Expert group proposes that all households are to be required to pay NRK license
A governmental expert group proposes that all households will be required to pay the NRK licence fee, whether they have a TV or not. This will bring NRK nearly 300 million more in revenue.
– The current licensing system, where the licence fee is only paid by people in possession of a TV, is not sustainable. The proportion of households with television sets is also falling, the head of Rimmereidutvalget, Tore Olaf Rimmereid, says to the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.
Today people who watch NRK through smart phones and computer monitors, do not have to pay license.
– I don’t think that people should be able to be legal free riders and watch NRK legally – without having to pay for it, Rimmereid says.
The so-called household contribution will increase NRK income by 4 to 5 percent. In 2015 NRK collected in excess of 5.4 billion kroner in license fees, which means that the state channel would get to add around 270 million kroner to its come to – if the model is being adopted by the Parliament.
– I’m not sure that I think this arrangement is fair, Conservative media policy spokesman Kårsta Eidem Løvaas says.
The Progress Party’s cultural policy spokesman Ib Thomsen is not particularly impressed.
– I believe this is not very innovative and that it is a bad solution. It will naturally bring NRK more money, but the public is this purely negative, she says.
In October last year the Government appointed the expert committee to propose different models for the future funding of NRK. The report will be handed over to Culture Minister Linda Hofstad Helleland on Friday.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
