the move towards devices and as a result the Government was “not in a position to go ahead” with the changes immediately.

He said: “There’s a bit of work to be done to make sure that that’s robust” and told how he didn’t want to change the law only for technological changes to quickly make it “irrelevant” saying: “We don’t want to be revisiting this as technology changes.”

While the details of who will be liable to pay the new charge have yet to be finalised, it will mean households with a tablet, smartphone or laptop who access content will have to pay the charge, regardless of whether they have a TV set or not.

FEE DIFFICULT TO DODGE

Trying to dodge the fee is going to become more difficult.

Around 12 per cent of households evade the current €160 fee, while another 10 per cent legally avoid paying the fee because they do not own telly.

Minister Bruton said there was a high level of evasion but it was coming down.

He explained: “It was 14 per cent, it’s come down to around a little over 12 per cent, but that is clearly a very high level of evasion, and we believe by having a new tender with a guaranteed five-year period it will give an opportunity to cut that evasion rate, as has happened in other countries.

But he said it’s not a ‘household charge’ and explained: “It’s not fair to call it [that] until we work out the basis. What we’re trying to do is to get people to contribute and evolve from a particular device that is being superseded by others.”

And added: “We need to take care that it doesn’t become a leaky ship.”

INDEPENDENT SECTOR BOOST

The independent sector and native Irish content might get a boost.

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Minister Bruton also announced a review of the Broadcasting Act, to evaluate the proportion of TV licence revenue which is allocated to the Sound and Vision Scheme, which supports the independent sector and native Irish content

The review will also consider the minimum amount of funding RTE is obliged to spend on commissioning external content. In 2018 this amounted to 39.7 million euro.

Mr Bruton said increasing this amount would provide an important stimulus to the independent production sector and that the objective of the review was to “see how we can best support original Irish content production”.