Abolishing the licence fee

Denmark used to have a licence fee like the UK. A few years ago, it was changed from applying only to TV and radio and started including computers, because it was becoming possible to watch TV programmes on them, too.

This made a lot of students very angry, because they had to pay the same licence fee as a family of four, even if they never watched any programs and only used their computer for other purposes.

As a result, the political parties are now getting very close to getting rid of the licence fee and replacing it with a tax – there’s still no agreement on the exact details, but it might involve raising the basic rate of income tax.

It remains to be seen whether being funded through taxation will make Danish TV less critical of the government than before. It might also make it more tempting for the politicians to cut the money spent on this – at least the licence fee was to a large extent out of sight when they were debating the budget.

It will be interesting to see whether it will be a success, and whether the UK will move towards funding the BBC in the same way.