) and are financed through charges from the Germans.If you own a TV (even if it's broken and/or not used anymore), you have to pay more than 17,- € per month. If you own a radio and no TV, you pay 5,52 € per month. It doesn't matter if you consume private stations only, you have to pay as soon as you have the possibility (a broken TV is enough :crazy:) to consume the public-law stations.
Because there're so many stations to finance and these stations send all kind of shit instead of doing what they were founded for, ensuring the primary supply with news and information, those charges get increased approximately once in 2 years.
For private use, you pay for only one device (TV if you have TV and radio). Devices used for business (even the radio in the company car) are paid individually. A company with 100 TVs and 200 radios pays for 100 TVs and 200 radios.
The charges are collected by the GEZ. The courses of action of the GEZ agents are very near the borders of legality (IMHO they've already crossed the border). Sometimes they enter your land or even the house without asking for permission. Often they don't tell you who they are before they know you're the person they are looking for. They collect addresses from sources they are not allowed to get addresses from. They ask you neighbors whether you own a TV or radio. They dig in your mailbox and waste paper for TV magazines. Hell, there even have been cases in which cats, stuffed animals or dead persons have been charged! And if you sign off your TV or radio, they ask you what has happened with the device, although courts have decided that such questions are not allowed. It's also not that unusual, that the GEZ demands more money from you than you'd have to pay. If you don't notice that very quickly, you're doomed, because the GEZ won't give you the money back.
So far, so bad...
Today, if you have neither a TV (or TV card for your PC) nor a radio, you don't have to pay anything. This will change in 2007. From January on, you have to pay 5,52 € if you have an internet connection. The justification is, that the public law broadcasters of course have websites which you are able to consume if you have an internet connection. Noone has asked the public-law broadcasters to enter the internet, but who cares...
I've never seen someone with a 56k analog modem watching video-streams, but who cares... While for most private individuals nothing will change (because they already pay for a TV or a radio), companies are doomed (because they pay for each single device). Maybe companies can abandon TVs and radios somehow. But companies can't do without internet connection. They're even enforced to have one, because the tax computations for companies must be done over the internet.
Crazy, isn't it? That's Germany live and coloured in 2006. Enjoy it.