TV licence fee 'to fund Welfare For W*nkers'
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Ofcom's Nathan Barley Quango flies again It was ridicule from Register readers that helped kill one of the year's daftest ideas. The Â£150m-a-year "Public Service Publisher" quango is Ofcom Chief Ed Richards' pet initiative: he views this bold foray into gimmicky interactive games and Web 2.0-buzzword compliant websites as his "legacy".â¦
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Traditional link between BBC and licence fee could be broken by reforms being considered by Ofcom
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Â· Ofcom urges rethink of broadcaster's remit  Â· Cash help needed to plug Â£100m digital black hole
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SCOTTISH Television will this week urge the regulator Ofcom to increase the number of public service programmes it has to produce - and ask for more money to do so.
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(InfoWorld) - Germany plans to introduce a monthly broadcast charge next year for homes and businesses that have an Internet-connected computer and don't already pay registration fees for television and radio service. One business association has called it "a complete rip-off." A heated debate about the fee, which also applies to Internet-enabled wireless devices and games consoles, has been raging in Germany since the minister presidents of the country's 16 states agreed to the plan in October 2005. It heated up again late Wednesday when one of the country's largest public broadcasters, ARD, announced a monthly fee of â¬5.52 ($7.00) per household and said that ZDF, another big public broadcaster, was in agreement. Under the plan, which will go into effect Jan. 1, households and businesses with a registered TV or radio are exempt from the new charge. Those without a registered broadcasting device but with an Internet-enabled PC, wireless device, or game console capable of receiving broadcasting content must pay the new fee. Germany isn't alone on this front. Ireland also plans to extend the definition of a TV set to include PCs, laptops and mobile phones under a new broadcasting bill, which was published for public consultation earlier this month. And the issue is likely to arise in other countries that use a broadcasting fee to help finance their state-funded public broadcasters. The planned fee in Germany, although lower than the â¬17.03 monthly charge initially proposed, has nevertheless drawn sharp criticism from numerous industry groups in the country. The German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bitkom) has called it "a rotten compromise that is being cemented into a payment scheme long overdue for change." The association calculates that over a four-year period, a PC would generate fee-based costs of more than â¬800 -- nearly the net price of the machine. German businesses could be burdened with additional costs of more than â¬150 million annually. The Federal Association of Small and Medium-size Businesses in Germany views an extension of the broadcasting fee as an attempt to force companies to help plug holes in the dwindling coffers of public broadcasters. The association called the move "a complete rip-off." Although the fee calls for a review in three years to take into account new technological developments, such as mobile phones capable of receiving broadcasts signals, German businesses worry that once a fee is introduced in the country, it's likely to stay.
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Smokers could be forced to pay Â£10 for a permit to buy tobacco if government health advisers get their way.
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The assembly government plans to use its new powers to overhaul home care charges, the BBC understands.
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A plea for public money is made to help Merthyr Tydfil, which has the highest number of benefit claimants in the UK.
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Media watchdog Ofcom proposes a new TV channel to broadcast public service programmes in the UK.
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Business & money: ITV is bracing itself for a penalty of up to Â£2.8m for the GMTV call-TV scandal.
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We'd like a rebate on those licences, please
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Britons pay almost three times as much as Americans for gas, and some accept annual parking fees that could fund the purchase of a flat-screen TV.Comment
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The BBC says it is 'not ashamed' of paying Sir Terry Wogan a fee for hosting the Children In Need charity gala.
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The National Consumer Council considers making a 'super-complaint' about the BSkyB-Virgin Media TV row.
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Small bars and rural pubs face closure under a new licensing scheme which will quadruple fees,  it is warned.
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The Competition Commission recommends that BSkyB should be forced to sell some of its stake in ITV.
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The government's abandoned police  force merger plans cost taxpayers millions, the BBC learns.